Welcome to The Rundown, our daily breakdown on comic news stories we missed from the previous day. Have a link to share? Email our team at rundown@multiversitycomics.com.
– In case you weren’t going to already, you might want to reconsider tuning into this Sunday’s Super Bowl LII, if no other reason than Solo: A Star Wars Story‘s first trailer is expected to drop during the only ad breaks I am willing to watch anymore. The Ron Howard (Rush, Apollo 13) directed film starring Alden Ehrenreich (Hail, Caesar!, The Yellow Birds) as everyone’s favorite scruffy nerf herder is, pardon the hyperbole, the utmost anticipated event in all of human history (even more so than the rapture in my humble opinion). While plot details on the Disney/Lucasfilm picture are sparse we do know that Han, in a series of daring escapades through various hives of scum and villainy, will come to meet his inseparable co-pilot Chewbacca and infamous gambler Lando Calrissian, as played by Grammy nominated and Emmy Award-winning writer/actor/singer Donald Glover (Community, Atlanta). Needless to say my eyes will be gorilla glued to the tv this Sunday in anticipation of this first look.
– In related Disney and Grammy nominated artist news, Kendrick Lamar has released the tracklist for the much anticipated soundtrack for the even more highly anticipated Black Panther. Lamar, the rapper behind the Grammy nominated albums of the year “DAMN,” “To Pimp a Butterfly” and “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City,” released the track list via Twitter along with the album art. Among the artists on the soundtrack were fellow 2018 Grammy nominees SZA and Khalid along with quite a few South African artists like Reason and Yugen Blakrok. The album will be available for purchase online and in stores February 9, a week before Black Panther comes out in theaters on February 16.
– On the subject of Black Panther, writer Roxane Gay (“World of Wakanda,” Bad Feminist) took to Twitter to voice her disappointment in not getting an invite to the Black Panther premiere. Gay, who is notably the first black female writer to write comics at Marvel, was hurt by the lack of the invite despite fellow “Black Panther” writers Christopher Priest and Ta-Nehisi Coates both receiving invites, as well as thanks in the credits alongside artist Brain Stelfreeze and others. Despite the minor slight, Gay clarified in a separate tweet that she is “still thrilled about the movie and can’t wait to see it.”
– In even more Black Panther news, director Ryan Coogler (Creed, Fruitvale Station) told Cinema Blend he and co-writer Joe Robert Cole had at one point planned on including Elijah Bradley, aka Patriot, in the movie. It’s the first time we’ve heard about one of the Young Avengers being planned for inclusion in a Marvel Studios movie, and hopefully it won’t be the last.
– Facebook has often times been criticized for overly complicated and inconsistent community standards and once again has found themselves in hot water for taking down a short film adaptation of cartoonist Ben Passmore’s “Your Black Friend.” According to indie publisher Silver Sprocket, the animated short film was taken down from Facebook after several complaints from “alt right bros,” but when asked a Facebook spokesman stated that the film was taken down after an error labeled the film as a form of hate speech. Ironically the central purpose behind the story presented in “Your Black Friend” is to confront white privilege and hate speech in a way. The short film was produced by Silver Sprocket and Doggo Studios to promote Passmore’s upcoming collection “You Black Friend and Other Strangers,” set to be released February 15.
– Cruise line Cunard and The New Yorker have announced that they will be partnering up to provide a series of drawing sessions, workshops, hands-on demonstrations and caption contests… on the sea! Passengers can join the course, which will take place aboard Cunard’s flagship ocean liner Queen Mary 2, featuring regular New Yorker contributors Emily Flake, Matt Diffe, David Sipress and Ben Schwartz. More information on the cruise can be found at Cunard’s website.
– People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals or PETA is lobbying Nickelodeon to update the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for a new generation to eating a diet of vegan pizza instead of the traditional cheesy counterpart the heroes in half shells are accustomed to. Nickelodeon had already announced that for the new 2D animated Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles there would be some significant changes to the TMNT lore, including Raphael being the leader of the four brothers and Leonardo filling the role of the “coolest brother.” So why not make the turtles Vegan too? Well unfortunately for PETA there request comes a little too late as the show is already in production and slated for release sometime later this year.
Continued below– We have gotten our first, albeit brief look at FX’s next season of Legion. The first look comes in the form of a quick 15 or so seconds of footage in the middle of a preview of FX’s spring schedule of original shows, in it we can see Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Concords, What We Do in the Shadows)’s Shadow King in what one can only hope is a Chicago-style musical number and Dan Stevens (The Ticket, Downton Abbey)’s David Haller aka Legion sporting his usual bewildered look of confusion and fear. For those who missed the first season of Legion it followed David Haller as he came to realize that he despite being diagnosed as such was not clinically insane but rather
a powerful psychic mutant possessed by a parasitic psionic entity we know to be the regular X-Men comic villain the Shadow King. The second season of Legion will debut sometime in April on FX.
– In light of the rise of the #MeToo movement Laurie Halse (“Winter Girls,” “Twisted”)’s 1999 groundbreaking and award-winning novel Speak is unfortunately more relevant than ever, as such the author is offering gifts for donations to America’s largest anti-sexual assault organization – Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network or RAINN – as part of the re-release of the book as a graphic novel. The graphic novel adaption of “Speak” is written by Halse with art by Emily Carroll (“Spera,” “Through the Woods”), whose illustrations will no doubt add to the already visceral portrayal of one teenage girls journey to find her voice following an all too familiar series of events in the aftermath of her sexual assault. “Speak: The Graphic Novel” will be available on February 6 and is available for preorder now.
– Director Michelle MacLaren (The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones) has been announced as the director of Cowboy Ninja Viking, the adaption of A. J. Lieberman (“Batman: Gotham Knights,” “Martian Manhunter”) and Riley Rossmo (“Proof,” “Constantine: The Hellblazer”)’s comic book of the same name. “Cowboy Ninja Viking” followed Duncan, a government intelligence agent who, along with all his fellow agents, has dissociative identity disorder (or multiple personality disorder if you prefer) presenting itself in three distinct personalities channeling the skills of, in Duncan’s case, a Cowboy, a Ninja and a Viking. The ridiculously fun two volumes of the sereis are set in the aftermath of the counterintelligence agency’s breakdown as Duncan is forced to hunt down his fellow “triplets,” who have become hit men to survive. The film isn’t set to come out until 2019 but it already has Chris Pratt (Parks and Recreation, Jurassic World) attached to star as Duncan.
