Of course, the MCU has once again taken charge of the major press for the week with the release of a film and a trailer. But DC is sneaking their way in with the first issue of the new alternate universe story, and previews of November’s annual releases, as well as some really fun new merchandise and some news from other comic companies.
Marvel:
The MCU expanded this week with the release of The Eternals. The reviews on Rotten Tomatoes aren’t the most… flattering. At press, the film was sitting at a 49% “Rotten” score. My friends who have seen it have said that they enjoyed it, but I know personally I’m unsure. I’ve spent the last month reading The Eternals comics and still feel no draw towards any of these characters, nor the desire to see how they’ve been adapted into the MCU. I’m hoping I’ll be surprised by how much I enjoyed the film, but as for now? I’m going because I want to avoid more spoilers.
My best friend did go see Eternals last night, and the first question she asked was “Have you seen the Morbius trailer yet? They played it before the movie instead of a Spider-Man trailer and I think I’m into it.” yes, I have seen it and I also think I’m into it. I’m not a huge vampire fan. As a girl of a certain age, yes, I had a Twilight phase, and a Buffy phase, but I’m more of a Frankenstein girl than a Dracula girl. But this year in particular has given me several vampire stories I’m into. Between Snow, Glass, and Apples, Moon Knight, and DC vs. Vampires, I may have found a new stake in these stories. There’s already rumors that Oscar Issac will make an appearance as Moon Knight in Morbius, so I was going to watch it no matter what. But the trailer has very similar vibes to the first Venom movie, which I unexpectedly loved. I’m actually really looking forward to it.
As for other Marvel projects I’m looking forward to, I’ve spoken previously about Timeless, the new Jed MacKay title about Kang the Conqueror that’s supposed to affect all parts of Marvel’s timelines. This week, Marvel released several teasers and a variant cover. The teasers feature several Marvel villains including Thanos, Doctor Doom, Anatoly Petrov, and Entropy. The variant cover is from artist Humberto Ramos, and spotlights everyone’s favorite Disney+ jump-scare queen, Miss Minutes. The sentient AI-ish character demonstrates her loyalty to He-Who-Remains, who we know is a variant of Kang. MacKay says that “Kang is put in the fascinating position of not knowing what happens next,” which fits in quite closely to his MCU debut as He-Who-Remains in Loki. We’ll see if this direction for the comics canon presents more similarities to the MCU’s canon.
Alongside Timeless comes the covers and official crossover titles for the Devil’s Reign arc that follows up on the Kingpin and Daredevil storyline from Chip Zdarsky. There are eight February titles either spinning off of the event or crossing over with the event, which begins to release next month.
DC:
For those of you who don’t know me personally, I grew up in the Renaissance Faire circuit. My dad is a professional magician and that meant I spent my formative years around the biggest of nerds. So when DC announced Tom Taylor was penning an alternate universe fantasy story called Dark Knights of Steel, I flipped my lid. And this week, the first issue released. It’s everything I could have asked for. I’ll be releasing a more in-depth review of it, but felt like it should be mentioned here, as Taylor and artist Yasmine Putri’s story turns the origin of some of our favorite superheroes around quite a bit. The art is stunning, and I can’t wait to see what the story holds, but I know some people are very displeased at the changes made to origin stories. And to that I say, “That’s the beauty of a multiverse, y’all. Nobody is erasing the story you know. Just telling a little bit of a new one.”
DC also released the first look at both of Taylor’s main titles Annual issues releasing this month. An Annual is released once a year (DC often does this around the holidays) and is a longer story than a traditional issue. It’s often a holiday one-shot, or a story that didn’t quite fit into a larger arc that either fleshes out the previous storytelling, or tells a story that happens between arcs. Both Nightwing and Superman: Son of Kal-El have annuals releasing this month. Jon Kent will be facing off against Lex Luthor for the first time, but he’s not his father and that means Lex has no idea what to expect. Nightwing will be teaming up with his formerly dead brother, Red Hood, who is being framed for murder. Both are releasing at the end of the month.
In fun merchandise news, DC and numskull released a series of rubber Duckies dressed like the characters of James Gunn’s Suicide Squad. That means a Peacekeeper Duck, and it’s something I never knew I needed. It’ll make a great stocking stuffer if you want to get some holiday shopping done early.
BOOM! Studios:
Boom posted their release schedule for November and December this week with a letter about shipping delays. There have been a ton of shipping issues recently, as there’s a paper shortage to go along with the labor shortage. It’s very frustrating for everyone, so I appreciate this level of transparency and communication from Boom.
Image Comics:
Image/Skybound comics released their first look at their new graphic novel, which will kick off their Skybound Comet imprint that focuses on Young Adult and Middle-Grade audiences. The book is called Clementine Book One, and features the main character from the TellTale game series version of The Walking Dead.
This week featured mostly more information on upcoming projects. For me, it’s pretty exciting to be able to show every step of the way for some of these titles, from announcement to release, plus begin to expand beyond just Marvel and DC news. It’s really important to know that there is more to comics beyond just those big names. That being said, if any of you have a project you’d like me to cover, check out, or shout out, feel free to send me a message either here or on Twitter and let me know! I’m always looking to expand my scope of stories!
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