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. And Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
– News surfaced yesterday that Jude Law (Sherlock Holmes, Alfie) has been cast in next year’s Captain Marvel, opposite Brie Larson (Short Term 12, Kong: Skull Island). Law will be playing Doctor Walter Lawson a.k.a Mar-vell, the original Captain Marvel in the comics. Mar-Vell is among the very small numbers of superheroes who have died and remained as such. Law’s Mar-vell will reportedly be acting as a mentor to Brie’s Carol Danvers in the film, which will be set in the ’90s before any of the MCU films to date have occurred. Captain Marvel is set to be released in theater’s March 8, 2019.
– Top Cow fans rejoice! Image Comics imprint Top Cow announced via Twitter yesterday the return of three of their most popular series of the past two and a half decades. “Cyber Force,” “Aphrodite V,” and “The Darkness” will all be back on shelves in 2018. Creative teams were not yet revealed but writer and Top Cow Productions president Matt Hawkins (“Aphrodite IX,” “Postal”) tweeted he and artist Marc Silvestri (“X-Men,” “Cyber Force”) are working on a new take on “The Darkness.” Along with these three, the popular Top Cow Productions series, “Witchblade,” will be returning next month on December 6 with art by Roberta Ingrata (“Grimm Fairy Tales,” “Van Helsing vs. Frankenstein”) and Caitlin Kittredge (“Coffin Hill,” “Throwaways”) serving as writer.
– Writer Tom King (“Grayson,” “Sherif of Babylon”) has been working on DC’s Rebirth “Batman” title for over a year and he is just now introducing his very first original villain for issue #38. King took to Twitter on Monday in order to clear up some confusion concerning the solicitations for “Batman” #38, which had previously featured art by Joelle Jones (“Lady Killer,” “You Have Killed Me”) which was part of King’s next story arc ‘Superfriends.’ It will now feature art by Travis Moore (“Fables: The Wolf Among Us,” “Freedom Fighters”) and a one and done story titled ‘The Origin of Bruce Wayne.” Issue #38 of “Batman” will hit the shelves January 3, 2018.
– Five more women have come forward with accusations of sexual misconduct by former DC Executive Editor Eddie Beganza. The public first became aware of the accusations against Berganza on November 10, however these accounts were a well known by many within the industry. Among the accusations are reports of Berganza propositioning creators, like internet personality and industry reporter Molly McIsaac, for sex in exchange for jobs writing comics at DC. An internal report from 2010 also lays out an incident where Berganza forcibly kissed and attempted to grope a coworker. Upon his firing, Berganza was editing the fall DC event “Dark Nights: Metal.” While Berganza is out it should be noted that just last week Marvel Comics hired Ron Richards as their new Vice President and Managing Editor of New Media, whose past work in comics is mired in an all too familiar narrative of abuse and impropriety.
– Long running manga “Rurouni Kenshin” has been put on hiatus by publisher Shueisha after news surfaced creator Nobuhiro Watsuki has been charged with possession of child pornography. “Runouni Kenshin” was first published in 1994 and since has gained a huge following and an anime, which in the States was renamed as Samurai X. For those of us who grew up either reading the manga or watching the anime, the news comes as both a shock and a stain on the series which will take a never be forgotten.
-Kurt Sutter (The Bastard Executioner, The Shield) will be returning to the world of Lucas Stand in “Lucas Stand: Inner Demons,” along with the rest of the original sereis creative team. Sutter, who is best known for creating the hit FX show Sons of Anarchy, will be joined by co-writer Caitlin Kittredge (“Coffin Hill,” “Throwaways”) and artist Jesús Hervás (“Clive Barker’s Hellraiser,” “Sons of Anarchy”) for a new arc following Lucas Stand, a veteran brought back to life by a dark angel and forced to hunt down demons escaped from hell through time. “Lucas Stand: Inner Demon” will be out in stores February 2018.
