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 either david@multiversitycomics.com or brian@multiversitycomics.com.
– Patton Oswalt – comedian extraordinaire, voice of Remi in Ratatouille, self-professed comics geek – will appear as Agent Eric Koenig in an upcoming episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. The character first appeared in a Marvel comic (“Sgt. Rock and His Howling Commandos”) in 1966, although it is unclear how close to his comic origins Koenig will be on screen. This is a fun bit of casting, as Oswalt is a great actor who clearly loves the source material.
– Dug this week’s Arrow? Of course you did! Good news – this isn’t the last we’ll see of the Suicide Squad on the show, says Executive Producer Marc Guggenheim. This was a favorite among the Multiversity Arrow Fans (MAF), so we are very happy to see the gang get back together sometime soon.
– In what would have been a completely different comic than the one we’re used to, Robert Kirkman revealed during a Reddit AMA that he considered killing Rick instead of Shane in issue #6 of “The Walking Dead.” That would have changed so much about the book that it is hard to even imagine where, 100+ issues later, the book would be without Rick as he emotional center.
– DC announced a new ongoing series today, “Star-Spangled War Stories” from Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Scott Hampton, come July. This marks the third war title attempted in the New 52, after “Men of War” and “G.I. Combat,” but this will focus on G.I. Zombie, “a man who is neither dead nor alive, who fights for his country again… and again… and again! This time he’s dealing with domestic terror: his mission is to head west to deal with a gang that’s buying up all of the weapons in the surrounding states!” This Newsarama article mentions how Palmiotti and Gray have had success with their western work (on “All-Star Western”), and hope to bring that same touch to war comics. That is an interesting approach, and as a fan of diversity within DC’s line, I am cautiously optimistic.
– Palmiotti will also be writing, along with his wife Amanda Conner, “Harley Quinn Invades San Diego Comic Con,” a one-shot that sounds insufferable.
– There’s going to be a JEM movie? There’s going to be a JEM movie!
– And, finally, a German company is looking to, basically, bring Doc Ock to reality.
