This article has been updated since its publication.
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.
Before we begin, a reminder that today marks Multiversity’s final day of regular service. Thank you for reading, and continuing to check for news you may’ve missed; in the meantime, please read our farewells from staff past and present here. And ICYMI, we had an exclusive preview of next week’s “Ms. Marvel: Mutant Menace” #4.
– The next “Dog Man” book, “Dog Man: Big Jim Begins,” will be released by Scholastic Graphix on December 3, 2024. The book, which will mark the 13th in Dav Pilkey’s bestselling children’s series, will tell the origin story of Big Jim, a kindhearted prisoner in Cat Jail who moonlights as the superhero Commander Cupcake. It will arrive shortly before DreamWorks’s Dog Man film, due out January 31, 2025.
– Writer Kami Garcia is teaming up with artist Brittney L. Williams for her first middle-grade novel, “Mixed-Up.” The book follows Stella, a fifth-grade student who is diagnosed with dyslexia, which means she finds it especially difficult to keep up with her friends absorbing their new favorite game’s guidebook. It will be published by First Second Books on January 21, 2025.
– Dark Horse will release “Yojimbot,” a post-apocalyptic graphic novel series by French writer/artist Sylvain Repos, and colorist Noiry, translated by Matt Maden. The books follow a robotic samurai, who takes an orphaned human boy into his protection. The 160-page “Volume 1: Metal Silence” will be released in bookstores on December 3, 2024, and comics shops the following day. The series was originally released by Dargaud in 2021, and digitally in English by Europe Comics.
– Darick Robertson will pencil the fifth issue of Jason Aaron’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” relaunch, releasing December 2024. “TMNT” will relaunch in July with Joëlle Jones on the first issue, Rafael Albuquerque on the second, Cliff Chiang on the third, and Chris Burnham on the fourth, with Albuquerque set to begin penciling the comic full-time after this initial arc.
– Oni Press revealed that the first issues of the new EC Comics series will not receive any second printings, something they will try to compensate for by printing more copies than usual. (This presumably does not extend to the eventual bookstore release.) The revival kicks off with horror anthology “Epitaphs From the Abyss” #1 on July 24, and sci-fi counterpart “Cruel Universe” #1 on August 7.
– “Hack/Slash: Back to School” creator Zoe Thorogood has cosplayed as Casey Hack for a variant cover of the trade paperback, exclusive to GalaxyCon. Both the unsigned and signed copies of the GalaxyCon edition have already sold out, well before the latter’s November 29 pre-order deadline. The unsigned trade, both with or without Thorogood’s photo, will be released in all book shops on June 12.
– Chris Hemsworth is in talks to star in Paramount’s Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover film. Assuming he’s playing one of the Joes, it will mark his second Hasbro/Energon Universe role, following the young Optimus Prime/Orion Pax in this fall’s animated film prequel Transformers One (out September 20.) Further details on the crossover, like its director, writers, and release date, remain unknown at this time, even though director Steven Caple Jr. had set up the film in last year’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.
– Netflix announced BET, a live-action, English-language remake of Kakegurui, the Japanese series that was itself based on the manga by Homura Kawamoto and Tōru Naomura. A thriller, the show revolves around an elite boarding school that houses an underground gambling ring, and will star Miku Martineau (Kate), plus Ayo Solanke, Eve Edwards, Clara Alexandrova, Hunter Cardinal, Anwen O’Driscoll, Aviva Mongillo, and Ryan Sutherland. It was developed by former Warrior Nun showrunner Simon Barry, and production is now underway in Toronto.
– Warner Bros. Japan revealed the 2018 anime film Batman Ninja is getting a sequel, titled Batman Ninja vs Yakuza League. Few details were given on the project, which Junpei Mizusaki will return to direct, although it will presumably continue the story of the temporally displaced Batman, his allies, and the villlains who were transported to Feudal Japan. More will be revealed at a panel at Anime Expo in Los Angeles on July 4.
Continued below– Kadeem Hardison (A Different World, Grown-ish) has joined the cast of Criminal, the Prime Video series based on Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’s anthology comic, overseen by Brubaker and Jordan Harper. He will Gnarly, an ex-boxer and friend of Leo and Ivan (who will be played by Richard Jenkins.) The show, also starring Adria Arjona, will begin filming soon.
– Legendary Hong Kong stuntman and second unit director Andy Cheng (Shang-Chi, Rush Hour) will make his first unit debut with a film adaptation of “Shadow Ghost.” The self-published comic, by martial artist Sifu Kurtis Fujita, follows a young man who learns kung fu while trying to uncover the truth about the titular folk hero. The film is being produced by Kenneth Atchity, who’s best known for The Meg movies.
– Finally, Ryan Reynolds has unveiled a characteristically lewd popcorn bucket design for Deadpool & Wolverine, depicting a masked Logan screaming (complete with a tongue) as you pour snacks into his mouth. The design is intended to compete with the controversial Dune: Part Two popcorn bucket, whose portrayal of a sandworm was deemed “hilariously suggestive” by most moviegoers. What a way to help cap off 15 years since this site was founded to review X-Men Origins: Wolverine, eh? Please join us on Discord for a revisit of that movie later today, by the way. Deadpool & Wolverine releases in theaters July 26.
