I'm back! Another week, another pull list. I know I've been missing a few, and haven't been doing as many reviews lately, but I have some vacation time coming up, and am hoping to get a lot of writing done, then. I've split the week's comic news into four sections, which you can view as follows:
Sections: (click to jump to any of four links below) Disney Investor Day News! LucasFilm, Disney, Pixar, and Marvel! Spotlights on Representation--this week on Afro-Latinx, non-binary writer Vita Ayala, then writer/colorist Jordie Bellaire, and finally the amazing career of cover artist, Jenny Frison. Marvel and DC Event Updates--Dark Nights: Death Metal, briefly the other one, and into Future State; King in Black at Marvel. This Week's Pull List: Black Cat, Stillwater, WOFTWTD, Death Metal, Decorum, Deadpool, V/RS, New Mutants, X-Force, Fantastic Four, Catwoman. Or, Continue Reading to see it all! You can always hit the links to skip about, after.
Disney Investor Day
LucasFilm: Obi-Wan Kenobi TV show starring Ewan McGregor is still in the works, and finally had an update to give: Hayden Christensen, the star who played Anakin Skywalker in episodes 2 and 3, will make his return as the dreaded Darth Vader in the series. It will apparently take place in the decade after episode 3, filling us in on that final battle the two former Jedi supposedly had, which fans have been speculating for years. Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau are bringing two more live-action Star Wars universe shows for us on Disney+. The first is called Rangers of the New Republic, and will feature characters such as Cara Dune, Bill Burr's former ranger, and potentially loads of others. The second is a show that fans were speculating since her appearance on Mandalorian, Ahsoka, starring Rosario Dawson's Ahsoka Tano. She's been a fan favorite character since her cartoon origin during the Clone Wars TV series, and this show is certainly one of the most popular of the announcements. Andor is the working title for the Rogue One prequel, which brings us in to the animated shows. The Bad Batch follows immediate fan favorites from the final season of the Clone Wars, a group of clone troopers with...errors. Each of the troopers is unique in a way their clone brothers could never be, earning them special missions to boot. The show will also feature the cartoon Ming Na-Wen as her sniper character from Mandalorian. And of course, you can't forget the minor tease for the Lando show! During Solo from a few years ago, Donald Glover reprises his role as young Lando Calrissian! The titles were shown alongside a boppy 70's dance tune, which I hope is a tease for the vibe of the whole series. Rogue Squadron is a new movie coming from none other than Patty Jenkins--legendary Wonder Woman director. With her sneakily signing on for the mouse while finishing up the Wonder Woman sequel, I can't help but wonder if this is a bad development for future DC/Warner properties. It was also announced that famed director Taika Waititi will be working on a yet-unnamed Star Wars movie, and Harrison Ford will be returning for a final Indiana Jones film! Unrelated facts. Disney: Zac Efron stars in Three Men and a Baby remake, Emma Stone is STILL going to be Cruella Deville in the Cruella origin movie announced almost five years ago, and Sister Act welcomes back Whoopie Goldberg for it's remake. Pinocchio is getting a live-action treatment, Peter Pan and Wendy will be the same, but a new take on the history of the characters. Then, Amy Adams returns for the long-hoped-for sequel to Enchanted, called Disenchanted! Enchanted, in my opinion, was one of the best Princess movies Disney has ever made, and easily the best live-action one. In this sequel, I expect we'll be seeing the not-so happily ever after, and how the former cartoons deal with reality these days. Of course, talking about live-action, we have to mention the Little Mermaid, still in progress with a fantastic cast! Apparently there will also be a prequel to the Lion King, and then Dwayne Johnson's Jungle Cruise film. Disney Animation: Raya and the Last Dragon was announced some months ago, to my utter glee. I wrote a little about why this film is so cool, in this article from earlier this summer. Encanto is a new Lin Manuel Miranda project, focusing on a Colombian village. I'm more than thrilled to see Disney really taking representation by the reigns, and putting their actions where their words are. Upcoming animated features for Disney+ also include a Zootpoia+ show that spoofs Disney+ itself, Tiana and Moana episodic shows that showcase different parts of the princesses' diverse worlds, and a Baymax show that will feature not only more of San FranTokyo, but more of the super-savior, too. PIXAR Turning Red was a funny one to listen to them announce. As a woman, and a human, when they announced a series called Turning Red starring a 13-year old girl who is going through puberty, I obviously thought it was going to be a weird period thing. As in, menstrual. While I think menstruation should be discussed more comfortable in general society, it WOULD be a bit odd for the Mouse to think so, too, and make a movie about it. No, Turning Red is about a