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, Scout Comics and the production company Mucho Mas Media launched the Latinx imprint Chispa Comics, and a school district in Houston has banned Cathy G. Johnson’s graphic novel “The Breakaways” due to its inclusion of a transgender character. We also had an exclusive preview of Marvel’s “Shang-Chi” #5.
– Louise and Walter Simonson are set to return to “X-Men Legends” for a story set during Louise Simonson’s classic “New Mutants” run. The pair previously collaborated on “X-Men Legends” #3 and #4 earlier this year, and for their return in #11 they’re bringing one of Louise’s most notable contributions to X-Men canon: Apocalypse. The story finds Apocalypse looking for his next horseman among the ranks of the young mutants, with Caliban, Pestilence, and War leading the hunt. The report also notes that February’s “X-Men Legends” #12 will bring back another icon of the X-office, with Chris Claremont taking over the title for a story set during his original run on “Excalibur.” “X-Men Legends” #11 goes on sale January 26, 2022.
– Archie Comics are planning a series of short “throwback” stories to headline the return of “Archie Milestones Digest” in January. Each issue will focus in on a different decade, led by new five-page stories featuring the “fashion, technology, and cultural events” of the spotlighted era. First up is the 1960s, with a new story from writer Tom DeFalco and artist Jeff Schultz that finds the Archies heading to Woodstock. “Archie Milestones Digest” #13 rocks out on January 26, 2022, with four additional issues scheduled for release throughout the year.
– WandaVision breakout Kathryn Hahn has a spinoff in development from Disney+. Via Variety, Hahn would reprise her role as Agatha Harkness for the project, which would reunite her with WandaVision head writer Jac Schaeffer if it goes forward. This would be the first project for Schaeffer under the overall deal she signed with Marvel Studios and 20th Television earlier this year. Variety didn’t have any details on the plot for the potential series, but sources told them it would be pitched as a dark comedy. As usual for any projects in development, Marvel Studios has yet to comment on the story.
– DC Comics has postponed the one-shot “Batman/Catwoman Special,” the last known work from the late artist John Paul Leon. Via Newsarama, the Christmas-themed special was to be a standalone complement to the “Batman/Catwoman” maxiseries by Tom King, Clay Mann, Tomeu Morey and Liam Sharp. It would have been a reunion for Leon and King, as the pair had previously earned an Eisner nomination for their short story ‘Black Death in America.’ Leon sadly passed away midway through his work on the issue earlier this year, prompting DC to delay the book’s release from July 20 to December 29. DC has now postponed the title indefinitely, although they have told retailers the book will be resolicited at a later date.
– Comics writer Zeb Wells reportedly participated in the writers room for the upcoming Disney+ series She-Hulk. Via ComicBook.com, Wells’s involvement in the series was revealed by Marvel editor Nick Lowe in the editorial section of “The Amazing Spider-Man” #75. That issue kicks off the book’s new thrice-monthly release schedule, which will feature a round robin of writers including both Wells and his fellow She-Hulk writer Cody Ziglar. Per Lowe, Wells was instrumental in bringing Ziglar to the project, recommending him to Lowe after being impressed by his work in the writers’ room. She-Hulk, which stars Tatiana Maslany in the titular role, also stars Jameela Jamil, Josh Segarra, and Renee Elise Goldsberry, with Mark Ruffalo and Tim Roth reprising their roles as Bruce Banner and Abomination respectively. Created by Jessica Gao, the show is eyeing a 2022 premiere.
– A spooky new visitor is coming to Riverdale next season. Via Entertainment Weekly, Kiernan Shipka will reprise her role as Sabrina Spellman from Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina in season 6 of Riverdale, which is currently in production. Warner Bros. TV shared a picture on Twitter of Shipka on the Riverdale set, offering a first look at the upcoming crossover that is set to occur in the episode “The Witching Hour(s).” The episode will see Sabrina coming to town to aid Cheryl Blossom as she performs a dangerous spell that could mean the difference between life and death for one of her family members. This will be Shipka’s first reprisal of the role since Chilling Adventures of Sabrina wrapped on Netflix with a final holiday special at the end of last year.
Continued below– Fans are objecting to the reveal that the Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics video game Marvel’s Avengers has incorporated “pay-to-win” elements to the game in its recent update. Via ComicBook.com, the complaints hinge on the addition of consumable items like XP and resource boosts to the in-game marketplace, which also follows the developers’ move to increase the amount of XP required to level up. As players noted on social media, that combination of decisions allows players to pay to jump past the normal game progression, while other players must work harder to see progress in the game.
– Jake Gyllenhaal is set to star in an adaptation of the indie comic series “Prophet” by Rob Liefeld. Via ComicBook.com, Gyllenhaal is in final talks for the film, which will be helmed by Sam Hargrave (Extraction) from a script by Arrow creator and comic book writer Marc Guggenheim. Starting off as a character in “Youngblood” before anchoring his own solo series, John Prophet is a homeless man who volunteered to be experimented on by a time-travelling scientist from the future. The project is currently in development at the production company Studio 8 (Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, White Boy Rick) and has yet to be shopped to a studio for distribution.
– Modiphius Entertainment, the company behind the TTRPG Star Trek Adventures, is partnering with IDW for a playable supplement based on the comic series “Star Trek Year Five.” The 26-page digital release features content pulled from the comic, which follows the USS Enterprise during the final year of its five-year mission under Captain Kirk. The supplement details two new factions and three new character lifepath options (including Tholians and I’Qosa), as well as twelve NPCs and five starships for players to incorporate into their games. The new materials are available on Modiphius and on DriveThruRPG.
– Reporters Without Borders (RSF) have condemned the detention of Tanzanian cartoonist Optatus Fwema after the artist posted a cartoon of President Samia Suluhu to his Instagram. The offending cartoon casts Suluhu, who took over in March following the death of President John Magufuli in March, as a small girl splashing in a basin of water while her mentor Jakaya Kikwete reassures the public. This is the latest move in a series of crackdowns on free speech in the country, including the suspension of a newspaper that reported negative news about the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party, and multiple speeches by government ministers calling for crackdowns on criticisms and insults levied at the government through the press and social media. Fwema has not been formally charged, although Tanzanian law allows him to be held for more than 48 hours without bringing charges.
