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, the Hellboy Universe is finally tackling Jack the Ripper in November’s “Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder: The Reign of Darkness;” and Adam DeVine and Blake Anderson are starring in an animated series based on the cult ’70s stoner comic “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.”
– DC announced the Joker’s ‘Year of the Villain’ one-shot will be written by film director John Carpenter and actor/writer Anthony Burch, and illustrated by Philip Tan and Marc Deering. “The Joker is the greatest villain in comics,” said Carpenter. “I’m proud to be reunited with Anthony on this project.” The two previously collaborated on BOOM! Studios’ “Big Trouble in Little China: Old Man Jack.” “The Joker: Year of the Villain” #1 will go on sale October 9.
– Dark Horse will publish a three-issue adaptation of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, written by Cecil Castellucci with art by Zulema Scotto Lavina. Castellucci previously wrote Dark Horse’s take on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, while Lavina is a recent graduate of Naples’s Italian School Comix. Dark Horse’s “The Little Mermaid” will begin on October 16.
– Weekly Shonen Jump revealed a new “My Hero Academia” spin-off, “My Hero Academia: Team Up Mission,” is coming to print this summer. The new manga, which is intended to mark five years of the series, will receive a prologue chapter in Jump Giga magazine on July 25, and then begin serialization in the September issue of Saikyō Jump magazine on August 2.
– Entertainment Weekly reports Tommy Merlyn (Colin Donnell) and Adrian Chase/Prometheus (Josh Segarra) will return in the eighth season of Arrow this fall. Showrunner/executive producer Beth Schwartz stated, “Adrian Chase comes back in a different way than expected; we’re really excited about that because obviously he’s one of our favorite villains,” while Marc Guggenheim added Donnell is “not coming back as the Tommy we know.” Arrow returns for its ten-part, final season on October 15.
– Per Deadline, actress Aya Cash (You’re the Worst) is in talks to join The Boys season 2 as Nazi villain Stormfront. The Boys, based on Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s satirical comics series (where Stormfront happened to be male), will premiere on Prime Video on July 26. Amazon, which has not made any official decision on the show’s future, declined to comment on the news.
– Finally, the Dallas Voice has a story claiming the DC/IDW anthology “Love is Love” has been unofficially banned by the Irving Independent School District in Texas. The report states “the district is concealing this ban by not listing any of the graphic novels [it was bought with] as challenged or ‘Love is Love’ as banned in its records,” and that those who can make a complaint to undo the decision are being told to “’keep it quiet.’” Published following the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016, “Love is Love” was an anthology with an all-star creative team celebrating LGBT relationships, in defiance of the devastating and hateful attack. You can read the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s response here.