young girl who turns into a giant Red Panda when she gets emotional! I suspect this means happy, excited, upset, angry, and everything in between, so I'm looking forward to see her Panda behavior when this film comes out! Additionally, Pixar is working on a film called Lightyear. At first, I suspected this was an odd and unnecessary Buzz Lightyear, the toy, prequel. This movie is about the ACTUAL Buzz Lightyear, astronaut, who the toy is based off of. I couldn't help but laugh when I heard this. It's genius! They're taking Toy Story and giving it the same vast, expandable universe that Star Wars has become. Nostalgia, here we come! There's a plethora of other animated material announced at Investor Day, so be sure to check out the brief review by D23! Marvel Studios They saved it for last, because they knew what we were all waiting for. This year's announcements included sizzle reels for WandaVision, Ms Marvel, Loki, What If...?, and Falcon and the Winter Soldier. They were proud to announce what we pretty much already knew: Monica Rambeau will be in Captain Marvel 2 as well as WandaVision, America Chavez will be in Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness, Kate Bishop is being played by Hailee Steinfeld, and Tatiana Maslany is playing Jennifer Walters' She-Hulk. New announcements for Marvel includes a Secret Invasion TV series, a Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, a Riri Williams Iron Heart series, and Armor Wars, a series following Don Cheadle's War Machine and Stark's legacy of weapons and armors. Movies that were confirmed once again includes Thor: Love and Thunder, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Blade, Eternals, and then plans for an upcoming Fantastic Four film! This will be the third attempt in recent history that Marvel's First Family have been reenacted on screen, but I feel like there is a little more pressure, this time, after creator Stan Lee's death. I have to remember, too, that Kang the Conqueror is appearing in the forthcoming Antman and the Wasp: Quantummania! The third and final installment in what is likely going to wind up as Marvel's most successful trilogy will feature Kang as the main villain--noteworthy, since Kang is a very distant future relative of Reed Richards. Is it possible that Kang will be for the Fantastic Four what the Avengers end credits scene was for Thanos? Definitely. But we'll just have to wait and see. Finally, Disney confirmed that they are still making Black Panther 2, and will not be featuring CGI rendered Chadwick Boseman. Boseman's death from cancer earlier this year struck everyone by surprise, even writer, director, and lifelong friend Ryan Coogler. Coogler is back on to writing the sequel, as Disney made it clear they want to explore the many avenues a nation like Wakanda offers to explore. Further announcements included other programming, and tons of new information on Disney properties that will be available on Disney+ in the coming months. It was exciting to watch the Investor's Day announcements and hear the future of Walt Disney's company, still holding firm to their standards, beliefs, and ideals. Plus, it seems they've taken over most non-Warner TV and Movie properties, so I'm curious how the two companies will continue to compete in coming years and decades.
Spotlights on Representation:
LGBTQ+ POC this week: Vita Ayala writing New Mutants! Vita Ayala is an Afro-Puerto Rican non-binary writer for Marvel and DC, mainly, who's work I continue to thoroughly enjoy. In a world of overblown comic events and cocky straight-white-male writers with rabid and equally straight-while-male followings, it's easy to get discouraged about finding something that fits you, the reader, into its target audience. Something I've been noticing more and more, however, is that I can always find that room for me in the writing of Vita Ayala. A lot of the time, I find Vita writing in anthology comics, like anniversary books, annual's, and seasonal specials. This week, they're starting as the main writer for New Mutants! New Mutants has been one of my favorite books in Dawn of X, so I'm excited to know it'll remain as such through the next phase, Reign of X. Alongside brilliant artist Rod Reis, I'm more than thrilled to be picking up their first issue this week. Since I've spotlighted Vita before, here's a list of some of the titles they've written of late that I know for a fact I enjoyed more than a lot of similar books from the publishers: -Poison Ivy/Wonder Woman story in Dark Nights: Death Metal Guidebook #1 -Wonder Woman #750, story -Empyre: X-Men #3 (the entire 4-issues is an intro to J. Hickman's creative teams for the X-Books, check them out!) -Legend of the Swamp Thing Halloween Spectacular, a story. -Marauders #13, following Storm on a mission to Wakanda. -Wolverine: Black, White, and Blood #2, story -Tales From the Dark Multiverse: War of the Gods #1 Additionally, here are some upcoming projects for Ayala: -Children of the Atom, writer of the ongoing series, starting in 2021! -DC Future State Batman, stories about the Gotham City Sirens, I believe, alongside Jon Ridley's Tim Fox Batman! With consistent quality and heart in their writing, Vita Ayala has