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DC’s Future State will continue with ‘Future State: Gotham’

Joshua Williamson, Dennis Culver, and Giannis Milonogiannis will continue the story of the Red Hood, the Magistrate and more in May.

DC has announced that at least one of the time periods and plot lines introduced last month during their Future State event will continue past the end of the event. If you’ve been enjoying the Magistrate story running through the Batman titles, you’ll be happy to know that the story will continue in Future State: Gotham in May.

This six-issue debut story arc will be co-written by Joshua Williamson and Dennis Culver, with art by Giannis Milonogiannis and covers by Yasmine Putri and James Stokoe. It’ll focus on Jason Todd, aka the Red Hood, has turned on the rest of the Batman family and now hunts masked heroes for the Magistrate, the mercenary force that has taken over Gotham. It will also be “rendered in stark, black and white tones,” according to the press release.

“Future State: Gotham pulls from ALL the Future State Bat-Books,” Williamson said on Twitter. “It’s going to surprise you. Be sure to read Dark Detective #4 and the Red Hood back-up as that is a massive prelude to this new series coming in May!”

Marvel announces five ‘Heroes Reborn’ one-shots

Peter Parker, Magneto, Baron Zemo, the Imperial Guard and more join in on the alternate reality event.

Marvel has announced that the upcoming Heroes Reborn event miniseries will be accompanied by five one-shots that take place in this new world created by the Phoenix — one where the Avengers never formed.

They’ll feature characters and themes that should be familiar to readers of both Marvel and DC; with the Squadron Supreme being the Marvel universe equivalent of the Justice League, it’s not surprising that some of these one-shots get a little “meta” in their homages.

They are:

Russell + Izaakse team for ‘Fantastic Four: Life Story’

The six-issue miniseries will tell the story of the Fantastic Four across 60 years.

Following in the footsteps of Spider-Man: Life Story, Marvel has recruited Mark Russell and Sean Izaakse for Fantastic Four: Life Story. Each issue of the six-issue miniseries will be set in a subsequent decade, starting with the 1960s, and tell the story of the life of the Fantastic Four against the historical backdrop of each decade.

“What I’ve always loved about the Fantastic Four is how it reduces the cosmic struggle of human survival to the scale of a family squabble while treating personal relationships as a matter of truly galactic importance,” Russell said. “Weaving their story and their world into our story and what’s happened in our world over the last sixty years was an important reminder to me of how smart it is to approach life like that.”

‘Wonder Girl’ will debut in May from DC

The Future State Wonder Woman becomes the present-state Wonder Girl in May.

DC stated before that they had more plans for Yara Flor, the breakout star of DC’s Future State: Wonder Woman title, and now they’ve made it official — The new Wonder Girl title will kick off in May, written and drawn by Joelle Jones.

Jones will be joined by colorist Jordie Bellaire and letterer Clayton Cowles.

‘Mister Miracle’ miniseries breaks free in May

Shilo Norman will take the spotlight in a six-issue series from Brandon Easton and Valentine De Landro.

Shilo Norman, the Mister Miracle currently appearing in two of DC’s Future State Superman titles, will get his own miniseries in May. Brandon Easton and Valentine De Landro, who worked on the Mister Miracle story in Superman: Worlds of War, are also working on the miniseries.

“This series functions as a de facto origin story and a reintroduction of Shilo Norman,” said Easton. “Fico and I have a fantastic opportunity to establish him as a major hero in the DC pantheon, while making him a more complex character.”

Shilo Norman was introduced in the early 1970s in the pages of Mister Miracle by Jack Kirby. He became a protege of Scott Free, the original Mister Miracle, and appeared in the Seven Soldiers events series written by Grant Morrison.

Smash Pages Q&A: Sal Abbinanti on ‘The Hostage’

The creator of ‘Atomika’ returns with a new Kickstarter project that’s been 10 years in the making.

Sal Abbinanti might be familiar to comics readers for his series Atomika, but even those who read that series will be surprised by his artwork in the new graphic novel The Hostage, which is being crowdfunded now.

Abbinanti has been drawing the book on and off for years, but it has its roots in a trip he took to Brazil decades ago. Since then he couldn’t get the image out of his head of homeless children living just around the corner from the bright, colorful tourist district of Rio. In The Hostage, he found a story and an aesthetic that allowed him to tell the story in a way that is unsettling and unsentimental.

