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, “Body Bags” creator Jason Pearson died last month, aged only 52.
– Marvel announced a relaunch of “Black Panther,” written by Eve L. Ewing with art by Chris Allen (“Miles Morales: Spider-Man”). Details were limited on the plot of their run, since John Ridley’s run doesn’t conclude until issue #15 in March, although Ewing comments, “[When] I found out where the Ridley run is going to end, I had to laugh. No spoilers, but the status quo is going to be more than a little disrupted.” Ewing will be the first woman to pen the main Black Panther series. Issue #1 releases in June.
– Marvel also announced a new “Loki” miniseries by writer Dan Watters (in his first gig for the company) and artist Germán Peralta. The comic will see Loki hunting down missing weapons he forged in the past, taking him to locations like Nidavellir, Kree space, and Earth, all while contending with heroes, villains, and “the dark truth that lies at his center.” “Loki” #1 (of 4) releases June 7 with cover art by Rod Reis.
– Furthermore, Marvel unveiled a “Marvel’s Voices: Spider-Verse” special for May, featuring a new Spider-Punk story by Cody Ziglar and Jahnoy Lindsay among others; a Crescent and Io arc of “Marvel’s Voices Infinity Comic” by Dylan Park, Jodi Nishijima, and Irma Kniivila; and April’s 30th anniversary special “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi — Ewoks,” featuring stories by Alyssa Wong, Lee Garbett, Caspar Wijingaard, Kyle Hotz, and Paulina Ganucheau.
– Titan Comics announced “In Search of Gil Scott-Heron,” a graphic novel by writer Thomas Maucéri and artist Sébastian Piquet, about the life of the late rap pioneer, framed via Maucéri’s unsuccessful search to find and interview him. The book will be released on July 26, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of hip hop, which is widely considered to have been debuted by DJ Kool Herc on August 11, 1973.
– IDW revealed a new “Rocketeer” one-shot, featuring three stories, curated by Dave Stevens: Drawn to Perfection director Kelvin Mao. The first comic is an unproduced story penned by the film’s writers, Danny Bilson and the late Paul De Meo, where Cliff Secord teams up with Amelia Earhart, which Adam Hughes has illustrated; the second is written by Mao with art by Craig Cermak, and features “a vaguely familiar” archaeologist; and the third, by writer Robert Windom and artist Jae Lee, will pit the hero against a Japanese Zero fighter aircraft in the Pacific. The book, due out in May, will also feature pin-ups by Phil Noto and Maria Laura Sanapo, and more.
– Archie Horror will publish “Chilling Adventures Presents: The Cult of That Wilkin Boy,” by writer Cullen Bunn and artist Dan Schoening. The comic reimagines “That Wilkin Boy,” the 1969-1982 series starring Bingo Wilkin, the high school rock band leader who happens to be Jughead Jones’s cousin; this take will see him make a Faustian pact to achieve fame and fortune. It will be released on April 19, 2023.
– Netflix unveiled release dates for many of this year’s films, including Extraction 2 (whose predecessor was based on the Oni Press series “Ciudad”), and The Killer, David Fincher and Michael Fassbender’s adaptation of Matz and Luc Jacamon’s French assassin comic. Extraction 2 will be released on June 16, while The Killer will arrive November 10.
– The Visual Effects Society revealed the nominees for this year’s VES Awards, being held February 15. Among the nominees are The Batman, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, The Boys, The Book of Boba Fett, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, The Umbrella Academy, Slumberland, Andor, Gotham Knights, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. Avatar: The Way of Water set a record for the awards with 14 nominations, surpassing the first film’s 11 from 2010, while The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power received seven.
– Finally, Popverse and other outlets report comiXology has been hit heavily by lay offs at Amazon. Scott McGovern, project manager at the company, tweeted he was among those laid off, and believed 50 to 75 percent of the staff (which consisted of 104 people) were similarly affected. As many as 18,000 employees, of the company’s global total of 1,544,000, are believed to have been laid off. The news come almost a year after comiXology was folded into Amazon’s main website, to the anger of many readers, who felt it ruined the app, and co-founder David Steinberger’s departure from the company.
