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 Comics announced a Captain America crossover event called ‘Cold War’ with a teaser by Paco Medina. The teaser image was accompanied by text which detailed that the “secret origin” of Steve Rogers’s shield will be revealed, the villains White Wolf and Crossbones will get their revenge, and that Nomad will return, although it was not specified if this will be the Jack Monroe or Ian Rogers incarnation of the character. The Medina artwork is set to feature as two interconnecting variants for “Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty” #5 and “Captain America: Symbol of Truth” #6 in October, ahead of ‘Cold War’ itself in Spring 2023.
– Megan Huang’s “Rangers of the Divide” will be getting a sequel series this October, subtitled “Into the Depths,” it was announced. The first series followed a group of new dragon-riding Rangers on their first mission under the stewardship of Commander Arick Knight; the sequel is set to chronicle the Rangers “struggling with the loss of their teammate and the perceived betrayal of their commander,” as well as what the life as Rangers really will be like. The first issue of “Rangers of the Divide: Into the Depths” is scheduled for release by Dark Horse Comics on October 26.
– Publishers Weekly reported that Scholastic/Graphix acquired “Status,” a graphic novel by the creative team of writers Crystal Luxmore and Conor McCreery, and artists Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb. The graphic novel will be targeting a middle-grade audience and be based on Luxmore’s own life; it will follow Crystal, who becomes a “nobody” after moving from a small town to a big city, while the voice in her head (dubbed Dark Crystal), calling for her to become the popular girl she was in their old town, gets louder and louder. Scholastic/Graphix currently have “Status” scheduled for a 2024 release.
– An unexpected “pivot” in the direction of webcomic publisher, Tapas Media, was reported, with an unspecified number of staff let go from the company, many of whom were believed to be a large portion, if not all, of the US executive team; this is due to South Korean parent company, Kakao Entertainment, seeking to move Tapas’s central operations away from the US. Reports have indicated that this “pivot” is also likely to have an impact on the publishing output of the company with the focus moving to user-generated content from professional content. Kakoa purchased Tapas in May 2021, with the parent company only announcing a merger with prose publisher Radish Media and wuxia publisher Wuxiaworld in May 2022.
– Issaka Galadima and Frederick L. Jones’s shonen manga series, “Clock Striker,” is set to get a physical release next year. Since its debut in 2017 until now, “Clock Striker” has only been released digitally as part of Saturday AM. “Clock Striker” follows Cast, who is considered to be the genre’s first Black female hero, as she seeks to becoming a member of the Smiths, a legendary group of warrior engineers; Cast has built her own robotic arm, which can be used as a laboratory, as well as a weapon that can shoot out lightning. The first collection of Cast’s adventures will consist of 224 pages and be published by Rockport Publishers on February 7, 2023.
– A distribution deal with Cinedigm was signed by writer Matteo Pizzolo, with Godkiller set to be remastered and released by Cinedigm as a result. First released in 2011, Godkiller: Walk Among Us is an animated adaptation of Pizzolo’s comic series of the same name, which was co-created by artist Anna Muckcracker Wieszczyk. Pizzolo wrote and directed the adaptation. This announcement comes hot on the heels of the reveal that Black Mask Comics will be launching a video games division with a video game based on “Godkiller.” Release dates for the remastered version of Godkiller: Walk Among Us and the video game have not been revealed, but in the meantime “Godkiller” fans can enjoy the latest volume of the series, “Tomorrow’s Ashes,” which started releasing on July 7, with a fourth volume (subtitled “Spiderland”) set to follow in the fall.
Continued below– Apple TV+ released a trailer for the upcoming Lucy’s School, an original “Peanuts” special. The trailer shows the “Peanuts” gang facing up to the prospects of starting their new school at the end of the summer, with Lucy seeking to start her own classes for her friends and take on the role of the teacher, bringing a new perspective to the hardships of the role to her. The special is based on Charles M. Schulz’s comic strip and was written by Craig Schulz, Bryan Schulz, and Cornelius Uliano. Lucy’s School is set to premiere on Apple TV+ on August 12 alongside the next batch of episodes in the second season of The Snoopy Show. You can check out a trailer for Lucy’s School here.
– Vulture compiled a ranking of the 30 best superhero cartoons from the last three decades to provide audiences with a list of reliable recommendations. The top 10 range hugely in style, source, and decade, with comic book adaptations such as Batman: The Animated Series and Invincible featured alongside original entries such as The Powerpuff Girls and Steven Universe. Head over to Vulture to see the comprehensive list.
– Finally, Nichelle Nichols, the actress who played Nyota Uhura in Star Trek: The Original Series, died of natural causes at the age of 89, her son Kyle Johnson disclosed. Nichols’s role on the show was enormously important in the history of African Americans on TV, with her role marking one of the first prominent roles for a Black woman on a primetime TV series; Mae Jamison, the first Black woman to travel into space, stated that Lt. Uhura was a source of inspiration to her, as did Whoopi Goldberg, who went on to play the role of Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Nichols later went on to serve as a volunteer at NASA to aid their programs, and to encourage the recruitment of diverse astronauts. Johnson stated that “Her light… like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration.”
