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.
– Kicking off, we follow through with a couple of stories from yesterday’s Rundown. First up, Suicide Squad director David Ayer took to Twitter with a teaser image Amanda Conner’s “Harley Quinn” #21 cover, which many are taking as assurance that Ayer is not leaving Gotham City Sirens as teased in rumors yesterday. The director is set to adapt the film detailing the shenanigans of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn teamed with Catwoman and Poison Ivy. Gotham City Sirens was not a part of DC’s film slate announcement at Hall H this weekend at SDCC, but neither was the other announced Harley Quinn vs The Joker, Nightwing, or Black Adam. Basically no one knows what’s going on in the DCEU right now.
– The other follow-up piece has to do with Damon Lindelof’s reveal yesterday that he has yet to meet with HBO about his announced adaption of Watchmen for the network. Lindelof had said to TV Line that he was of two minds about an adaption occuring, and its level of faithfulness to the source material. Well, it seems HBO and Lindelof have communicated since then, because in an interview with IGN, HBO President Casey Bloy expressed that Lindelof’s Watchmen would not be a straight adaption of the material, since that seems impossible, and praised the showrunners work. Does this bode well for Watchmen?
– In Marvel Legacy, Marvel has released teaser images (as is there wont) with the caption “Who are the Avengers of 1,000,000 B.C? The teasers feature art by Mike Deodato and so far have showcased prehistoric versions of Agamotto, Iron Fist, Phoenix, Black Panther, and Starbrand who all will be a part of this original Avengers team, along with Odin and Ghost Rider, who will appear in “Marvel Legacy” #1 by Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic in September. Marvel also confirmed that The Punisher, Frank Castle, will become the new War Machine as revealed in his cover image teaser as part of the original Legacy announcements. No creative team for that series has been announced.
– DC has announced that the upcoming “Suicide Squad: Black Files” has been postponed with plans to resolicit in the future. The series, telling two stories one from Mike W. Barr and Philippe Briones and the other from Jai Nitz and Scot Eaton, was set to feature DC’s first gender queer character in Nitz’ story named, Doctor Endless who was said to be influence by the Endless in “The Sandman.” Bleeding Cool reported that DC ran into some trouble with Neil Gaiman, who has a first look deal on all “Sandman” work, and was hoping to avert conflict. However, the comic has now been completely cancelled ahead of its release in August.
– Dark Horse is set to publish a new “Tomb Raider” four-issue miniseries from the team of Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing (recently announced for “Gotham City Garage”) and artist Ashley A. Woods called “Tomb Raider: Survivor’s Crusade.” The miniseries is a follow up to the recent Tomb Raider video game reboot and takes place after the recently released Rise of the Tomb Raider and before the undated sequel Shadow of the Tomb Raider. In an interview the trio revealed new details for the series, which you can read here, but be aware of spoilers from the game. The first issue is out November 22 with a cover by Hannah Fisher.
– In casting news, Legends of Tomorrow has found its villain for season three in actress Tracy Ifeachor (Quantico). Ifeachor will play Kuasa, revealed to be the villan at CW’s SDCC panel, who is the sister of Mari McCabe’s Vixen and granddaughter of Amaya, played by Maisie Richardson-Sellers on Legends. Kuasa previously appeared as the villain of Vixen on the CW Seed voiced by Anika Noni Rose. Season 3 premieres October 10.
– In more casting news, Judy Greer is confirmed to be making her return to the MCU in Ant-Man and The Wasp. Greer played Scott Lang’s (Paul Rudd) ex-wife in Ant-Man and is the latest addition to the cast after the SDCC announcements of Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet Van Dyne and Laurence Fishburne as Dr. Bill Foster. The sequel recently began filiming in Atlanta and opens in theaters July 6, 2018.
Continued below– The ballot for the first ever Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards was released today after an extension of the nomination process. Professional creators within the industry are allowed to vote with the winners being revealed September 23, 2017 along with Fan-Only Favorites from the nomination ballot and the Hero Initiave Awards at an award ceremony at Baltimore Comic-Con. Wieringo, who passed away in 2007 from a heart attack, was a talented artist known for his work on books like “The Flash” and “Fantastic Four.” You can see the full nomination list here.
– Marvel is in the process of developing a new mobile RPG with the 20th Century Fox game studio Aftershock. Marvel’s Senior VP of Games and Innovation Jay Ong stated,“Aftershock is creating something special and we are thrilled to finally announce this news.” Details are sparse at this moment and no release date has been announced, but look for more as it comes.
– Finally, DC revealed a different creative team on the “Manhunter Special” which is one of the six Jack Kirby one-shots happening in August to celebrate “The King’s” 100th birthday had he still be alive. Mark Buckingham (“Miracleman”) will replace Nick Bradshaw on the main story art still written by Keith Giffen and co, and Steve Rude will replace Klaus Janson on art on the Etrigan the Demon backup written by Sam Humphries. The one-shot is still out August 24th.
