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.
In case you missed it over the holidays, “Ripple Effects” won the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics, Dark Horse announced “Usagi Yojimbo: The Crow,” and Ben Stenbeck’s “Our Bones Dust” will be released in trade in June. You can also check out the Year in Review items we ran during the break.
– DSTLRY unveiled “White Boat,” a horror satire by Scott Snyder and Francesco Francavilla; “Spectregraph,” a modern haunted house story by James Tynion IV and Christian Ward; and “The Blood Brothers Mother,” a western reteaming Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso. The series will respectively debut in March, April, and May. Additionally, former comiXology staff Bryce Gold and James Jackson have joined the company, along with four others, reuniting them with former bosses David Steinberger and Chip Mosher. (Gold in particular also joined the company after several months as Kickstarter’s Head of Comics.)
– Image revealed “The Last Mermaid,” a post-apocalyptic sci-fi fairy tale by Derek Kirk Kim, and “Feral,” a zombie thriller starring cats from “Stray Dogs” creators Tony Fleecs and Trish Forstner. Both ongoing series will begin in March. The publisher also announced a collection of Daniel Warren Johnson’s sci-fi webcomic “Space-Mullet,” which will feature a new chapter and lettering, as well as “Super Dinosaur Compendium One.” Both compilations will hit shelves in July.
– For March, Marvel Comics announced an “X-Men ’97” prequel series by Steve Foxe and Salva Espín; “Symbiote Spider-Man 2099” by Peter David and Rogê Antônio; Christos Gage and Yildiray Çinar’s multiversal Wolverine saga “Weapon X-Men;” and the special one-shot “Web of Spider-Man,” which will set up a summer event called ‘Chasm: Curse of Kaine.’ For April, they revealed a “Deadpool” relaunch by Cody Ziglar and Rogê Antônio, Stephanie Phillips and Chris Campana’s ongoing series “Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider,” and a “Kid Venom” miniseries by Taigami.
Further news from the House of Ideas included details on vampire-themed crossover event ‘Blood Hunt,’ which will begin with a five-issue series on May 1; full story and creator listings for May 4’s Free Comic Book Day issues; and confirmation the X-Men titles will relaunch in July. The FCBD “Blood Hunt/X-Men” issue will feature the first post-Krakoa X-Men story itself, starring Jubilee, and written by Gail Simone with art by David Marquez. Deniz Camp also confirmed his “Spider-Man/Ultimate Universe” FCBD story with Juan Fregeri will lead into a new ongoing Ultimates series.
– For April, Dark Horse announced a print run of Scott Snyder and Jamal Igle’s comiXology series “Dudley Datson and the Forever Machine,” sequel miniseries “Minor Threats: The Fastest Way Down” and “Operation Sunshine: Already Dead,” and Cullen Bunn and Patrick Piazzalunga’s horror adventure “Monsters Are My Business (And Business is Bloody).” Two “Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures” titles will also debut in the spring: Daniel José Older and Rachele Aragno’s one-shot “Crash Landing,” and the miniseries “Saber for Hire” by Cavan Scott and Rachael Stott.
Furthermore, Dark Horse will publish “Slightly Exaggerated,” a fantasy adventure by Curtis Clow and Pius Bak, in July. The OGN, originally released via Kickstarter, follows a terminally ill treasure hunter, who must save her world by stealing a powerful artifact from an evil cult leader. They also announced a deluxe edition of Gou Tanabe’s manga adaptation of “At the Mountains of Madness” for June, and the release of his take on “The Call of Cthulhu” in August.
– In news from other publishers, Vault Comics announced “Deathstalker,” Slash (of Guns N’ Roses), Steven Kostanski, Tim Seeley, and Jim Terry’s crowdfunded adaptation of the cult fantasy film, will begin in March. Meanwhile, actors Damon Wayans Jr. and King Bach have enlisted co-writer David F. Walker and artist Ben Bishop for their graphic novel “Shogun Run.” The book, set for release from First Second in 2025, is described as a cross between Big Trouble in Little China and Attack the Block, set in South Central LA during the ’90s.
