Tag: Gail Simone

The Hellfire Gala returns in July

This year’s annual giant-sized X-Men one-shot brings together Jed MacKay, Gail Simone, Eve L. Ewing, Saladin Ahmed and more for a locked-room murder mystery.

The Hellfire Gala — Marvel’s most glamorous and, at the same time, reliably dangerous annual mutant tradition — is back this July with X-Men: The Hellfire Murder #1. The giant-sized one-shot serves as both a capstone to the past year of X-Men storytelling and a launchpad for what’s coming next.

The setup sounds really fun: when an iconic mutant power player is murdered at a masquerade hosted by Sebastian Shaw, Wolverine and Jubilee find themselves investigating a locked-room mystery with dire consequences for all of mutantkind. Everyone at the Gala is a suspect, and the party isn’t over yet. The issue will also reveal the formation of an all-new Hellfire Club, setting up major developments in the X-Men titles.

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DC’s Summer of Supergirl brings new comics, anthology, an Elseworlds series ahead of this summer’s film

From Sophie Campbell’s ongoing run to a new Elseworlds survival story, DC is giving Kara Zor-El her biggest publishing moment ahead of her new film.

DC is rolling out an ambitious publishing initiative tied to the upcoming Supergirl film, which comes out June 26, and the comics line supporting it spans multiple formats and creative teams.

Just like we saw with Superman last year, DC has declared this summer the “Summer of Supergirl,” which will kick off with the previously announced Supergirl: The World anthology on June 2. June will also bring:

  • Summer of Supergirl Special #1, an anthology one-shot
  • Supergirl: Survive #1, an Elseworlds tale
  • Facsimile editions of Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #23 and Lobo #1
  • An oversized artbook DC W.I.P.: Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #1
  • Variant covers across many of DC’s June titles
  • And of course, the regular Supergirl monthly title by Sophie Campbell.

You can find more details on each of them below.

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Gail Simone + Ig Guara team up on ‘She-Spawn’

The award-winning comics writer brings her voice to the Spawn Universe this May with a five-issue series centered on Jessica Priest.

Image Comics announced today that Uncanny X-Men writer Gail Simone will helm She-Spawn, a new five-issue miniseries set in the Spawn Universe, working with Blue Beetle and All-New Wolverine artist Ig Guara. The first issue will debut in May.

The series will follow Jessica Priest, a former soldier, assassin, superhero and mother, as she battles an angelic cult determined to sacrifice a child.

“It’s a thrill to be chosen specifically by one of the iconic founders of Image to create in his playground,” Simone said. “Apparently, he’d read a DC book I’d done and was impressed by the dialogue, which was incredibly gratifying. The next thing I know, I was having hour-long conversations with Todd McFarlane–not just about She-Spawn, but about his passion for storytelling and character. Each one felt like a masterclass. He asked a lot about my process, with genuine and heartfelt curiosity, and it was one of the nicest and most collaborative introductions I’ve ever had with a publisher. I’m proud to get to write part of the Spawn Universe, and grateful to Todd and his team for making this connection happen.”

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DC reveals their ‘Superman/Spider-Man’ creative teams

Like the recent ‘Batman/Deadpool’ one-shots, the issue will feature stories by several creators, including Mark Waid, Jorge Jiménez, Matt Fraction, Steve Lieber, Tom King and more.

As retailers discuss why the recent Batman/Deadpool isn’t selling as well as Deadpool/Batman, DC has announced the creative teams for next year’s Superman/Spider-Man crossover, which arrives in March.

Marvel was the first out of the gate with their crossover issue, as Deadpool/Batman came out in September, followed by the DC issue in November. For this next crossover, they’ll follow a similar plan, with each publisher releasing an anthology headlined by the title characters — only this time, DC’s will arrive in shops first. Marvel has not yet announced when Spider-Man/Superman will arrive.

The two publishers announced back in October that they planned more crossovers in 2026, starting with reprints of the issues where Spider-Man and Superman first met back in the 1970s. They also surprised announced a couple of digital crossovers last month on their respective digital platforms. After decades of staying on opposite sides of the streets, it’s fun to see that these crossovers have returned.

