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The Rundown: March 23, 2023

By | March 23rd, 2023
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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, prolific writer and Batman: The Animated Series story editor Michael Reaves passed away, aged 72.

Cover by Greg Land

– Via ComicBook.com, Marvel announced “What If…? Dark,” a new line of “What If…?’ comics, which will commence with “What If…? Dark: Spider-Gwen,” an alternative take on 1973’s ‘The Night Gwen Stacy Died.’ Gerry Conway, who penned the original story, will team up with writer Jody Houser and artist Ramon Bachs on the one-shot, which imagines a world where Spider-Man, not Gwen Stacy, was killed by the Green Goblin on the Brooklyn Bridge. The comic will be released in July, 50 years on from the 616 Gwen’s death in “Amazing Spider-Man” #121, and a month after Spider-Gwen’s return to the big screen in Across the Spider-Verse.

– Former Marvel and DC editor-in-chief Bob Harras has joined Immortal Studios as an editor-at-large. Immortal, which launched in 2020, is home to an eponymous Storyverse, consisting of several interconnected martial arts (or wuxia) comics. Peter “Payhuan” Shiao, Immortal’s founder and CEO, said “Harras’s unparalleled experience shepherding story worlds for both Marvel and DC, the two most successful companies to have created cinematic universes, [will help us] succeed in creating our own lane.” The news comes two-and-a-half years after Harras was laid off during a restructuring at WarnerMedia, after a decade as DC’s EIC.

– A GoFundMe has been launched by veteran artist and inker Mark Propst (“JLA,” “Wonder Woman,” and more). Propst, 58, has been living in debt after caring for his late mother, raising his late son, and because Hurricane Sally destroyed his home in 2020; he is now facing eviction from his current residence in Arkansas. He intends to raise $3000 to $5000 to buy the equipment he needs to resume his career. At the time of writing, he has received $1840.

– Gold Key Entertainment revealed details on their planned revival, disclosing they are in talks for a direct market distribution deal with Diamond and Penguin Random House. In the meantime, they will release their first comic, “Boris Karloff’s Gold Key Mysteries” — a hardcover tribute to the ’60s anthology “Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery” — via Kickstarter. The book will feature stories by Michael W. Conrad, Steve Orlando, Artyom Trakanov, Kelly Williams, and more. Gold Key, which closed in 1984, was revived last year by entrepreneurs Adam Brooks, Michael Dynes, Arnold Guerrero, and Lance Linderman, who are now serving respectively as its chief communication officer, editor-in-chief, chief creative director, and chief executive officer.

– Via The Hollywood Reporter, Sumerian Comics will publish “Misfortune’s Eye,” a supernatural comic by 12-year-old Cocaine Bear star Brooklynn Prince, and artist Aliz Fernandez. It “centers on Vivian Nightingale, a girl who wakes up on the morning of her 15th birthday and discovers that she can see human auras. After embarking on a journey to find out what her future holds, she happens upon Hemlock Hallows, a hidden Psychic Town, where she learns about her mother’s troubled past and her own curse of predicting death, and unearths an immense darkness coming for the town and her own family.” The comic will debut at Orlando’s MegaCon next week.

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight will take over as writer on Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Star Wars film from Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson. The pair, who were announced as part of the project with Obaid-Chinoy last year, departed the film after delivering the most recent draft of the script in February. The film, which will take place after The Rise of Skywalker, is strongly expected to be announced for a December 2025 release at Star Wars Celebration next month. Knight’s most recent credits also include Taboo, See, Allied, Spencer, The Girl in the Spider’s Web, and the upcoming miniseries of Great Expectations.

Variety ran a report shedding more light on Victoria Alonso’s departure from Marvel on Monday, stating she was fired by “a consortium including human resources, Disney’s legal department and multiple executives including Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman.” Alonso, formerly Marvel Studios’ president of physical production, post-production, VFX and animation, had been the subject of much criticism over VFX artists allegedly being overworked on the company’s projects. Kevin Feige reportedly did not intervene, feeling “mired in an impossible situation.”

Continued below

– HBO Max released a trailer for the second half of Titans season four, revealing the final episodes will resume on April 13. The midseason premiere will see the Titans (except Beast Boy) in a race against time to stop Brother Blood and Mother Mayhem from summoning Trigon, and encountering a prophecy claiming Kory/Starfire may need to die to save the world. The trailer and synopsis also teases Gar going on a quest for self-discovery, Raven/Rachel Roth embracing darker powers, Conner Kent/Superboy going rogue, and Tim Drake becoming Robin when Bernard is threatened.

– Per a press release, “Heartstopper” creator Alice Oseman’s prose novel Solitaire will be released in the United States on May 2. The book, which was published in the UK in 2014, marked the first appearance from Nick and Charlie, and follows Charlie’s sister Victoria, as she tries to unmask a group of pranksters known only as Solitaire. The US edition will include a Q&A with Oseman and her American editor, David Levithan, as well as a new cover by the cartoonist. You can find out more about the young adult book at Scholastic’s website. In further “Heartstopper” news, Oseman was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award for Best Writer: Drama for the Netflix series – you can check out the full list of this year’s nominees ahead of the May 14 ceremony here.

– Finally, domestic violence charges against Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland have been dismissed. Variety quoted a spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney’s office as saying, “We dismissed the charges today as a result of having insufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.” Roiland was arrested and charged with domestic battery and false imprisonment in 2020, though this was not publicly reported until January 2023, when he attended a pre-trial hearing. After the story emerged, Roiland was dropped by Adult Swim and Hulu, and he also resigned from his video game studio Squanch Games; none of these companies have commented on the judge’s decision at the time of writing.


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Christopher Chiu-Tabet

Chris is the news manager of Multiversity Comics. A writer from London on the autistic spectrum, he enjoys tweeting and blogging on Medium about his favourite films, TV shows, books, music, and games, plus history and religion. He is Lebanese/Chinese, although he can't speak Cantonese or Arabic.

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