Continued below– Following his assault and harassment conviction on December 18, Jonathan Majors was officially dropped from the role of Kang the Conqueror (and his variants) by Marvel Studios. The next Avengers film, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, is now reportedly being referred to internally as Avengers 5, suggesting Marvel are overhauling the 2026 release completely, instead of just recasting the role(s). In other MCU news, Steve Yeun has dropped out of the Thunderbolts movie, citing scheduling conflicts, while America Ferrera will guest star in What If…? season three, as Ranger Morales. (She can be heard in the sneak peek of the next season, alongside David Harbour, Sebastian Stan, and Laurence Fishburne.)
– In other TV news, Disney+ have canceled American Born Chinese after one season, citing low viewing figures for the adaptation of Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel. Producers 20th Television will shop around the series to other outlets. Meanwhile at Warner Bros., James Gunn disclosed the Arkham Asylum series Matt Reeves is developing will not be another spin-off of The Batman, but instead take place in the DC Studios universe. “We love Matt as a director and producer, so he’ll be producing stories both within his The Batman universe and within the DCU,” he said.
– This weekend marked the Primetime Creative Arts Emmys, the Golden Globes, and the Astra Film Awards (formerly the Hollywood Critics Association awards.) Wednesday picked up four Emmys, including Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music, while The Boys and The Mandalorian won an award each in the stunts categories. The Last of Us won the most Emmys with eight, including Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Storm Reid’s portrayal of Riley Abel, the character who originated in Faith Erin Hicks’s comic “American Dreams.” Ryan Reynolds also won an Emmy for Welcome to Wrexham, and accepted the award in a video message as Deadpool.
The Boy and the Heron won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Film (Hayao Miyazaki’s first), and the Astra for Best International Filmmaker. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse won the Astras for Best Animated Feature, Best Voice-Over Performance (for Hailee Steinfeld), and Best Visual Effects, while composer Daniel Pemberton received the Artisan Achievement Award. Boys showrunner Eric Kripke also received the lifetime achievement Astra TV Icon Award. Head to the links to check out all the winners; you can also watch Deadpool accepting Welcome to Wrexham‘s Emmy on Ryan Reynolds’s behalf, here.
– At last month’s second annual Children’s & Family Emmy Awards, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur won five awards, including Outstanding Animated Special for its first episode, while The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special earned four, including Outstanding Fiction Special. I Am Groot, Baymax!, Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures, and Sweet Tooth also picked up two each, with Adeel Akhtar winning Outstanding Supporting Performance for the Jeff Lemire adaptation. Peter Cullen received the Lifetime Achievement Award, while Andrea Romano was inducted into the awards’ inaugural Silver Circle.
– Over on the anime front, Wit Studio are producing a remake of One Piece for Netflix, simply titled The One Piece, starting over from the comic’s initial East Blue Saga. The series will presumably fill the gap between seasons of the live-action show, the second season of which has yet to begin filming. Meanwhile, Chainsaw Man will return as a movie adapting the fifth arc of the comic, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc. The first season of Chainsaw Man premiered in 2022, and the movie will be released ahead of a possible second season.
– Finally, here are several notices from the acting world: James McCaffrey (Jessica Jones) died from cancer on December 17, aged 65. Mike Nussbaum (Men in Black) died of natural causes on December 23, aged 99. Lee Sun-kyun (Dr. Brain) died of an apparent suicide on December 27, aged 48. Tom Wilkinson (Batman Begins) died from undisclosed causes on December 30, aged 75. Cindy Morgan (Tron) died in late December, with authorities still working out the exact cause and date, aged 69. Glynis Johns (Batman ’66) passed away on January 4, aged 100, and Christian Oliver (Speed Racer) died in a plane accident on the same day, aged 51, along with his two daughters, and the pilot. Our condolences to all of their families and friends; you can also make a donation in lieu of flowers to Oliver’s family at GoFundMe.
