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 have an exclusive preview of next week’s “Daredevil: Gang War” #1.
– “Griz Grobus” will be available in trade paperback for the first time this June. Written by Simon Roy and Jess Pollard, with art from Roy, “Griz Grobus” began life as a Webtoon, before a successful 2021 Kickstarter funded a hardcover edition. The book depicts life during the collapse of a great interstellar empire, with the action taking place on the frontier planet Altamira. The story is told via two stories, one about a young scribe seeking adventure, and the other is a fantasy novel from Altamira about a war god trapped in the body of a goose. “Griz Grobus” is set in the same universe as Roy’s earlier “Habitat” series, though it is notably more optimistic in tone. The trade will be available from Image, hitting bookstore shelves on June 4, and comic shops the following day.
– Steven S. DeKnight, who served as showrunner for Daredevil and Spartacus, has written a new supernatural detective graphic novel, due out from Humanoids in 2024. “Hard Bargain” blends elements of horror and hard boiled detective fiction, following LA private eye and demon hunter Frank Harding, whose latest case not only recalls his own past, but the city’s history of bigotry. Leno Carvalho provides art, with Bruno Hang handling colors, and Troy Peteri lettering. “Hard Bargains” is set to hit shelves in August.
– The AFI Awards released their list of the Top 10 Motion Pictures and Top 10 Television Programs of the Year. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse cracked the Top 10 Motion Pictures list, which its predecessor Into the Spider-Verse was unable to do in 2018. The animated feature is honored alongside Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro, and of course both Barbie and Oppenheimer. The Last of Us picked up a spot on the Television Program list, placing it alongside Succession, Reservation Dogs, and The Bear. The AFI Awards ceremony will be held on January 12, during Academy Award voting.
– The Hollywood Creative Alliance (HCA) released their list of Astra Award nominations. Barbie and Oppenheimer garnered the most awards (15 and 14 respectively), but Across the Spider-Verse was in third place with 10, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 picked up six nominations, including Best Action Feature (alongside The Killer.) Nimona grabbed a Best Animated Feature nod alongside Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, and Across the Spider-Verse. The winners will be revealed on January 6.
– Finally, last night were the Game Awards 2023. Despite eight nominations, including Game of the Year, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 walked away empty handed, losing the top prize to Baldur’s Gate 3, while Alan Wake 2 beat it to Best Direction and Best Narrative, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom edged it out for Best Action/Adventure Game. During the event, we were treated to a trailer for Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO, a new “Dragon Ball” game from Bandai Namco that uses the gameplay of Budokai Tenkaichi, letting players master an extensive roster, each with their own signature abilities and transformations. We also got another trailer for Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, due out February 2, giving us gameplay footage, and a sneak peak at the boss battles against DC’s iconic heroes.
Last but not least, Bethesda Softworks and Arkane Lyon announced their latest project: Marvel’s Blade. Bethesda are best known for The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series, as well as (more recently) Starfield. Arkane Lyon, best known for Deathloop and the Dishonored series, will handle developement. Not much is known about the game, other than it will be a mature, third-person single-player action title, set in a quarantined section of Paris. You can watch the teaser trailer here.
