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.
– Marvel announced “White Widow,” a four-issue series starring Yelena Belova, written by Sarah Gailey (“The Vampire Slayer”) with art by Alessandro Miracolo (“Star Wars: Yoda”). Little was said about the plot, although the synopsis emphasizes Yelena setting out on her own path, and the cover by David Marquez depicts her taking on her former employers at AIM. The book marks Yelena’s first solo comic since 2002’s MAX miniseries “Black Widow: Pale Little Spider,” and the first under her current (and MCU) codename. Issue #1 will be released on November 1.
– IDW will publish “Star Trek: Holo-Ween,” a spooky four-part series starting in time for Halloween. Written by Chris Sequeira (Sherlock Holmes: Dark Detective) with art by Joe Eisma, the Next Generation era comic sees Captain Picard and the Enterprise-D crew throw a Halloween party “after enduring an anxiety-ridden passage through a solar storm,” only for “crew members [to] begin to go missing one by one.” Issue #1 will be released on October 4.
– Vault revealed a first look at “Dying Inside,” a graphic novel written by Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz with Hannah Klein, and featuring art by Lisa Sterle. More details on the book, which comes from Vault’s new music imprint Hardshell, will be announced at San Diego Comic-Con. Additionally, Vault announced a partnership for the imprint with audio company Skullcandy, for a line of headphones inspired by its graphic novels, available to purchase with special editions of each book; the “Dying Inside” headphone will mark the first in the collaboration.
– At this week’s Anime Expo, Netflix released a trailer for Pluto, the anime series based on Naoki Urasawa’s acclaimed manga, revealing it will be released on October 26. The streamer also shared a video of Iñaki Godoy, the live-action One Piece series’ Monkey D. Luffy, meeting the character’s Japanese voice actress Mayumi Tanaka. The video reveals the anime’s Japanese voice cast will reprise their roles for the new show’s dub, and that Godoy and Taz Skylar (Sanji) will be lending their voices to the Spanish audio too.
– Skybound unveiled the line-up of Transformers who will star in Daniel Warren Johnson’s relaunch of the comic in October. The Autobots will consist of Optimus Prime, Arcee, Ratchet, Wheeljack, and (instead of Bumblebee) Cliffjumper. Similarly, Decepticon leader Megatron will be absent, with their main five consisting of Starscream, Soundwave, Skywarp, Rumble (who is purple), and Laserbeak. The new “Transformers” series kicks off October 4.
– The Television Critics Association announced the nominees of this year’s TCA Awards. Andor picked up three nominations, including Program of the Year, while American Born Chinese, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Ms. Marvel, and (despite being pulled from Paramount+) Star Trek: Prodigy were nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Family Programming. Succession, The Last of Us and The Bear tied for the most nominations, with five each. The winners will be announced on August 7.
– Finally, award-winning actor, author, and director, Alan Arkin died last week, aged 89. A prolific character actor, Arkin’s film and TV projects included Argo, The Rocketeer, and the movie version of Jules Feiffer’s Little Murders, as well as The Kominsky Method, BoJack Horseman, The Muppets, Little Miss Sunshine, Gattaca, Grosse Pointe Blank, Glengarry Glen Ross, Escape from Sobibor, The Last Unicorn, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, and Catch-22. He is survived by his third wife, Suzanne Newlander, as well as three sons (including actor Adam Arkin), and his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
