THE Kevin Smith? Yep, the creator of Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy will be writing DD up to issue seven. For those who find it hard to picture Jay and Silent Bob’s so-profane-it’s-Memorex dialogue coming out from under DD’s mask, relax: Kevin Smith can write more than one style of story.

“We took his first script and ran it through the Comics Code, and not one problem,” Palmiotti gloated. “He made the Code.”

“The first issue, like all the issues after that, concern themselves with the subject of faith. Since DD is one of the few superheroes who’s open about his faith, we shake that up a bit. He’s given a task, and he has to either carry it out or not.”

Palmiotti confided that Daredevil does not, indeed, complete his task, and that choice will start DD down his new road. But what that task was will have to wait till the presses roll in six short weeks.

He DID say this, though: “Costumed villains are not what it’s about. There ARE villains, and there’s a lot of action, but there are a lot of forces that are playing on Matt’s head.”

After Smith, there should be plenty of interesting threads for the next writer to follow up on.”