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. Usually we don’t post Rundowns on Sundays, but it’s SDCC weekend and there’s too much news to be left until Monday.
In case you missed it, the 2019 Eisner Award and third annual PRISM Award winners were announced at San Diego Comic-Con. Also, IDW and Marvel announced two new “Star Wars” miniseries, AHOY revealed which comics won its first “Steel Cage” match, Oni Press announced “Dewdrop” for early readers, and Marvel is relaunching the X-Men line. And last but not least, Marvel Studios unveiled Phase 4.
— At Comic-Con’s DC Universe panel, it was announced Doom Patrol season 2 is coming to the service and HBO Max; that Titans season 2 will premiere September 6; and that Young Justice has been renewed for season 4. The first full trailer for the Harley Quinn animated series also dropped: you can watch it here.
— HBO itself released the first full Watchmen trailer; the series debuts in October. A sequel to the original comic book of the same name, the show stars Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Don Johnson, Jean Smart, Tim Blake Nelson, Louis Gossett Jr., Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Hong Chau, Andrew Howard, Tom Mison, Frances Fisher, Jacob Ming-Trent, Sara Vickers, Dylan Schombing, and James Wolk.
— Burt Ward, who played Robin alongside Adam West’s Batman during the 1960s, is making an appearance in the upcoming Arrowverse crossover, “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” There are no details yet on whether Ward will reprise his role as Robin, or if he will be playing a different character for the five-part event. Producer Marc Guggenheim also tweeted Monitor actor LaMonica Garrett will pull double duty for the event by playing the character’s brother (and overarching villain), Anti-Monitor.
— Charlie Barnett (Russian Doll) has been cast as John Diggle Jr. for the eighth and final season of Arrow. Fans will meet the character, nicknamed J.J., in the future as the leader of the Deathstroke Gang where he faces off against Mia Smoak and his adopted brother, Conner Hawke.
— Julie Gonzalo and Staz Nair are joining the cast of Supergirl for the upcoming season. Gonzalo will play Andrea Rojas (a.k.a. Acrata), a polished business woman and heir to a Central American tech empire. Nair will play reporter William Dey, an original chracter created for the series. Both will make their debut in the season premiere airing October 6. Brainiac-5 actor Jesse Rath’s sister Meaghan Rath is also joining the cast as a female version of the character.
— In further Arrowverse news, Sendhil Ramamurthy has been cast as the The Flash season 6 big bad Dr. Ramsey Rosso, aka Bloodwork, and it was also revealed that Tommy Elliot, a.k.a. Hush, will feature on upcoming episodes of Batwoman.
— After a Batman: Hush screening at San Diego Comic-Con, it was revealed that Warner Bros. will next animate “Superman: Red Son” for a 2020 release. The film will then be followed up by Justice League Dark: Apokolips War and the original animation Superman: Man of Tomorrow.
— TBS revealed the first trailer for its Snowpiercer adaptation featuring stars Jennifer Connelly and Daveed Diggs. The show is based on the graphic novel “Le Transperceneige” by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette, and debuts next year.
— CBS All Access debuted the trailer for Star Trek: Picard, starring Patrick Stewart, airing in early 2020. It was also revealed that several familiar faces to the Star Trek universe will be joining Stewart on the show, including Brent Spiner, Jeri Ryan, Jonathan Del Arco, Jonathan Frakes, and Marina Sirtis. Additionally, CBS All Access is expanding its series with the return of Star Trek: Short Treks this fall, as well as Star Trek Lower Decks, an animated comedy coming to the streaming platform this fall. And, if that wasn’t enough, David Ajala (Nightflyers) will be joining Star Trek: Discovery as a new series regular for the upcoming third season.
— ComicHub and NPD Bookscan have reached a new data-sharing partnership. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this agreement will “result in the most complete look into actual sell-through data for collected comics and graphic novels in the U.S. market yet.” It will allow ComicHub to provide point-of-sale data to NPD, allowing comic retailer market sales figures to be part of NPD’s Bookscan annual sales chart for the first time. As a result, this will offer the most accurate sales information to be collection on the U.S. comics and graphic novel market to date.
— Lastly, Devil’s Due Comics is releasing a second volume of its Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez comic, titled “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Freshman Force: The Squad Special.” It will depict all four members of the U.S. House of Representatives “Squad” — Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib — as a superhero team fighting against racism and corruption. The comic is set for release in December 2019, but can be pre-ordered at OcasioComic.com. A portion of the proceeds from sales will be donated to RAICES Texas, a nonprofit that provides legal services to immigrants and refugees for immigration protection; a variant cover edition limited to 500 copies will donate its full proceeds to immigration charities.
