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 over the weekend there was a lot of news out of Emerald City Comic-Con: Marvel, Lion Forge and IDW respectively announced “Silver Surfer: Black,” “At the End of Your Tether,” and ““Marilyn Manor,” while VIZ Media announced a new English-language manga line. We also got word that James Gunn, after being fired last summer, will return to direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
– Kicking off, after being teased by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev, we got our first details of the creative team’s new DC event taking place this summer that we now know is called “Event Leviathan.” The book, which is getting a lead-in arc over in “Action Comics” at the moment from Bendis and Steve Epting, will begin in June and consist of six issues. The event will pit the spy organization Leviathan, created by Grant Morrison and David Finch, against other groups in the DCU like Checkmate and Spyral. The solicit for the first issue also teased that not just Superman will be impacted by the event, but that the book will draw in Batman, Green Arrow, The Question, and Talia al Ghul among other characters.
– In more DC news, the previously announced Black Label title “Superman: Year One” from Frank Miller and John Romita Jr., now has a release date for its first issue in June. The oversized book was announced back at SDCC 2017, before Black Label was announced, and was originally set to come out late last year. The three-issue series will ship bi-monthly and release a collection in November. You can find all of DC’s June solicitations here.
– Over on the Marvel side of things, the company has announced two new one-shots as part of its 80th anniversary celebration. The first is a Wolverine book called “Wolverine: Exit Wounds” which teams some of the character’s most legendary creators like Chris Claremont, Larry Hama, Sam Keith and Salvador Larroca. The second, “Incredible Hulk: Last Call” sees ’90s Hulk creative team Peter David and Dale Keown reunite to tell one last story about Bruce Banner. Look for the rest of Marvel’s solicitations later this week.
– In DCEU news, it seems that Flash actor Ezra Miller has teamed with Grant Morrison to write another draft of the Flash movie script. The last draft of the script came from John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (Game Night), who have been on board to direct the movie since January 2018, and have reportedly taken a much more lighthearted approach to the movie in line with Aquaman and Shazam! Miller is hoping to craft a much darker take on Barry Allen in line with Zack Snyder’s approach to the movie universe and Miller’s portrayal in Justice League. With Miller’s contract set to expire in May, it’s possible he could depart the project if Warner Bros. passes on his script.
– Ahead of her debut on last night’s episode of Supergirl, actress Azie Tesfai (The Kominsky Method, Jane the Virgin) was upgraded to a series regular for the recently renewed fifth season of The CW Arrowverse show. The actress appeared in her first episode of the series last night as Kelly Olsen, James Olsen’s sister, in the same episode that also saw Jon Cryer’s Lex Luthor debut.
– Shiro Amano is set to pen a manga adaptation of the recently released Square Enix video game Kingdom Hearts III. The news was revealed in April’s issue of Square Enix’s Monthly Shonen Gangan magazine, which did not give a release date for the series. Amano will also contribute art to Tomoco Kanemaki’s novel Kingdom Hearts χ: Kimi to Keyblade no Monogatari, and a novelization of KH3. Amano has previously adapted other games in the series and collaborated on other novelizations.
– Finally, we have the results of Friday’s Reader Poll. In honor of St. Patrick’s Day this weekend, we asked “Who is the best Irish character in comics?” With 31.9 percent of the vote, Cassidy from “Preacher” is the winner, with the X-Men Banshee in second place with 23.4 percent of the vote, Hitman in third with 16 percent, and the X-Men Siryn with almost 10 percent.