easily stationed themself as one of my favorite modern writers, and I can't wait to see what they come out with in 2021! see also for LGBTQ+ material: the biracial queer relationship between Captain Malik and crewmate in We Only Find Them When They're Dead. Their relationship isn't integral to the plot, quite yet, aside from it being the relevant in Captain Malik asking his romantic partner to come along on his mission, and then being a big part of why the man's sister joined the team, as well. She's clearly protective of her little brother, and he's clearly old enough to take care of himself. But feelings make things messy in work situations all the time, even when your work is in space, hunting giant beings of mysterious origin. Women Spotlight: Jordie Bellaire and Vampirella/Red Sonja! This week marks the necessary but still sad final issue of Jordie Bellaire's Vampirella/Red Sonja. I was honestly shocked when I discovered this is actually the first team-up the two nineties power-house, heavy-metal babes had gotten, an I hope it isn't the last. What Bellaire has done with these women in this series is stupendous. Their relationship from the first issue to the last has evolved and changed like any real one, as the women learned more about one another, came to terms with their similarities and differences, fought together, and lived together. They've travelled across space, time, and realities, seeing and doing more than anyone ever could. Bellaire has taken two heavily established, well-known characters, and given them a fresh, interesting, and satisfying adventure together. Bellaire has been spotlighted here before, because let's be honest, she does some stupendous work. And not just in writing--she's a well-known comic colorist, as well, covering books across the board. Her work is some of my favorite in the industry, currently to be seen in Kelly Thompson and Elena Casagrande's Black Widow, and historically on tiles like Captain Marvel and Vision. When I think of favorite colorists in the industry, I think of Bellaire, followed by Tamra Bonvillain. I guess coloring is like welding, and women just tend to be better. Cover Artist Spotlight: Jenny Frison! After an ugly comment from a family member earlier this week, I feel the need to celebrate the art of Jenny Frison. Personally, I've been following Jenny Frison's work since about 2016. I remember the first piece of hers I ever saw--Mystique, on a blue background. It was for sale at Sideshow Collectibles, unfortunately no longer available. Frison's work is spread across comic covers from every publisher! She had a brilliant run on Wonder Woman, with over fifty issues. She did some X-Men covers before Hickman took over, and is now the main reason for my continuing to purchase the ongoing Catwoman series. Frison is a graduate of the Kubert School of Art--one of the premier institutions for those looking to be in comic art, period. It was there that she learned to color her own work, and she continues to color her own work, today. The one exception, to this, notably being the White Witch from Legion of Superheroes. Legion is a team from the future, and White Witch is a notoriously mysterious, powerful member. In a recent issue by writer Brian Michael Bendis, each page was handled by a different art team. Interestingly, on the Frison page, she allowed another person to color her image of the White Witch: industry favorite Jordie Bellaire, whom I write about above. The resulting image was beyond striking, and as a follower of Frison's art, undoubtedly unique. Let me explain. Part of what makes Frison's art style so incredible, in my opinion, is her process. She almost exclusively draws figures from the waist up, showcasing your favorite elements of your favorite characters' looks. She draws the figure outline, shades it in charcoal and pencil and whatnot, then colors over her shading, digitally. Bellaire, as a professional colorist, took a different route. Being given the grayscale shaded, uncolored copy of the original art, instead of coloring over the art, she translated the shading in to color itself, resulting in a figure that was clearly Jenny Frison's art, but in a way we've never seen it before. I recently purchased my first Frison print--Medusa, one of only forty made, and hand numbered and signed. Needless to say, I was, and still am, extremely thrilled with the purchase. It matches her NSFW cover for Faithless #4 from last year, which sits upside-down as a topless Faith is caressed by hands of unseen figures, human and demonic. Frison teased a Wonder Woman print coming at the end of the year, and you can bet I'll be one of the first in line for that one, too. The argument which that family member of mine had against Frison's art is that it included a woman's uncovered nipple. This stems from an archaic form of feminism which told women to be ashamed of their bodies, not celebrate or embrace them, and certainly not talk about things like nipples in public. It endlessly saddens me that other women are the first to tear down confident, self-assured women, and I constantly strive to be the opposite of that. In continuing to collect, enjoy, and celebrate Frison's art, I hope others get that point.
