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.
– It looks like Jane Foster’s run as Thor will be coming to an end with March’s “The Mighty Thor” #705. The current arc is called ‘The Death of the Mighty Thor,’ so it’s not a huge surprise. Marvel says that Jane will “make the ultimate heroic sacrifice” in her fight against Mangog. Jane Foster has been in the role of Thor ever since 2014’s “Original Sin,” where Odinson/Original Thor became unworthy of his hammer, Mjolnir. “The Mighty Thor” #705, by the regular creative team of Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman, and Matt Wilson, comes out on March 21, 2018.
– Francis Manapul is asking for help on social media to identify a suspect in his sister-in-law’s murder. 22-year-old Tess Richey went missing on November 25, 2017, before her body was found near a construction site three days later. She is one of at least eight people that have gone missing in the same area in Toronto since the start of 2017. Three have been found alive, one other is dead, and three are still missing.
– In some more cheerful news out of Toronto, local publisher Dirty Water Comics is getting ready to release “Christie Pits,” an original graphic novel based on the 1933 riot at the Christie Pits baseball diamond in Toronto. The riot broke out after a baseball team full of Nazi sympathizers beat a predominantly Jewish team in a semifinal game. The book is written by Dirty Water Comics founder Jamie Michaels, and illustrated by Winnipegger Doug Fedrau.
– March solicits are coming out, so that means new series announcements as well. Image will debut “Prism Stalker,” a “bio-punk” series from writer/artist Slaone Leong. Marvel and comiXology announced “Avengers: Back to Basics,” the next exclusive comiXology Originals series written by Peter David, with art by Brian Level and Juanan Ramirez. And Top Cow made the “Cyber Force” reboot official with a release date in March. The series will be co-written by Top Cow regular Bryan Hill and publisher Matt Hawkins, and drawn by Atilio Rojo.
– Marvel also announced that some new prose novels are coming via YA author Mackenzi Lee. Lee will be writing a three-book Historical Fiction series centering on the Marvel Universe’s anti-heros, with the first novel focusing on Loki. No other plot details are known at this time.
– Warner Bros. gave an update on its upcoming DC film slate at a panel during Comic Con Experience 2017 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. On the list of confirmed films were the obvious Wonder Woman sequel and Aquaman, as well as Flashpoint, Suicide Squad 2, Shazam, Batgirl, Green Lantern Corps, The Batman, and Justice League Dark. Noticeably absent were Cyborg, Deathstroke, Gotham City Sirens, Harley Quinn, Joker & Harley Quinn, Nightwing, and the Martin Scorsese Joker film.
– Also out of Brazil’s Comic Con Experience 2017, some new details about The New Mutants were revealed at the Fox panel. There’s nothing revelatory, but director Josh Boone and company talked about things like how Bill Sienkiewicz consulted on the script, and that Warlock will show up in the sequel (if it still even happens).
– Speaking of the potential fallout from the Fox/Disney sale, Logan director James Mangold voiced his concerns with how Disney may handle Fox allowing R-ratings in their major franchise films. On the possibility of not releasing rated-R films, Mangold said, “If they’re actually changing their mandate, if what they’re supposed to do alters, that would be sad to me because it just means less movies.”
– The Walking Dead midseason finale revealed a surprising main character’s impending exit, and a relative of the actor who plays that character is not happy about how it was handled by the showrunners. Saying anything else is a major spoiler so just click through if you really want to know.
