Welcome 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, we covered this year’s Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity winner, the return of Marvel’s “S.H.I.E.L.D.” and “Lando,” Titan’s next “Dark Souls” and “Doctor Who” miniseries, and the latest Umbrella Academy casting.
– Marvel unveiled Alex Ross’s cover for “Amazing Spider-Man” #800, depicting Spidey and all those closest to him facing off against an absolutely demonic looking Red Goblin. Humberto Ramos, Giuseppe Camuncoli and Jim Cheung will join Stuart Immonen in penciling Dan Slott’s penultimate issue, which will contain 80 pages of story, and is due out in May.
– Also arriving in May will be the “X-Men Wedding Special,” building to Kitty Pryde and Colossus’s wedding in “X-Men Gold” #30 the following month. “Gold” scribe Marc Guggenheim will team with Kelly Thompson to write the issue, which will also feature a new Kitty Pryde story by her co-creator, Chris Claremont.
– Meanwhile, “X-Men Red” writer Tom Taylor announced an oversized annual, drawn by Pascal Alixe (“Marvel Illustrated: Moby Dick”), which will be in stores May 30. The book will fill the gap between “Phoenix Resurrection” and “X-Men Red” #1, presumably including Jean Grey’s conversation with her younger self teased in “Jean Grey” #11. Head over to Taylor’s interview with Newsarama for a sneak peek at the artwork.
– In a press release, BOOM! Studios revealed their “Wet Hot American Summer” graphic novel will be written by Christopher Hastings (“Unbelievable Gwenpool“) and penciled by Noah Hayes (“Goldie Vance”). The book, based on the cult 2001 film and its Netflix spin-offs, will see Camp Firewood find themselves with only 24 hours to prepare for a surprise camp inspection, or face shutdown. The OGN is due out in November.
– Speaking of Netflix, it was announced Lucy Davis (the original Office, Wonder Woman) will play Aunt Hilda in the streaming service’s upcoming adaptation of “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.” The role was played by Caroline Rhea in the ABC series, and by Melissa Joan Hart herself in the animated version that also aired on the channel. The show, starring Kiernan Shipka as Sabrina, will begin later this year.
– Mark Millar tweeted Jeff Lemire (“Descender,” “Bloodshot Salvation“) will team with Eduardo Risso (“100 Bullets“) for the second arc of “Hit-Girl,” titled ‘Hit-Girl in Canada.’ Millar originally said his first arc would be “followed by someone better by the name of Kevin Smith,” though he is still writing a story for the series. Lemire and Risso’s arc begins with issue 5 in June.
– Winnipeg author Andrew Bart held a launch party for his new graphic novel, “Lumi: An Underwater Arctic Adventure.” The all-ages book follows the titular baby beluga whale as she searches for her mother, and was devised to educate young children on the impact climate change is having on wildlife. Head on over to http://www.ilovelumi.ca/ for more on the book.
– Titan’s Statix Press will publish the 2011 series “Konungar: War of Crowns” in English. The French comic, written by Sylvain Runberg (“Millennium,” “Orbital”) with art by Juzhen, is about two warring Viking princes who must put aside their differences when an army of centaurs (centaurs!) take advantage of the conflict and launch an invasion. The translation will be printed in two issues, the first of which is out in June.
– Crunchyroll have announced that several concluded manga titles from Kodansha will no longer be available from February 28, though readers can still purchase them as ebooks in the Crunchyroll Manga shop. Current serials like “Attack on Titan” will remain at Crunchyroll Premium. The sole exception to this decision is Hiro Mashima’s “Fairy Tail,” the first 30 volumes of which will be accessible to all on March 1.
– Black Panther was a huge hit, grossing approximately $387 million worldwide over the weekend. From the press tour for the film, of particular interest to fans should be Lupita Nyong’o’s enthusiasm for Nakia’s villainous turn in the comics, Florence Kasumba’s interview with Vulture regarding a deleted moment where Ayo flirts with Okoye, and Kevin Feige’s chat with the same publication, where he confirmed some fan theories regarding paparazzi photos of Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel costume.
– With Black Panther‘s release, we asked which of the previous Marvel Cinematic Universe films were your favorite. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) won with 38% of the vote, followed by the same year’s Guardians of the Galaxy with 13% of the vote.
