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.
– Dark Horse will publish a new, four-part Dracula graphic novel series by writer Matt Wagner, artist Kelley Jones, colorist José Villarrubia, and letterer Rob Steen. It will kick off on October 15 with “Dracula Book One: The Impaler,” which will provide a new origin story for the Count. Wagner explains, “The first graphic novel explores what led Dracula to seek out Satan’s tutelage and how he became the lord of the undead. Kelley and I are enormous fans of Dracula and the many interpretations of his mythic story. Our version of Dracula is bloody and brooding, sexy and strange. This is very much a horror story, with deep roots in Stoker’s novel, but believe me when I tell you this isn’t yet another retelling of the novel in comics form.” It will retail at 112 pages for $29.99.
– Speaking of vampires, Marvel announced “Amazing Spider-Man: Blood Hunt,” a three-part tie-in series written by Justina Ireland, with art by Marcelo Ferreira. It will reunite Peter Parker with Michael Morbius, who has become key to the Vampire Nation’s new plans. The book will co-star Misty Knight and the Lizard, who will help Spidey rescue Morbius from the vampire overlord’s clutches. Ferreira, who penciled Morbius’s last solo comic in 2020, says it is a “double special” project, getting to draw Spidey and the Living Vampire again. Issue #1 will be released on May 15.
– Marvel’s second ‘Blood Hunt’ announcement of the day was “Wolverine: Blood Hunt,” a four-parter by “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin” co-writer Tom Waltz (making his Marvel debut), and artist Juan José Ryp. The series will find Logan being targeted by a secret vampire sect, and see him reunite with Louise, a member of the vampire hunting group the Nightguard, who was introduced in Benjamin Percy’s “Wolverine” run; the synopsis also promises the return of “some surprise characters from Wolverine’s past.” It will begin on June 5.
– Magma Comix revealed “The Scale Trade,” a contemporary fantasy series by Steve Orlando and Megan Huang. Described as a cross between Jurassic Park and Training Day, the series imagines a world where dragons are being poached. “When a young idealist joins the federal agency tasked with managing dragon populations, he quickly discovers that the entire system is corrupt. After seeing firsthand the cruelty of the system, our newly radicalized dragon savior takes matters into his own hands!” Issue #1 will be released with a variant cover by Max Dunbar on May 1.
– Marvel Animation released the trailer for X-Men ’97, the continuation of X-Men: The Animated Series, which will premiere on Disney+ on March 20. Picking up where the original show left off, the ten-part season will see the X-Men team up with Magneto in the wake of Professor X’s departure. More details were disclosed about the show outside the official press release, with Studio Mir (The Legend of Korra, My Adventures with Superman) revealing they provided animation services, while a print interview in Empire magazine confirmed that its take on Morph will be non-binary.
– Netflix announced the fourth and final season of The Umbrella Academy will be released on August 8. The final season of the Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá adaptation, which began in 2019, will pick up with the Hargreeves living in yet another timeline, where they don’t have their superpowers. “There are new enemies who want to see them wiped from existence, but how do they face them without their powers? And will the siblings ever get them back?” It will consist of six episodes. You can also check out new posters featuring the siblings in their old and new guises at the link.
– Finally: Bob Dylan, manga star? Via Comic Book, the legendary singer-songwriter is the subject of a new comic by “Pluto” creator Naoki Urasawa, included on the Japanese release of the new compilation CD Mixing Up the Medicine/A Retrospective. The 30-page manga, titled “Bob Dylan’s Adventure,” recaps the 82-year old musician’s life thus far. Urasawa is a musician himself, and has referenced Dylan in his own work. It is unknown if the comic will receive an English release.
