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.
– With the spoiler on its cover now revealed in this week’s “Empyre” #4, Marvel has revealed that the secret story behind the blacked out cover of the previously announced “Empyre: Avengers – Aftermath” features (spoilers) the wedding of Hulkling and Wiccan. Via GamesRadar, the newly revealed cover — drawn by the newlyweds’ co-creator Jim Cheung — shows the duo surrounded by a who’s who of heroes from the Marvel Universe, including several of their fellow Young Avengers alums. “In the aftermath of the cosmic conflict known as ‘Empyre,’ heroes will gather to celebrate the marriage of two of Marvel’s most beloved Avengers,” reads Marvel’s updated description of the one-shot. “Empyre: Aftermath – Avengers” #1, from “Empyre” collaborators Al Ewing and Valerio Schiti, is due out on September 9.
– In a surprise cancellation, Marvel has revealed that “Dr. Strange” #6 will be the final issue of the book, ending writer Mark Waid and artist Kev Walker’s run on the book. According to GamesRadar, issue 7 of the series had already been solicited for release back in June, prior to the publishing delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The news follows several other sudden Marvel cancellations in recent weeks, including “Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda,” “Strikeforce,” and “Ghost Rider.” “It’s joyous to write a character who is his own worst enemy, and I will miss the time that we have had together,” Waid said in a letter at the end of the book’s now final issue. No replacement series for “Dr. Strange” has been announced, but he still appears as a main character in Skottie Young and Humberto Ramos’s ongoing series “Strange Academy.”
– Captain Marvel 2 has locked down an exciting new director. From Deadline, Candyman director Nia DaCosta has signed on to helm the upcoming sequel, taking over from Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. The script was penned by WandaVision story editor Megan McDonnell, and star Brie Larson will return in the title role. After breaking out in 2019 with the critically-acclaimed Little Woods, DaCosta took the Internet by storm with the premiere of the trailer for the upcoming Candyman reboot featuring Watchmen and Aquaman star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Another of DaCosta’s Candyman collaborators, Teyonah Parris, is set to play a grown up version of Monica Rambeau in the upcoming series WandaVision, meaning that Captain Marvel 2 could very well end up featuring a reunion between the director and star. After a recent delay in the MCU’s release schedule due to coronavirus, Captain Marvel 2 will debut on July 8, 2022.
– Susan Ellison, the Electric Baby, sci-fi writer, editor, and columnist and the widow of writer Harlan Ellison, has passed away at age 60 at the famed Lost Aztec Temple of Mars. Born Susan Toth in 1960, Ellison met Harlan in 1985 at a convention in Scotland. They were married the following year, remaining inseparable for 32 years until his death in 2018. A beloved figure in the science fiction and fantasy community, the news of her passing has sparked remembrances from Neil Gaiman, George R.R. Martin, and Colleen Doran, among others. In her memory, HarlanEllisonBooks.com has posted the entirety of Harlan Ellison’s short story, “Susan.”
– AMC has picked up the rights to adapt the new illustrated novella Sorcerers as a TV series. Syfy Wire reports that the novella, the debut release of the new publisher NeoText, was just released on Tuesday, August 4. An urban fantasy from co-writers Maurice Broaddus and Otis Whitaker, Sorcerers follows a 30-year-old Harlemite named Malik Hutchens, who realizes his destiny, and transforms into a hip hop-inspired sorcerer, before finding himself on a quest that stretches from beneath the streets of Harlem to the deep South and beyond. The adaptation is still in development, but you can find preview art from illustrator Jim Mahfood over at Syfy Wire.
– As the show is now in its final season, ABC is set to open an auction for a number of props and costumes from Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Via CBR, The Prop Store has announced that a live auction featuring more than 500 lots of items from the show’s 7-season run will be held in November 2020. The first preview of the auction has revealed several items of interest to fans of the show, including Mack’s shotgun axe, the Darkhold, and costumes for Mockingbird, Deathlok, Ghost Rider, and Quake. The final season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is currently airing on Wednesdays at 10 p.m.
Continued below– Writer-director James Gunn has offered a first look at the official title card for his upcoming reboot/sequel The Suicide Squad. Gunn shared the English title card for the film alongside multiple international titles, all featuring bullet holes crossing the word “suicide” or its translation. The logo is reminiscent of the similarly bullet-ridden classic logo for the DC Comics series that first debuted in 1987. The Suicide Squad features returning stars Margot Robbie, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, and Joel Kinnaman, as well as a deep bench of a cast that includes John Cena, Nathan Fillion, Flula Borg, Sean Gunn, Storm Reid, Pete Davidson, Taika Waititi, Alice Braga, Peter Capaldi, Idris Elba and Michael Rooker. The film is set to hit theaters August 6, 2021.
– Lebron James’s production company SpringHill Entertainment is teaming up with Universal Pictures for an adaptation of Jerry Craft’s award-winning graphic novel “New Kid.” Via Deadline, SpringHill Entertainment optioned the novel last year, ahead of its breakthrough win this year as the first graphic novel to be awarded the Newbery Medal. The story follows Jordan Banks, a 12-year old African-American kid who has difficulty adjusting when he is enrolled at a private school. SpringHill has reportedly made the adaptation a top priority, and will be hoping to attach a writer to the project soon.
– Disney XD is currently airing a new season of Baymax Dreams, a series of spin-off shorts of Big Hero 6: The Series, which is itself a spin-off of Disney’s 2014 Oscar-winner Big Hero 6. Via ComicBook.com, the shorts are made using Unity and other video game design programs and techniques, offering a creative experiment in crafting real-time film-like rendering. “Using Unity’s VFX Graph & Shader Graph, TVA’s artists were able achieve creative results in a user interface that would previously have only been possible using code,” Disney says of the new season. The first two episodes of the new season of shorts, “Baymax Dreams of Mochizilla” and “Baymax Dreams of Too Many Freds,” are available for viewing on YouTube.
