Superman #41 Cover News 

The Rundown: Gene Luen Yang Talks Superman Ambitions, Axel Alonso Addresses Hip-Hop Variants, and more

By | July 27th, 2015
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Welcome back 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.

– Gene Luen Yang took over “Superman” at #41 with John Romita, Jr. and Klaus Janson. He talks with Van Jensen about his plans for the character (especially after this crossover with “Action”, “Superman/Wonder Woman”, and “Batman/Superman” wraps up) and how he wants to explore what it means to be the Man of Tomorrow 77 years after the character was created.

– Axel Alonso responded to criticisms (most notably this one from David Brothers) about the lack of diversity in the Marvel Hip-Hop Themed variant covers. Basically he says he knew it was going to be a “lightning rod for a bigger discussion about diversity in comics” and ran with it. Opening up a thing for discussion is great and all, but he really doesn’t say anything about why he appropriated this culture without including anyone from this culture, and his claims that all these hip-hop artists loved it strikes me as sort of saying, “Some of my best friends are black.” So.

– The AV Club concluded their annual Comic Week on Friday. As usual, they offered up plenty of strong commentary about creators, superheroes, and superhero movies. One of the few times they branched out beyond the superhero realm was with this fantastic interview with Kris Mukai. Conducted by Zainab Akhtar, it’s also one of Akhtar’s last pieces for the site.

– A lot of peeps in the Multiversity offices are stoked for Supergirl and I’m sure this behind-the scenes video of the cast and crew on the first day of filming will only make everyone already excited for this show start hyperventilating in anticipation.

– Walter Geovanni and Gail Simone have done some amazing work with Red Sonja on their Dynamite series, keeping the series big and loud and silly. The series wraps up with #18, but in the meantime, Bleeding Cool has some process pages from Geovanni’s work on #17.

– On Friday, we asked: What’s the best comic book film of all time (based off Metacritic’s list). Unsurprisingly, 206 of you (50% of the participants!) voted for Christopher Nolan’s 2008 dreary thriller, The Dark Knight. A lot of you (14% with 57 votes) also liked the first Iron Man (I am surprised this got represented rather than the immensely superior Avengers or Winter Solider) and 37 of you were all about Christopher Reeve as Superman in Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie. 32 declared their love for Akira, and I dunno, peeps, I have a feeling not enough of you have seen Akira. ANYWAY, be sure to check back this Friday for our next Readers’ poll!

– Finally, in Webcomics Worth Clicking: “Thunderpaw” from Jen Lee is a cool twist on the post-apocalyptic genre, centering on two dogs who are trying to get home as the world crumbles around them. Lee is also a dog behavorialist and her knowledge of how dogs react and act helps make this series not only thrilling but frequently heart wrenching. Also, it features slight animation work that help sell the eerie vibe.


Matthew Garcia

Matt hails from Colorado. He can be found on Twitter as @MattSG.

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