Current Comic Events/News/Updates
DC DC technically has two events going on rights now: Dark Nights: Death Metal, and Endless Winter. Both seem kind of unnecessary? While I very much enjoyed the first Metal event, this one has some hiccups. For starters, writer Scott Snyder has been phoning it in on his end, leaning on artist Greg Capullo's hard efforts. This is something he himself admitted to on a podcast interview a few months ago, and is something no female writer or writer of color could ever get away with. Death Metal feels like an event that should have been the tail end of the first Metal event, instead of splitting them in two, two years apart. I'm exhausted just thinking about the many unnecessary feeling tie-ins we've had to pick up to follow along this time, most of which were poorly written and even more poorly thought-out, all for a tiny sliver of necessary information. Whatever happens at the end of Death Metal will lead us into Future State, which starts the first week of January. Meanwhile, Endless Winter is happening, as well, completely separately. I'm not sure how DC is fitting two events into the same period of time, but that's what we've got here. Needless to say, I'm not following Endless Winter, as Death Metal has fully drained by DC comics budget for the past few months. Marvel Marvel's ongoing current event is King in Black, and I'm equally unimpressed. But it makes sense, technically, since King in Black is the same thing as Death Metal--white guys trying to show how badass they are by writing edge-lord comic events. I had such great hope for King in Black, but it's more or less outed itself, already, as being a ridiculous "man's man" kind of event, by writer Donny Cates shoving as much muscle, gore, edginess, white and male characters, etc. you get the point, into his event as possible. Additionally, there are so many unnecessary tie-ins! They have a Namor series tying in, who hasn't been relevant in a good while. They have a British team called the Union, too, and are adding the King in Black label to almost every ongoing series. Atlantis Attacks #5 had it slapped on the cover, but nothing in the issue had shit to do with the event. I'm going to be clinging for dear life to my non-included Marvel books, such as Captain Marvel, and being extremely selective of what King in Black tie-ins I go for. If this is anything like Al Ewing's awful Empyre event, it'll be a good six months before Cates finally stops pushing his r/iamverybadass story on literally the entire Marvel comics universe. And my next prediction: King in Black will barely be over when the next event starts, which they'll most likely start seriously marketing for by March, 2021.
PULL LIST THIS WEEK!
Black Cat #1 (of 3?) Jed McKay and CF Villa are back with the second run of their Black Cat series! McKay has done some of my favorite things with Felicia lately, including giving her an Iron Man suit of her own, if only temporarily. He also writes her co-stars superbly--I have Logan in mind, but there have been many others. With Logan, McKay showed he truly understands the roots of Marvel heavy-hitters. We saw Patch doing Patch things, and protecting his Patch belongings. Patch being one of Logan's alter-egos, it was amazing to read a comic where he talked about the valuable things that keep an almost 200+ year old man human and sane: his memories. Iron Man, Spider-Man, and even Batroc have made had short, meaningful moments alongside Felicia, characterizing her as much as them. With this new start to her series, I'm excited to see what relationships McKay will develop, even if it's just for these three tie-in issues. I'm hoping he'll get another chance to write our favorite thieving aristocrat later in 2021. Stillwater #4 Full disclosure: I never finished issue 3, because my shop didn't get their order. I'm still looking for it, and I think I might have to buy it digitally before this week's #4. I'm really into the series, which is by one of my favorite current writers, Chip Zdarsky, who writes a plethora of meaningful, introspective work, which always has enough humor and liveliness to balance it out. I'm excited that this week will allow me to binge the two issues at once! We Only Find Them When They're Dead #4 AL Ewing's writing has been notoriously horrid over at Marvel, for the most part, so I'm continually surprised that this one is amazing. Creative, thought out, explained as it goes along, this is not a lazy storytelling job, and Ewing clearly knows his own characters. The last issue left us on a bit of a cliffhanger, after Malik and his crew happen upon a larger god than usual, who happens to still be alive! The whole world we've seen so far is built around the idea that these gods only appear after death, striking Malik's mission to find where they're coming from. I guess it would take some work to get me NOT interested in an intergalactic monster mystery, but Ewing really is doing far better in this series than his others. I'm actually excited to find out where these gods come from, why they shrink, and why they die. Dark Nights: Death Metal #6 (of 7) If you read what I had to say about the Death Metal event in my "current events" section above, check that out to get my idea of how Death Metal is going. Basically, it feels like an over-extension of the previous Metal event, with writer Scott