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.
– Tom King revealed himself to be the first writer in DC’s planned Looney Tunes crossover series. King will be penning the Batman/Elmer Fudd team-up. While no artist has been announced, Lee Weeks did the teaser image for the series. King seems to be having a lot of fun with his new role and is tweeting potential script snippets. DC has been enthusiastic about rejuvenating their non-superhero comic properties with this crossover and recent Hanna Barbara re-imaginings, so let’s hope this is more “Flintstones” and less “Scooby Apocalypse.”
– Drew Goddard has been brought on as a consultant for the Deadpool 2 script. He joins the existing team of Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick, along with Ryan Reynolds. For anyone not familiar, Goddard boasts writing credits on Cloverfield, The Cabin in the Woods, and The Martian, as well as co-creating Netflix’s Daredevil series. Anything Goddard is involved with is worth a look so this can only be good news for the film.
– Casper, Richie Rich, and all the other classic Harvey Comics characters will be making their return in the newly announced “Funtastic Harvey Hits” anthology series. The creative team includes Cesare Asaro, Geoffrey Golden, Charlie La Greca, Eric Jones, Dan Parent, Kirstie Shepherd, Landry Walker, Franco Aureliani, and Art Baltazar. The original Harvey Hits was a 122-issue comic series that ran from 1957–1967.
– Saudi Arabia hosted its first pop culture convention this past weekend. The event was held in the city of Jeddah (the real city, no ancient Jedi temples here) on February 16-18 and was sponsored by the Saudi government in order to bring more entertainment into the Kingdom, since things like public cinemas are banned. The event was also significant in that it allowed gender mixing which is usually prohibited in public spaces. They even pulled in a few stars, among them Charles Dance (Game of Thrones) and Mads Mikkelsen (Doctor Strange, Rogue One).
– DC Comics will include a free comic promoting AMC’s Into The Badlands with copies of “Green Arrow” #18, Harley Quinn #15, Deathstroke #14, Red Hood & The Outlaws #8 and Suicide Squad #13 in March. “Into The Badlands Special” #1 is written by series co-producer Matt Okumura, with art by Steve Ellis and cover by Leinil Yu. The story is an origin of sorts for the series’ main antagonist, Baron Quinn, detailing his first kill. The second season of the series premieres on March 19th.
– “Saga” will join the Image Comics’ 25th anniversary celebration when it returns in May by pricing issue #43 at $0.25. The issue promises to be a good jumping-on point with a “brave new direction.” “The Walking Dead” #163 in January was also at that price-point and sold 730,000 copies.
– A surprise prologue for Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant has been released online. The prologue introduces the Covenant’s crew and was directed by Ridley Scott’s son, Luke. The film will be released on May 19th.
– Joe Carnahan (The A-Team, The Blacklist, and Smokin’ Aces) has replaced Jeff Wadlow as the director of X-Force. No reason was given for Wadlow’s departure, but he has been attached to the project since 2013. Carnahan will also co-write the film along with Ryan Reynolds.
– A newly released plot synopsis for Aquaman has confirmed Nicole Kidman’s reported casting as Atlanna, Aquaman’s mother.
– Starz has announced the premiere date as April 30th for American Gods as well as released a new promo poster for the series.
