The Rundown: The “Fantastic Four” Film Gets a New Writer, Marvel and Natalie Portman Team Up for Science, and more

Welcome back to The Rundown, our daily breakdown on comic news stories we missed from the previous day. Have a link to share? Email me at david@multiversitycomics.com.

– Simon Kinberg will be writing the new Fantastic Four film reboot, with Josh Trank staying on to direct. It sounds like he’ll dramatically be completely overhauling the script, which has been in development for a while it seems. Whether or not they still envision Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm is uncertain, but this reboot is a wee bit troubled it seems.

– Marvel and Natalie Portman are combining to get girls excited in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), developing a mentoring program and a contest built towards girls grades 9 through 12. The contest requires girls to share share a five-minute video talking about why they love science so much (amongst other things), and they could win a prize that includes a trip to Los Angeles for a special showing of “Thor: The Dark World.” To me, this speaks volumes about how awesome Marvel and Natalie Portman are, and I hope lots of girls the nation over participate.

– Newsarama posted a list of the ten best Spider-Man artists of all-time, and it led to a lot of discussions on the Twittersphere. It’s an interesting list which I personally disagree with at least at parts. Ditko at #1 is pretty indisputable, but for me, John Romita, Sr. should be #2 with Todd McFarlane #3. Who do you think should take up the top of the list?

– Is John Layman writing a new book at DC, to be announced at New York Comic Con? Bleeding Cool seems to think so. Looking forward to finding out in just a week and a half.

– Robot 6 shares Francesco Francavilla’s final Breaking Bad poster, and it’s pretty damn awesome. We’re unsurprised.

– There’s a new Blacksad book coming, and The Beat has a look at its gorgeous cover. You’re going to want this book.