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.
– Via IGN, Tom King and Daniel Sampere revealed the prelude to their upcoming “Wonder Woman” run will introduce Diana’s daughter, Trinity. King said the story, featured in “Wonder Woman” #800, takes place 20 years into the future (when Trinity is 19), and that the circumstances of her eventual birth will be an integral part of their run. He subsequently disclosed the character’s personal name is Lizzie, indicating she is not a new version of Lyta Trevor-Hall, “The Sandman” character who was originally introduced as Fury, the Earth-Two daughter of Diana and Steve Trevor. “Wonder Woman” #800 will be released on June 20, and King and Sampere’s relaunch will follow in September.
– DC also announced “Action Comics Presents: Doomsday Special,” a 48-page one-shot by writer Dan Watters and artist Eddy Barrows. The comic picks up from ‘Dark Crisis’ and ‘Lazarus Planet,’ where Doomsday became a demon king, and will see Supergirl and Martian Manhunter team up to prevent his return to the land of the living. The official synopsis also teases the return of Bloodwynd, the Black necromancer hero introduced in 1992’s “Justice League America” #61, whom J’onn J’onzz was forced to impersonate by a demon; the character largely disappeared after the ’90s. It will be released on August 29.
– Via ICv2, First Second Books will publish Jordan Mechner’s “Replay: Memoir of an Uprooted Family” on March 19, 2024. The book follows the Prince of Persia creator’s family across generations, from his grandfather’s enlistment in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I, to the time his father spent as a child in France after the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938. Jordan himself will be the protagonist of the sections set in 2015, which explore how his marriage fell apart after he decided to relocate his family to France. It will mark First Second’s second release by Mechner after 2013’s “Templar,” and will retail in hardcover at 320 pages for $27.99.
– Mad Cave announced “Whisper of the Woods,” a horror graphic novel by Romanian cartoonist Ennun Ana Iurov (“Needle & Thread”). The book follows college student Adam, as he travels to Transylvania to find a missing friend. Disregarding local superstition that the mythical iele from the forest Hoia Baciu are hunting men, Adam “remains steadfast in his decision to find his friend,” but “with every passing night, it becomes impossible to ignore the happenings around him…” Lettered by Micah Myers, “Whisper of the Woods” will be released on October 24, 2023.
– BOOM! Studios unveiled ‘Pen & Ink,’ a line of deluxe black-and-white reprints of popular titles with commentaries from their artists. The first release will be of James Tynion IV and Werther Dell’Edera’s “Something is Killing the Children” #1 on June 14. It will be followed by Ram V and Filipe Andrade’s “The Many Deaths of Laila Starr” #1 in August, and Keanu Reeves, Matt Kindt, and Ron Garney’s “BRZRKR” #1 in October. Per BOOM!, “every ‘Pen & Ink’ issue will feature a premium cardstock cover, and luxuriously thick wood free interior paper, alongside a gorgeous Spot UV variant cover and a blank sketch cover.”
– At this year’s second GLAAD Media Awards ceremony, Heartstopper won Outstanding Kids & Family Programming – Live Action, and Dead End: Paranormal Park won Outstanding Kids & Family Programming – Animated. Both Netflix series, Heartstopper has been renewed for a second and third season, while Dead End ran for two seasons before being canceled last year. Hit the link to check out all of Saturday’s winners, as well as this year’s earlier winners, including those in the comics categories.
– The BBC released a trailer for Doctor Who‘s 60th anniversary specials, revealing the trio of this November’s episodes are called (in order) “The Star Beast,” “Wild Blue Yonder,” and “The Giggle.” Among others, it gives us a more in-depth look at Yasmin Finney’s Rose, Neil Patrick Harris’s unidentified villain, the Wrarth Warriors, and their furry enemy Beep the Meep (who receives a literal eyeful from the returning Catherine Tate as Donna Noble.) Both the Wrarth Warriors and Beep the Meep first appeared in the 1980 Doctor Who Weekly comic strip “Doctor Who and the Star Beast,” written by Pat Mills and John Wagner with art by Dave Gibbons. The specials will be aired in the UK and Ireland on BBC One, and released internationally on Disney+.
– The Hollywood Reporter states CBS have decided not to commission Jumpstart, the sitcom based on Robb Armstrong’s comic strip of the same name. It was the only pilot the network passed on this year. The show would’ve starred Terry Crews as family man and cop Joe Cobb, Ryan Michelle Bathé as his wife Marcy, Rob Corddry as his police partner Crunchy, and Glynn Turman as Joe’s father. It was not stated why CBS decided against producing the series. It marks the second time a TV version of the comic has been passed over, following an attempt at Fox in 2014.
– Finally, the Hong Kong Free Press reports that cartoonist Zunzi (Wong Kei-kwan)’s books been pulled from the city’s libraries after his suspension from the Ming Pao newspaper last week. This extended to books not written but illustrated by Zunzi, such as storybooks published by the Centre for Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies. Zunzi, who had been published by Ming Pao since 1982, was suspended indefinitely last week, after the government condemned a cartoon he drew mocking their decision to increase the number of unelected city representatives. The cartoonist simply responded free speech in Hong Kong is “now in an unstable state,” but criticized the removal of the books for deaf children, saying “it shows carelessness under the bureaucratic system.”
