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, Dark Horse unveiled “Black Hammer: Visions,” a spin-off anthology with an all-star line-up of writers. Also, BOOM! announced Maria Llovet’s “Luna,” and we have an exclusive preview of Vault’s “The Devil’s Red Bride” #2, out tomorrow.
– To mark the 40th anniversary of the Flash Gordon movie, King Features launched “Flash Forward,” a new weekly comic strip showcasing a variety of new takes on the character from cartoonists like Pia Guerra (“Y: The Last Man”), Erica Henderson (“The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl”), and Liniers (“Macanudo”). The company also released “Flash Gordon: A Minute to Save the World,” a five-part motion comic, and the first to star the character. Flash Gordon was created by Alex Raymond, and first appeared in print on January 7, 1934.
– Anime News Network reports “Naruto” creator Masashi Kishimoto will take over as writer on the follow-up “Boruto: Naruto Next Generations.” The comic began in 2016 with writer Ukyō Kodachi, and artist Mikio Ikemoto, who will continue to pencil the series when Kishimoto takes over on the 52nd chapter. Kishimoto’s first chapter of “Boruto” will debut in the next issue of V Jump magazine on November 21.
– Syfy Wire unveiled “Marvel’s Voices: Legacy” #1, the third in the company’s anthology specials spinning out of their podcast celebrating diverse characters and storytellers. The comic, which will mark Black History Month in February, will feature stories from writers like Ho Che Anderson, Danny Lore, Nnedi Okorafor, Tochi Onyebuchi, Stephanie Williams, and Mohale Machigo, and art by Sean Hill, Valentine De Landro, Ken Lashley, Chris Allen, and more. More details can be found at Marvel.com.
– Marvel also announced February will see the return of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “Black Panther,” which has been on hiatus since the Diamond shutdown prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic in April. “Black Panther” #23, illustrated by Daniel Acuña and Ryan Bodenheimi, will mark the start of Coates’s final arc. Editor Wil Moss said, “We’re so excited to bring ‘Black Panther’ back to the stands, and we thank all our readers for their patience. I promise, these last three issues will be worth the wait — Ta-Nehisi and Daniel have been building to this finale for over two years now, and the ensuing battle between the forces of T’Challa’s Wakanda and Emperor N’Jadaka’s Intergalactic Empire is going to knock your socks off!”
– Thirdly, at Syfy Wire, Marvel announced “Morbius: Bond of Blood,” a one-shot written by Ralph Macchio with art by Tom Reilly (“X-Men: Marvels Snapshots”). The comic will see Michael Morbius confronting his past when he has to help the son of his first victim, Emil Nikos. Due out in February, the book will coincide with the Jared Leto movie Morbius movie, currently set for release on March 19, 2021.
– Speaking of Syfy, during this week’s People’s Choice Awards, the network’s Wynonna Earp — produced by IDW Entertainment and based on the comic by Beau Smith — was voted the Sci-fi/Fantasy Show of 2020, while the CW’s Riverdale was named the Drama Show of 2020. Cole Sprouse won Male TV Star of the year, and Chris Hemsworth was voted Action Movie Star of the year for Extraction. You can check out the full list of this year’s winners at The Hollywood Reporter.
– Deadline revealed Greg Berlanti and the CW are developing Wonder Girl, a TV series that will star Yara Flor, the Brazilian version of the character being introduced ‘Future State.’ Written by Queen of the South executive producer/co-showrunner Dailyn Rodriguez, the character will be portrayed as a DREAMer whose parents are an Amazonian Warrior, and a Brazilian river god. Joëlle Jones, who is helming the comic “Future State: Wonder Woman,” also took the opportunity to announce on Twitter that she’ll be scripting more adventures for Yara.
– Deadline also reported Creed II director Steven Caple Jr. will helm the next live-action Transformers movie, which will be the Bumblebee follow-up penned by Joby Harold, instead of the Beast Wars reboot Josh Vanderbilt was attached to. An animated prequel film is also in the works with Toy Story 4 director Josh Cooley. And in further Transformers/Marvel news, Hasbro teased an X-Men crossover, which will seemingly introduce an Autobot disguised as the X-Jet.
– Cartoonist Marilyn Hightower is the latest recipient of singer Halsey’s Black Creators Fund. According to Halsey’s social media, the 24-year old Hightower “is currently creating a comedy comic series featuring a cast of supernatural characters living in contemporary times who are finding themselves a bit out of their league in defeating evil. Marilyn aspires to create comics that are compelling, funny, and adventurous, with characters she’s been wanting to see in the spotlight of these genres for years. She works to create Black led, POC led, and LGBTQAI led stories and adventures.” Congratulations to Hightower!
– Finally, video game publisher Microids released a statement apologizing for the state of the newly released remake of XIII, the 2003 first-person shooter based on Jean Van Hamme and William Vance’s Belgian comic. “In its present state, XIII does not meet our quality standards and we fully understand players’ frustrations,” they said. “The pandemic has impacted the game’s production on many levels. Pivoting to home working for the teams has added unexpected delays in the development schedule and the QA process. We hoped we would be able to provide a Day One patch fixing all the issues but the development of this update is taking more time than expected. We want to assure you that [developer] PlayMagic is working hard to solve all the game’s issues.”
