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.
ICYMI, AfterShock announced Steve Orlando and Andy MacDonald’s political crime thriller “Bulls of Beacon Hill.”
– Via ComicBook.com, Skybound announced major plans to mark the 20th anniversary of “Invincible” next year. The first issue of the violent superhero series, which was created by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley, will receive black-and-white and color reprints, while the trade paperbacks will be reprinted in an all-new 6″x9″ format with covers from the artists of the animated series. The series will also be recollected in a hardcover series, “Invincible Compendium,” which will be exclusive to comic book stores, while an “Invincible Universe Compendium” will reprint the various spin-offs.
– Via Bleeding Cool, Rocketship Entertainment announced that Warren Ellis will contribute to a graphic novel anthology based on the 1930s radio horror show Lights Out. Rocketship publisher Tom Akel told the site, “We have been following statements and updates by both SMOU [So Many of Us, the site founded by Ellis’s victims] and Warren. Based on those, which state that Warren has been engaged with the mediator since August of 2021, that SMOU has reiterated that there is no will to ‘cancel’ him, and that the majority of SMOU have found peace and have moved forward, we will be publishing a short story by Warren Ellis in next year’s ‘Lights Out’ anthology.” At the time of writing, So Many Of Us’s representatives did not respond to Bleeding Cool’s request for comment.
– In a Twitter thread, cartoonist Hannah Good revealed she has started a fellowship at The Washington Post to expand the paper’s comics journalism. In a strip posted through the thread, Good (who is an editor at the Post) explains how she wanted to give other journalists who love art the opportunity to create reports via the medium of comics. “In short,” it’s her dream job, and you can expect a lot more graphic journalism from the paper within the next eight months.
– Titan Comics announced “Astroneer: Countdown,” a graphic novel series on the sandbox space adventure game Astroneer. “The graphic novel adventure follows friendly Astroneer Seven as he ventures into the Boreas System. What begins as an epic quest to gather crucial resources turns into a crisis of identity and belonging. Will the discovery of the mysterious time-and-space bending crystals rescue Seven from his troubles, or will they only cause more chaos?” The first volume, due out March 2023, contains four stories, written respectively by Dave Dwonch, David Pepose, Jeremy Lawson, and M. Goodwin, with art by Xenia Pamfil, Eryk Donovan, Jeremy Lawson, and Goodwin themself.
– Dark Horse Comics announced a new installment of the Plants vs. Zombies graphic novels, “Plants vs. Zombies: Impfestation,” written by Paul Tobin, with art by Cat Farris, colors by Heather Breckel, and lettering by Steve Dutro. The synopsis states the book will see pirate Chestbeard asking Patrice, Nate, and Crazy Dave for help clearing an infestation of zombie imps aboard his ship. It will be released in bookstores on June 13, 2023, and comics shops the next day.
– In a preview/interview at Angry Asian Man, “Girl Taking Over: A Lois Lane Story” writer Sarah Kuhn revealed Ms. Lane will be portrayed as a biracial Japanese American in the upcoming graphic novel. “I was always desperately searching for some tiny scrap of representation in the stories I loved and Lois had dark hair, so sometimes I’d fantasize that she was Asian American — like me,” Kuhn commented. The YA graphic novel exploring Lois’s early years, featuring art by Arielle Jovellanos, will be released in April 2023. The mainstream iteration of Lois was previously established as having a non-white Hispanic mother in 2014’s one-shot “Superman: Lois Lane.”
– Marvel Studios have delayed several upcoming films in the wake of Blade reboot director Bassam Tariq’s departure from the project. Blade itself has been pushed back a year from November 2023 to September 6, 2024, which has in turn delayed Deadpool 3 to November 8, 2024, and the Fantastic Four reboot to February 14, 2025. Avengers: Secret Wars, meanwhile, was moved from November 2025 to May 1, 2026, meaning there will now be a whole year between it and Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Neither Blade or Secret Wars have a director attached at this time.
Continued below– Via Deadline, Sydney Sweeney will star in and executive produce a new Barbarella movie at Sony Pictures. Ostensibly a remake of the 1968 camp classic starring Jane Fonda, itself based on the erotic French comics series by Jean-Claude Forest, the movie will presumably see Sweeney portray the space adventurer of the title. Sweeney, the Emmy-nominated star of Euphoria and The White Lotus, is also set to appear in Sony’s Madame Web movie.
– BET+ acquired the rights to Trill League, an animated series based on Anthony Piper’s superhero webcomic of the same name. The series follows a team of Black superheroes as they deal with haters and their own personal issues as well as monsters and supervillains. Piper is writing the animated version with Leann Bowen, the Emmy Award-winning co-executive producer of Ted Lasso. The project was previously in development at Quibi, and is being produced by 50 Cent’s G-Unit Film & Television, among others.
– Finally, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts director Steven Caple Jr. revealed on social media that Michelle Yeoh and Pete Davidson have joined the film’s voice cast. Yeoh will play Airazor, while Davidson will voice Mirage. While no details were provided for their characters, in the TV series, Airazor was a heroic Maximal falcon, while Mirage was an Autobot race car. Rise of the Beasts, also featuring Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime, and Ron Perlman as Optimus Primal, releases on June 9, 2023.
