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.
– Tom King is heading to Archie Comics with longtime Riverdale artist Dan Parent in tow for “Archie: The Decision,” a 32-page one-shot that will finally answer the question: Betty, or Veronica? King, who describes the project as a chance to do something “zany and cool and screwball and hysterical,” calls it “an epic, riotous story featuring scores of Archie characters, where Dan and I wrestle with the greatest dilemma in the near 85-year history of comics: Betty or Veronica!? I’m not sure we can solve it, but, like all of Riverdale, we’re going to have a ton of fun trying.” The comic will be released with a main cover by Parent, and a variant by Stephen Byrne, on August 28.
– Marvel made several announcements, including two intercompany crossover series: “Ultraman x Avengers,” by Kyle Higgins, Mat Groom, and Francesco Manna, and “Predator vs. Black Panther,” by Benjamin Percy and Chris Allen. “Ultraman x Avengers” #1 (of 4) releases August 14, while “Predator vs. Black Panther” (also four issues) begins August 21. The publisher also revealed a second volume of “Blood Hunters,” by Erica Schultz and Robert Gill, starting August 7; the four-parter will follow Elsa Bloodstone, White Widow, and Hallows’ Eve in the aftermath of ‘Blood Hunt,’ as well as an apparently still vampiric Miles Morales.
Continuing, two all-ages series were revealed: “Spider-Man: Homeroom Heroes,” a new take on Peter Parker’s high school years by Steve Foxe and Adrianna Florean (“Star Wars Adventures”), and “Spidey and His Amazing Friends,” a tie-in for the Disney Junior cartoon, featuring stories originally created for the company’s “My First Comic Reader!” books by veteran children’s author Steve Behling, and the Disney Storybook Art team. “Amazing Friends” will begin on August 7, while “Homeroom Heroes” #1 will be released on September 4. Foxe will also pen “Chasm: Curse of Kaine,” a battle between the two title characters rendered by Andrea Broccardo; it goes on sale August 28.
– BOOM! Studios will publish “S.I.R.” (Seismic Ironclash Roulette), an extreme sports romance by writer/artist Fell Hound (“Commander Rao”). The five-issue series follows two high school sweethearts who hit a rough patch in their relationship, until they both join a motorcycle combat arena. Fell Hound describes the book as being a reimagining of Fight Club as a ’90s dueling shojo anime, similar to Revolutionary Girl Utena or Gundam: The Witch from Mercury. Issue #1 will be released on August 14 with variant covers by Alessio Zonno and Paulina Ganucheau.
– Dark Horse announced “The Masked Macher,” a period wrestling comic by David A. Goodman (The Orville, “Space Job”), artist Alex Andrés (in his U.S. debut), colorist Gonzalo Duarte (“Big Trouble in Little China”), and letterer Mauro Mantella (“Space Job”). Set in 1930s Hollywood, the four-issue series follows an aspiring actor who winds up becoming the titular wrestler instead. Goodman, who notes “macher” is Yiddish for “big shot,” describes the comic as being primarily an action-packed showbiz comedy, but “also [a story] about nostalgia, how we can look back and long for a time that really wasn’t all that pleasant.” Issue #1 releases September 18.
– IDW have confirmed their new graphic novel based on Mattel’s American Girl dolls will become a series. The first installment, “Julie and the Blue Guitar: An American Girl Mystery,” by writer Casey Gilly and artist Felia Hanakata, due out on June 25, will follow a young girl who uncovers a mystery after discovering a teenager’s diary from 1977. Subsequent titles will consist of “Meet Josefina” (releasing in February), and “Isabel and Nicki Versus the Bigfoot Bandit: American Girl Mysteries Across Time” (July 2025).
– Star Trek: Picard seasons 2-3 showrunner Terry Matalas will oversee the MCU Vision series in development for Disney+. The show, which will presumably follow the white version of Paul Bettany’s synthezoid after the events of WandaVision, was being developed by that show’s creator, Jac Schaeffer, before she chose to prioritize another spin-off, Agatha All Along (premiering September 18, 2024.) The untitled series is now set to be released in 2026, becoming the first live-action Marvel show to begin filming after Wonder Man. Coincidentally, the company released a trailer for the Apple Vision Pro game What If…? – An Immersive Story, revealing it will be released on May 30.
Continued below– Prime Video’s Criminal series has gained its first cast member in Emmy Award-winning character actor Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water). The show is based on the comic by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, and is being overseen by Brubaker himself with Jordan Harper. Like the comic, it will follow various loosely connected characters involved in the underworld of the fictional Center City. Jenkins will play Ivan, a former crime lord now living with dementia and being cared for by Leo Patterson, the son and protégé of his late best friend/co-crime lord Tommy. The first four episodes, directed by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, are set to begin filming soon.
– In Netflix news, the streamer revealed a first look at Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher season four, due out next year. Hemsworth takes over from Henry Cavill on the show, which is currently filming seasons four and five (which will be its last) back-to-back. Netflix also released a new trailer for the third and final season of Sweet Tooth, releasing June 6, and the first trailer for Stranger Things: The First Shadow, the British stage play set before the TV show, which the company announced will extend its West End run into 2025, before the release of the fifth and final season, and a (still unofficially unannounced) Broadway debut.
– Finally, Cartoon Network and Max have revealed an all-Nigerian voice cast for the upcoming series Iyanu: Child of Wonder, including Serah Johnson as the titular heroine. Other cast members will include Okey Jude, Samuel Kugbiyi, Adesua Etomi-Wellington, Blossom Chukwujekwu, Stella Damasus, Shaffy Bello, and Ike Ononye. The series, based on the YouNeek Studios and Dark Horse graphic novels by Roye Okupe, Godwin Akpan, and Chima Kalu, follows the adventures of a young orphan in the magical, Nigerian-inspired kingdom of Yorubaland. It has been ordered for two, 13-episode seasons, which will premiere sometime in 2025.
