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.
In case you missed it yesterday, BOOM! Studios have announced “Mighty Morphin,” a relaunch of their Power Rangers comic series, and Dark Horse has revealed “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Song of Glory,” a three-issue prequel to the upcoming video game. We also spoke with “Virtually Yours” writer Jeremy Holt about the locations in his new book, and updated our timeline of recent allegations in the industry to cover the launch of So Many of Us, a website documenting testimonies about Warren Ellis.
– DC’s daily ‘Digital First’ program has recently begun adding stories that are being published first digitally, rather than having originally appeared in their Walmart exclusive 100-Page Giant print titles. Among other original stories released in the previous few weeks are Monday’s “Superman: The Man of Tomorrow” #11 story ‘Fight of a Lifetime’ by Robert Venditti, Gleb Melkinov, Jordie Bellaire, and Clayton Cowles, and last week’s “Batman: Gotham Nights” #12 story ‘Five Little Robins’ by Tim Seeley, V. Ken Marion, Sandu Florea, Andrew Dalhouse, and Troy Peteri.
And just prior to deadline, it appears DC has slipped a brand new title (or one-time release) called “Shazam!: Lightning Strikes” to debut Friday, July 17. The featured story, ‘Home Quest,’ will come from writer Dan Jurgens and artists Travis Moore and Nick Filardi, with lettering from Marshall Dillon, and focuses on Billy Batson and one of his classmates encountering an ancient Egyptian spirit.
– Netflix dropped the official season 5 trailer for Lucifer, teasing the return of someone who looks very much like the devil to Earth. But it would seem it is not the Morningstar, but his brother Michael, come topside to create chaos for our beloved King of Hell. The first eight episodes of Lucifer season 5 premiere worldwide Friday, August 21 on Netflix.
– Disney+ has ordered to series Star Wars: The Bad Batch, chronicling the further adventures of the genetically enhanced clone squad introduced during Star Wars: The Clone Wars. “While The Clone Wars may have come to its conclusion, our partnership with the groundbreaking storytellers and artists at Lucasfilm Animation is only beginning. We are thrilled to bring Dave Filoni’s vision to life through the next adventures of the Bad Batch,” said Agnes Chu, senior vice president of Content, at Disney+. Star Wars: The Bad Batch is executive produced by Dave Filoni (The Mandalorian, Star Wars: The Clone Wars), and Lucasfilm Animation veterans Athena Portillo, Brad Rau and Jennifer Corbett, with Carrie Beck as co-executive producer and Josh Rimes as producer. Rau is also the supervising director, with Corbett serving as head writer.
– DC Direct is heralding the arrival in stores of the “Batman: The Adventures Continue” action figure line featuring Batman: The Animated Series-inspired character designs for Azrael, Deathstroke, and Red Hood by journeyman “The Batman Adventures” artist Ty Templeton. Templeton’s designs have been wowing fans in the digital first “Batman: The Adventures Continue” series, written by original Batman: The Animated Series producers Paul Dini and Alan Burnett. “It’s a fun process bringing these characters to life,” explains DC Direct Creative Director, Jim Fletcher. “Working with Ty Templeton just seemed like the perfect fit because we knew he could hit the style needed to make this line a success.” Dini said, “It’s great to see classic DC characters we never had a chance to use in the animated series, like Azrael and Red Hood, appear in animated toy form.”
– CBS All Access has unveiled the trailer for Star Trek: Lower Decks, the forthcoming animated series focused on the support crew of one of Starfleet’s least important ships, the USS Cerritos, circa 2380 in the Prime timeline. The August 6 debuting series was developed by Emmy winner Mike McMahan (Rick and Morty), and features the voice talents of Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, Eugene Cordero, Dawnn Lewis, Jerry O’Connell, Fred Tatasciore and Gillian Vigman.
– And finally, combined sales of graphic novels and periodical comics in the U.S. and Canada rose to roughly $1.21 billion in 2019, an 11% increase over 2018, according to a joint estimate by trade news sites ICv2 and Comichron. The graphic novel book format led the growth overall, but periodical comics sales in the comics shop market were also up by about 5%. “The massive shift to graphic novels as the preferred format for comics continued in 2019, bringing sales in the book channel above the comic store channel in North America for the first time in the history of the medium,” said ICv2 CEO Milton Griepp of the findings.
