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.
– The Hugo Awards were held over the weekend at the Chengdu Worldcon, the 81st World Science Fiction Convention, on October 21. “Cyberpunk 2077: Big City Dreams” won Best Graphic Story or Comic, beating out the likes of “Monstress,” “Saga,” and “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.” Originally released as a digital exclusive in 2020, before landing in print courtesy of Dark Horse in 2022, the 64-page one-shot follows two scavengers trying to make a living in Night City. It was created by Bartosz Sztybor, Filipe Andrade, Alessio Fioriniello, Roman Titov, and Krzysztof Ostrowski. For the rest of the year’s winners, head to the link.
– Marvel announced a fourth “Edge of Spider-Verse” series, beginning February 22. The first issue of the four-part series will include a new Spider-Byte story by writer/co-creator Nilah Magruder and artist Eric Gapstur, and the introduction of Weapon VIII, a variant of Spider-Man from Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing and Travel Foreman. In his universe, Weapon VIII was the Weapon Plus program’s greatest achievement, and here we will see him be called in during Weapon X/Wolverine’s escape after his adamantium procedure.
– Marvel also announced a collaboration with Hasbro for a Magic: The Gathering card set, starring the House of Ideas’ characters. “The first tentpole Magic set based on Marvel’s fan-favorite characters and epic stories will appear globally in 2025, with additional all-new exciting sets for multi-generational fans to collect and play.” Other properties in Magic’s Universes Beyond line have included Transformers, Dungeons & Dragons, “The Walking Dead,” Stranger Things, The Lord of the Rings, Jurassic World, and Doctor Who.
– Furthermore, Disney+ released the trailer for LEGO Marvel Avengers: Code Red, a new special releasing this week. The cartoon sees Earth’s Mightiest recruit Wolverine (voiced again by Steve Blum) after the Collector kidnaps Black Widow’s father Red Guardian. While only the latest in a long line of LEGO Marvel miniseries and short films since 2013’s video game tie-in Marvel Super Heroes: Maximum Overload, Code Red marks the series’ first Disney+ exclusive. It will arrive on Friday, October 27.
– Vault announced Sanji, a line of manga homage variant covers, drawn by artist Angela Wu, and designed by Tim Daniel (Vault’s Executive Vice President of Branding & Design.) The covers will accompany the first issue of every new Vault series in 2024, and begin with a homage to “Berserk” on next month’s “Barbaric: Wrong Kind of Righteous” #1. Also revealed were a Junji Ito homage for Angie Hewitt’s “Lone” #1, and a “Pluto” homage for Peter Milligan and Amalas Rosa’s currently unannounced title.
– Finally, Dark Horse issued a press release for the all-ages “Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories” graphic novels announced at New York Comic Con, revealing the line-up will spotlight characters like Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Mace Windu, Rey, General Grievous, Kylo Ren, and Darth Vader. It will kick off with an 80-page “Qui-Gon” graphic novel, written by George Mann with art by Andrea Mutti and Gigi Baldassini, which will be released just in time for The Phantom Menace‘s 25th anniversary on April 23, 2024. Other writers will include Cecil Castellucci (who’s writing an “Obi-Wan” book), Justina Ireland, and Michael Moreci, while Michael Cho will provide covers for the whole series.
