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.
– Lion Forge Senior Editor Joseph P. Illidge has left to join Valiant Comics as Executive Editor. Illidge started his career in comics at Milestone Media, edited ‘Batman: No Man’s Land,’ and had been at Lion Forge since 2016, overseeing last year’s relaunch of the Catalyst Prime Universe (which Carl Reed and David Steward II have now taken over from Illidge). Yesterday, Warren Simmons apparently resigned as Editor-in Chief at Valiant, however, he is still mentioned in the press release about Illidge.
– The second of the “Wakanda Forever” one shots will be out July 25th. in this one shot featuring Written by Nnedi Okorafor and illustrated by Ray Anthony-Height, of Lion Forge’s “Noble,” this one-shot features a meeting between the X-Men and the Dora Milaje. Okoya, Ayo, and Aneka will encounter, among others, Storm the onetime wife of Black Panter and Queen of Wakanda
– The Batgirl movie is on again after Joss Whedon walked away from writing and directing it back in February. Christina Hodson, who wrote both Unforgettable and the upcoming Transformers spin-off Bumblebee, has been tapped by Warner Bros. to develop a script. She’s already familiar with Barbara Gordon, Batgirl, having written a treatment for a Birds of Prey feature.
– Comedian and voice actor Chuck McCann passed away April 9th at the age of 83. He was the voice talent behind the Thing in the 1990s Fantastic Four and Hulk cartoons as well as Duckworth in the original Ducktales and the Bird from the CoCo Puffs commercials.
– At Thursday’s Diamond Retailer Summit, Eric Powell, creator of “The Goon” and “The Hillbilly,” tried a new marketing gimmick. In this highly oversaturated market, you have to draw attention, so in his presentation he segued into a video of him applying make-up to promote upcoming Albatross Funnybooks.
– In DC television news, AMC announced the premiere date for Preacher season 3. Jessie, Tulip and Cass will return to the small screen on June 24th as the crazy gets cranked up in the Ennis Dillon comic adaptation.
– Meanwhile over on the CW, Arrow returns for a seventh season featuring returning actor Colton Haynes. His character, Roy Harper/Arsenal (introduced way back in the second half of season one) will be back as a series regular.
– Deadline.com announced that Anson Mount (Black Bolt of the Inhumans) landed on his feet and is joining Star Trek: Discovery in a role familiar to many Trek fans. He will be playing the legendary first captain of the Enterprise, Christopher Pike.
– Finally, Marvel revealed John Romita Sr. has drawn a variant cover for “The Amazing Spider-Man” #800. Romita Sr. pencilled the title from 1966 to 1969, and the cover notably features Gwen Stacy, as opposed to his co-creation Mary-Jane Watson. The comic is out May 30.
