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, DC Comics unveiled the first wave of digital-first miniseries in the relaunch of Milestone Comics. We also took a look at the making of “Bloodshot” #11 with artist Pedro Andreo and colorist Andrew Dalhouse.
– DC Comics have announced they will be celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with the release of a one-shot called “DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration,” on May 11. The one-shot will be 96 pages long and feature stories from a host of writers and artists. Ram V will reveal “Catwoman” character Shoes’s real name and origin; Mariko Tamaki will provide a new Cassandra Cain story; Minh Lê and Trung Le Nguyen will collaborate for a story about the newest Green Lantern, the Vietnamese American Tai Pham; and Gene Luen Yang and Bernard Chang will be working together on an unrevealed story. There will also be a collection of additional stories and portraits from creative talent including Francis Manapul, Cliff Chiang, and Jen Bartel. For further details, head over to DC Comics.
– Z2 Comics announced “Cypress Hill: Tres Equis” to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the rap group’s debut album. The graphic novel will be written by Noah Callahan-Bever and Gabriel Alvarez, with artwork by Felix Ruiz, Jefte Palo, Juan Gedeon, Damion Scott, Angel Hernandez, and Paris Alleyne. “Cypress Hill: Tres Equis” will chronicle the origins of the group, detailing Louis and Senen’s series of interactions with both sides of the law. The graphic novel will be released in English and Spanish, with Z2 Comics offering a host of different editions including a hardcover, deluxe hardcover, and a super deluxe edition limited to 500 copies on their store. “Cypress Hill: Tres Equis” is scheduled for release in August.
– Publishers Weekly reported that Dial acquired the rights to cartoonist Huda Fahmy’s “Huda F Are You?,” a semi-autobiographical graphic novel chronicling her first year in a Michigan high school, where she searched for her identity amongst many other hijab-wearing girls. Fahmy is best known for her Instagram webcomic account, @yesimhotinthis. “Huda F Are You?” is scheduled for release in Fall 2021.
Meanwhile, Harper Alley sealed a two-book deal for a middle-grade graphic novel series, “Club Kick Out” by Steph Mided. The series will follow a group of girls, who form a WWE-style wrestling club as a space to practice their different arts, after their school bans all non-sport-related extracurricular activities. The first “Club Kick Out” book is set for release in 2023.
– Artist Kelsey Wroten revealed that her next graphic novel will be “Eden II,” which will be published by Fantagraphics in 2023. The graphic novel will be a queer sci-fi story about a VR game that questions reality and the human consciousness. The 350-page book will feature multiple protagonists that “guide us to the end of the world as we know it,” with Wroten describing the story as “mumblecore Black Mirror.” You can see some of the artwork from the book so far over in Wroten’s announcement on Twitter.
– Nick Spencer’s next arc on “The Amazing Spider-Man,” ‘King’s Ransom,’ will conclude with an giant-sized finale drawn by Rogê Antônio, Marvel announced. The arc will begin in March’s “The Amazing Spider-Man” #61 and see Spider-Man up against the Kingpin, with the conclusion promising an unveiling of Kingpin’s plan, the reason for Tombstone and Robbie Robertson’s long feud, and what the future holds for Boomerang. “Giant-Size Amazing Spider-Man: King’s Ransom” #1 will be released in May.
– Comic-Con International announced that this year’s WonderCon will be taking place online due to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was scheduled to take place in Anaheim across three days in March, but it will now only be a two-day virtual convention, WonderCon@Home, and take place on March 26-27. The line-up of events has not been announced at this time, though the organizer’s statement reads, “We are currently in the process of lining up great programming, amazing exhibitors, terrific gaming, and all of the many aspects that make WonderCon a fan-favorite event.” WonderCon was also limited to a virtual capacity last year.
Continued below– Zawe Ashton (Velvet Buzzsaw) was cast as an unidentified villain in the upcoming Captain Marvel 2. The film will see Brie Larson reprise her role as the titular hero, with Teyonah Parris continuing her WandaVision role as Monica Rambeau, and joined by Ms. Marvel star Iman Vellani. Nia DaCosta is set to direct the film, taking over from the first film’s pairing of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. The script will be penned by Megan McDonnell (WandaVision). Captain Marvel 2 is currently scheduled for release on November 11, 2022.
– The Wonder Girl series at the CW was not picked up, scriptwriter Dailyn Rodriguez revealed. Rodriguez stated “I was very proud of the script I wrote. Wish I could’ve shared the world I created, but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be.” The series would have starred the Brazilian Yara Flor, who recently debuted as Wonder Woman in DC’s ‘Future State,’ with the series’ development announced prior to the event last November. Character creator Joëlle Jones will continue to write and draw Flor in the recently announced “Wonder Girl” comic series debuting in May.
– 2000 AD announced five audiobook adaptations in partnership with Penguin Random House. Joseph Fiennes is set to voice Judge Dredd in the audiobook editions of two “Judge Dredd” stories: John Wagner and Colin MacNeil’s ‘America,’ and Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra, Colin MacNeil, Lee Sullivan, and Alex Ronald’s ‘The Pit.’ Paterson Joseph will join Fiennes in the latter in an undisclosed role. The adaptation of Dan Abnett and I.N.J. Culbard’s “Brink” will feature Richard Armitage (The Hobbit) as Carl Brinkmann, and he will be joined by Nina Sosonya (His Dark Materials). Alan Moore and Ian Gibson’s “The Ballad of Halo Jones” is set for an adaptation which will star Sheila Atim (The Underground Railroad), while Colin Morgan (Merlin) was cast in a “Sláine: The Horned God” adaptation. The series was created by Pat Mills and Angela Kincaid. All five audiobooks are scheduled for release on March 4.