For the campaign, Abbinanti enlisted a number of friends to draw work for stretch goals, but the star is what Abbinanti was able to achieve in the pages. He was kind enough to talk about The Hostage, its road to publication and his crowdfunding campaign.

Marvel reveals more ‘Heroes Reborn’ details + covers

Dale Keown, Federico Vicentini and James Stokoe join Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness for the event series.

Marvel has revealed more details on their upcoming Heroes Reborn event series, which will spin out of Jason Aaron’s current run on Avengers. The alternate-reality story imagines a world where the Avengers never assembled.

Ironically, the Squadron Supreme — Marvel’s, um, homage to the Justice League — will become Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in this vacuum. They’ll also take center stage on the series’ covers:

DC launches ‘Let Them Live!’ on DC Universe Infinite

A lost Suicide Squad story written in 2011 surfaces on DC’s digital comics system.

When DC relaunched their DC Universe Infinite service last month, they promised exclusive content for subscribers. Today brought the first DCUI-exclusive comic, titled Let Them Live!: Unpublished Tales from the DC Vault, featuring a “lost” Suicide Squad story by Jim Zub, Tradd Moore, Felipe Sobreiro and Nate Piekos.

The story will be the first of several released by DC under this title, which seems like a way for them to clean out their files and share comics that were commissioned but never published. In fact, each issue will feature a framing sequence by Elliott Kalan, Mike Norton and Marissa Louise starring Ambush Bug — who has taken a job as a night janitor at the DC offices, where he finds the unreleased comics and provides commentary.

Future issues will include:

Let Them Live! #2 — a Nightwing story by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, Jorge Corona, Mat Lopes and Carlos M. Mangual — debuting Feb. 16 with a frame story by Elliott Kalan, Mike Norton and Marissa Louise. Let them Live! #3 — a Batman story by Scott Bryan Wilson, John Paul Leon, Dave Stewart and Deron Bennet — debuting 3/2 with a frame story by Elliott Kalan, Mike Norton and Marissa Louise.
Let them Live! #3 — a Batman story by Scott Bryan Wilson, John Paul Leon, Dave Stewart and Deron Bennet — debuting March 2 with a frame story by Elliott Kalan, Mike Norton and Marissa Louise.

Comics Lowdown | TCAF is back

Plus: Angoulême comics awards, Adam Ellis accuses filmmakers of plagiarism, and a look at the world of back-issue collectors and dealers

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival, which was canceled last year due to the pandemic, will return in May as a virtual event. The past year has been a difficult one; in June, TCAF co-founder and artistic director Christopher Butcher stepped down for both professional and personal reasons. This year’s festival will be online only, and it’s being run in partnership with the zine festival Canzine and the Toronto Hand Eye Society.

Can’t Wait for Comics | Drunk mermaids and mech-suit Avengers

New comics arriving this week include more Future State titles from DC, some King in Black tie-ins from Marvel and a new underwater horror series from Image.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide each week to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital.

This week brings another wave of DC’s Future State and Marvel’s King in Black tie-ins, as well two Star Wars: The High Republic comics. There’s also a fun new graphic novel featuring drunk mermaids who get stuck on land.

Check out a few recommendations below, or visit ComicList for this week’s full list of new comics arriving in stores, and the comiXology new releases page for what’s available digitally.

International ‘Death Metal’ variant covers to feature metal bands

‘Dark Nights: Death Metal – Band Edition ‘ covers will be published in eight countries later this year.

Dark Nights: Death Metal is staging a world tour this year, and they’re bringing some real metal bands along for the ride.

DC has announced Dark Nights: Death Metal – Band Edition variant covers, which will be published in eight different countries starting in March. And the covers will feature various characters from the miniseries, like the Batman Who Laughs, along with seven different metal bands. Each issue will also feature an introduction from the band and an exclusive interview. The lineup includes:

What Are You Reading? | ‘Reckless,’ ‘Thriller,’ ‘Chunky’ and more

See what the Smash Pages crew has been reading lately.

Welcome to What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at what the Smash Pages crew has been reading lately.

This week is the Smash Pages version of A Christmas Carol, as Tom looks back at a series from the 1980s, Corey talks about three recent graphic novels and Brigid heads into the future with advanced reviews of three upcoming projects. I guess that makes me Jacob Marley.

Let us know what you read this week in the comments or on social media.

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