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, AfterShock comics announced a new series titled “Lycan” from actor Thomas Jane with screenwriter David James Kelly and writer Mike Carey. Additionally, comic creator Matt Kindt announced an NFT one-shot titled “Mind MGMT: The Artifact,” and was faced with immediate backlash.
– AHOY Comics announced “Black’s Myth,” an urban fantasy series by “Atlantis Wasn’t Built for Tourists” writer Eric Palicki and artist Wendell Cavalcanti. The book stars Janie Jones “Strummer” Mercado, a werewolf P.I. working in Los Angeles, and her djinn assistant Ben Si’lat. The first issue will be released on July 7, 2021, with a main cover by Liana Kangas and variant cover by Jamal Igle. Like all AHOY titles, it will feature additional prose stories and illustrations.
– DC Comics have adjusted their planned launch of the Milestone Comics line, by changing dates to meet the concerns of comic book retailers. The adjusted timetable will now see all of the Milestone Comics books launching on the same day for digital and print editions. The imprint begins on June 15 with “Static: Season One” by writer Vita Ayala and artists Crisscross and Nikolas Draper-Ivey. “Icon and Rocker: Season One,” by writers Reginald Hudlin and Leon Chills, and artist Doug Braithwaite, will begin on July 27. Finally, writer Brandon Thomas and artists Denys Cowan and Bill Sienkiewicz’s “Hardware: Season One” will start on August 10. Each six-issue limited series will be available to DC Universe Infinite subscribers on the day of their digital and print release.
– Nightwing recently got a new furry companion, but now she needs a name. DC released a poll across their social media channels encouraging fans to vote on the name of Dick Grayson’s new three-legged puppy, who recently debuted in “Nightwing” #78. This poll was launched to celebrate National Puppy Day, and will be open until March 30 at 2:59 PM EST. Fans can choose between Haley, Shadow, Blue, and Hope.
– The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Avengers are being reimagined in a different era this fall with the release of William Shakespeare’s Avengers: The Complete Works. The book is being presented by Quirk Books in association with Marvel Comics, and adapts the plots of the four Avengers films (The Avengers, Age of Ultron, Infinity War, and Endgame) into four plays. These plays will be written by Ian Doescher and illustrated by Danny Schlitz, much in the same way as the William Shakespeare’s Star Wars series. The book will be released September 28.
– Also, Abrams Books will be releasing Doctor Strange: The Book of the Vishanti on November 30. The book serves as a guide to all magical things in the Marvel Universe, including in-universe looks at spells, incantations, and the personal accounts of Marvel’s various magic users — including Doctor Strange. The book is designed to look like the sacred Book of the Vishanti, a magical tome used by the Sorcerer Supreme in his quest to defend the universe from evil.
– Disney has announced that the upcoming Black Widow film will be released in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access on July 9. The film was recently slated to release on May 7 in theaters only, but has been pushed back yet again due to concerns surrounding vaccination and theater occupancy limits as a result of COVID-19. Along with this news, Disney confirmed that they will be pushing back the release of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which will now be coming out in theaters on September 3, and The King’s Man to December 22, 2021.
– The cast of Shazam! Fury of the Gods has added Academy Award-winning actress Helen Mirren to the fold. Mirren will be taking on the role of the villain Hespera, daughter of Atlas, in the film. She joins actress Rachel Zegler, who will reportedly be playing Hespera’s sister. The cast is rounded out by returning favorites Zachary Levi and Asher Angel as Shazam and his human counterpart, Billy Batson. Helen Mirren is well known to comic book fans for her role in RED and RED 2. In 2007, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in The Queen.
Continued below– Oni Press has announced the “Invader ZIM Quarterly Collection: Oodles of Doom” paperback for release on August 10. The collection contains the oversized series “Invader ZIM Quarterly,” and features stories from Sam Logan, Eric Trueheart, Warren Wucinich, Aaron Alexovich, and Fred Stresing, all spinning out of the popular Nickelodeon Invader Zim animated series. The book will retail for $19.99 USD and is available to pre-order now.
– Cyborg actor Ray Fisher has continued his campaign against WarnerMedia regarding alleged acts of racism on the set of Justice League in 2017. Last year, the actor accused director Joss Whedon of making racist decisions during the final production of Justice League, and claimed that producer Geoff Johns and DC Films president Walter Hamada enabled this behavior. His latest statement comes off the back of an interview from Variety with Warner Bros. CEO Ann Sarnoff, in which she commented that the WarnerMedia internal investigation did not find sufficient evidence against Whedon, Johns, and Hamada. Fisher has acknowledged what they did not find, but is requesting that WarnerMedia instead discloses what they did find.
– Finally, Nightdive Studios will be releasing a remastered edition of the 1999 Shadow Man video game on April 15. The game, appropriately titled Shadow Man: Remastered, will be available on PC via Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store. This release will take the original game, based on the Valiant Comics character of the same name, and provide 4K widescreen support, dynamic shadow mapping, and remastered lighting. In addition, the game includes content that was cut from the original release when it launched on Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, and PlayStation over twenty years ago. The story follows Shadow Man as he “battles the forces of darkness attempting to cross-over from their realm into the world of the living.”
