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, we had an exclusive preview of “Captain Marvel” #21.
– Viz Media will officially be releasing Minoji Kurata’s Assassin’s Creed manga in English early next year. “Assassin’s Creed: Blade of Shao Jun” follows Shao Jun, the last assassin in China during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), as she flees to Europe before eventually returning home for revenge. “Blade of Shao Jun” is the second manga set in the Assassin’s Creed universe, following “Assassin’s Creed: Awakening” in August 2013, but is the first with a wholly original plotline. The series was originally released digitally as “Assassin’s Creed: China” in October 2019, but will carry its new title for its English release on February 16, 2021. Shao Jun has also previously appeared in the game Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China, and the short film Assassin’s Creed: Embers.
– We got our first look at DC’s upcoming “Wonder Women of History” anthology OGN, set to release this December 1. The comic will feature the talent of writers like Vita Ayala, Lilah Sturges, Traci Sorell and more, as well as artists including Nicole Goux, Wendy Xu and Marguerite Dabaie. The anthology spotlights 17 impactful women in the modern day including Elizabeth Warren, Serena Williams, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and many more. The comic will also feature portraits by Colleen Doran and Ashley A. Woods, among others. “Wonder Women of History” was assembled by editor Laurie Halse Anderson, and will retail for US$16.99.
– Koyama Press, the publisher behind “Trio Magnus: Equally Superior,” “When I Arrived At The Castle” and “Cat Person,” has announced that this will be its last year of publishing, but that it will spend this last period giving out grants to artists and creators in need. The Toronto-based publisher had previously been doing giveaways on its social media platforms, which quickly evolved into full-blown arts funding, ranging from CN$200 micro-grants to CN$15,000. Koyama has expressed interest on continuing this process in 2021 with a new organisation.
– This week saw the release of the first ever Nielsen top ten streaming shows list, with established series like Shameless, The Office, Grey’s Anatomy and NCIS trailing behind The Umbrella Academy, clearly the most popular show on air currently. From August 3 to August 9, viewers watched 3 billion minutes of The Umbrella Academy, which is three times as much as the next competing series. However, it has to be emphasized that the series only measures viewership on Netflix, meaning results could be skewed by other leading streaming service such as Amazon Prime, Disney+ or the recent HBO Max.
– Matt Reeves’s The Batman has announced it will have to halt filming in London again, after lead actor Robert Pattinson tested positive for COVID-19. Filming had only resumed for three days after its five-month hiatus. It was confirmed late last month that the film had finished roughly a quarter of filming before this second shutdown. There’s been no word as of yet on if this will affect the film’s 2021 release date.
– Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki has been honored with the Kawakita Award, an accolade celebrating “movies that continue to move and inspire generations of people to dream, and earn acclaim both in Japan and abroad.” Miyazaki became the 38th annual Kawakita Award winner on August 26. Despite his repeated promises to retire, Miyazaki has consistently returned to direct his award-winning animated features, including My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away, Ponyo, and the upcoming How Do You Live?
– This year will herald in the first ever Star Trek Day on September 8, the 54th anniversary of the first episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. CBS All Access will be holding a digital celebration with announcements concerning Star Trek: Discovery, Picard, Strange New Worlds, and Lower Decks, as well as reunions for the cast of Deep Space Nine, The Original Series, Enterprise and Voyager. In addition to the online panels, CBS will be organizing a TV marathon, online flash sales, and a trivia competition.
Continued below– Mo Welch’s comic strip “Blair” is getting an adaptation at HBO Max from comedian and producer Chelsea Handler. “Blair” follows the eponymous protagonist after she accidentally burns her apartment down, gets demoted at her work, and has to move back in with her mother. The comic strip will be adapted into a comedy series with 30-minute episodes. The series will be executive produced by Handler and Rachel Polan. Blair was also announced alongside Handler’s new series Wiped Out at Peacock.
– The Black Mask comic “Four Kids Walk Into a Bank” is getting a film adaptation at Picturestart from screenwriter Matthew Robinson. The original series by Matthew Rosenberg and Tyler Boss follows a group of disenfranchised pre-teens, who decide to rob a bank so that one of their parents doesn’t go to jail for attempting it himself. The film project will be overseen by Jessica Switch and Royce Reeves Darby from Picturestart and Matt Pizzolo of Black Mask, with Rosenberg and Boss serving as co-producers. No further details have been released as of yet.
– Finally, Marvel’s Cindy Moon, aka Silk, is set to get her own TV series at Sony from writer Lauren Moon and executive producers Phil Lord, Chris Miller and Amy Pascal. This would act as the first in a line of Spider-Man centered TV series developed by Lord and Miller for Sony Entertainment. The live-action series has no set platform as of yet, though Amazon is currently the most likely option. Silk had previously been rumoured in 2018 to appear in a solo film, then as part of a team film featuring Silk, Spider-Gwen and Spider-Woman. Writer Lauren Moon has previously worked on Atypical and Good Trouble, and like the series’ protagonist, she is Korean-American.