Snyder strictly relying on artist Greg Capullo's efforts to keep the audience engaged. It's overly wordy, over-explained, and over-convoluted. Ultimately, it should have been a part of the original Metal, and has wound up feeling like just another excuse for DC to "restart" their continuity. Decorum #6 (of 8) Decorum has really started picking up! I could have sworn this was going to be a six-issue series, but now I'm seeing it ends it February with issue #8. Decorum follows the traditional Johnathon Hickman setup, meaning it started extremely complex and stunningly beautiful, and kind of just slowly grew from there. There are two sides of the plot, as I see it so far, and Hickman has been more or less focusing on the more understandable side of it, recently. The second half, I'm still not sure about, but it involves the creation and destruction of realities, it would seem. Assassin training school is surprisingly hilarious, as well, and art by Mike Huddleston continues to inspire. Deadpool #9 Deadpool continues to be excellent, with writer Kelly Thompson at the wheel. He and Elsa Bloodstone are out to try and stop the Bone Monsters from eating their bones, and I think there will likely be some loose tie-in to the King in Black event. While I'm still on the fence about the event itself, I would at least hope that an issue tagged as a tie-in for the event would actually involve the event, unlike last week's Atlantis Attacks. Vampirella/Red Sonja #12 (of 12) Jordie Bellaire, Drew Moss It's the final issue of Vampirella/Red Sonja! Jordie Bellaire and Drew Moss have taken us on a brilliant journey of friendship, fighting, and timey-wimey space travel, and I'm sad to see it end. I've written a bit about the series and Bellaire in my spotlight on her for the week, which can be read above. I'm sad to say I don't have every issue, but I fully plan on finishing my collection soon. New Mutants #14 There's a lot of reasons to look forward to this week's New Mutants. For starters, it's the first comic the title has had since the finale of X of Swords, which surely will mean getting an at least somewhat new idea of what the series is going to be from here on out. But additionally to that, this issue marks the return of New Mutants favorite artist Rod Reis, as well as the start of non-binary writer Vita Ayala's run! Vita is a rare kind of writer, in my opinion, because they excel greatly at stepping into a world and adding to it. In a multitude of anthology comics, several times in Death Metal, now, a recent retelling of War of the Gods, and sprinkled here and there throughout Dawn of X, Vita's writing always catches my eye among the week's releases. Having them on New Mutants going forward is the best possible sign for the series. And, if you require further reasons to pick this issue up with week, it's also the return of Thunderbird, one of the Native America mutant Proudstar brothers. It's been some years since he's had the spotlight, so this will be a great time to refresh on the character and how he fits in to the team's legacy. X-Force #15 Benjamin Percy's X-Force continues to be excellent, to no one's surprise. We're post-X of Swords, now, so hopefully he'll get the ball rolling right away. It looks like this week will have a pretty violent encounter with Red Omega, who Logan recently encountered living with Vampires in Russia. This actually ties back to some years ago in Jason Aaron's Avengers run, when that team dropped off Dracula after beating him. They thought it would be a place to keep humanity safe from him, but it looks like it's instead made excellent staging grounds for his next attacks. I didn't realize, at the time, that they'd show up in X-Men books, but it's actually more exciting, this way. It'll be interesting seeing how Krakoa reacts to vampires. Fantastic Four #27 Dan Slott continues his Fantastic Four run, to mixed reviews. While on one side, I feel like he's doing standard First Family stuff with a fun dynamic, the other side seems to be a bit set on making his mark in the legend of the team. Last month's issue had him confirm Franklin is, in fact, NOT a mutant, something that's been established for over a decade, and is the status quo for fans of the character who didn't read comics in the nineties. It's particularly odd, as Chip Zdarsky just spent the summer showcasing the new relationship between the F4 and the X-Men of Krakoa, since Franklin was, in fact, allowed on the island. Now that he isn't a mutant, I have one dream for the book: kick out Reed, and give the team to Sue to run. It's time for actual meaningful change. Catwoman #28 To be totally honest, I've been skimming these issues. It just seems far too weird that Selina is running a gang of children. She's never been into kids, never involved herself with them beyond the necessary. Plus, she's separated from Bruce, another odd turn after 85+ issues of them establishing their relationship is permanent, and now Tom King's continuation of his Batman run in the current Batman/Catwoman 12-issue series. This particular turn of events for Selina feels like nothing but reactionary developments created by bitter writers wanting to "make their mark" on a character by undoing as much as they can of previously established canon. Upside: Jenny Frison variants to die for!
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