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NYCC | ‘X-Men: Shadows of Tomorrow’ will follow ‘Age of Revelation’

Marvel has announced yet another X-Men publishing initiative that’ll come in the wake of their current crossover.

X-Men: Age of Revelation is just a little more than a week old, so it must be time to announce what comes next. At the New York Comic Con, Marvel revealed Shadows of Tomorrow, which will include 11 new/returning titles in the X-Men line.

To catch you up: in the wake of the well-regarded Krakoa era of the X-Men, spearheaded by Jonathan Hickman and continuing for a number of years, Marvel launched X-Men: From the Ashes, which was a return to a more traditional approach, where the world once again hated and feared mutants. Rather than living on a mutant paradise island, the characters were scattered, from Alaska to New Orleans, where they tried to pick up their lives again.

Reception has been tepid, at best, to the new line, with several of the launch titles not making it very far itno their runs. Then all of them ended in September to make way for Age of Revelation, a story set 10 years in the future, where Doug Ramsey, the former New Mutant turned Heir of Apocalypse, ruled with an iron fist. That story is just getting started and is set to run through December, a short-term event like Age of Apocalypse, but the nature of comic news, retailing and solicitations means it’s time to turn to January.

If you were a fan of the From the Ashes books, the good news is that several of the creators who worked on them will return to the characters they were working on after Age of Revelation. There are also some new titles coming, with a big focus on solo X-titles/duos vs. team books (although we’ll see those, too). Let’s have a look:

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‘Rogue Storm,’ ‘Sinister’s Six’ + more new titles revealed as part of the ‘Age of Revelation’

Gail Simone, Lucas Werneck, David Marquez and more will continue this new era of X-Men titles.

Marvel continues to roll out more details on Age of Revelation, the X-Men event that’ll jump 10 years into a future where Doug Ramsey, former New Mutant and current heir to Apocalypse, rules over the world.

Marvel revealed that they’ll publish (at least) 16 titles as part of the event, with fun twists on existing titles and characters like Cloak or Dagger and Undeadpool. Five titles and their creative teams were revealed yesterday.

Like yesterday’s announcement, today’s reveal shows that some of the creative teams for these titles can be mapped back to the current line-up — Gail Simone will continue writing the stories and characters we’re seeing in Uncanny X-Men, while Storm writer Murewa Ayodele is writing a Storm vs. Rogue title. Cavan Scott and Ruairi Coleman will revisit the relationship between Emma Frost and Tony Stark that we saw form at the end of the Krakoa era, while David Marquez (who has been showing his writing chops on titles like The Unchosen) and Rafael Loureiro bring together six random characters to pull off a heist for Mr. Sinister.

Check out the four titles announced today, all of which kick off Oct. 15, and I expect we’ll get more as the week goes on.

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Two X-Men teams come to blows in ‘Raid on Graymalkin’

The four-issue crossover begins in December.

Two of the three flagship X-Men titles will cross over this winter in a story called “Raid on Graymalkin.” The crossover will run through X-Men #8-9 by Jed MacKay and Ryan Stegman, and Uncanny X-Men #7-8 by Gail Simone, David Marquez and Javier Garron.

“It’s been an exciting time being part of the launch of the line of X-titles, but now we’re really getting into it- our first crossover!” MacKay said. “’Raid on Graymalkin’ is going to push the X-Men of both Alaska and Louisiana to their breaking points and set the tone for the future, and it’s been great to work with a legend like Gail in bringing it to life!”

If you’ve been following both titles, you know there’s some tension brewing between Cyclops and his crew of soldiers, who live in Alaska, and Rogue and her family of mutants, who reside in Louisiana. That tension will come to a head as both teams decide it’s time to do something about Graymalkin Prison, the former site of Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters in New York, where mutants are being held by Dr. Corina Ellis, including Professor X.

“Writing in the X-World has been one of the most fun and rewarding experiences of my career,” Simone said. “Best characters, best art team, best editors and best fellow creators, particularly Jed Mackay, who is just an idea machine. We’ve been throwing ideas back and forth nearly every day since we all started putting together the bones of what the X-Verse would be like, and I think it helps tremendously that we like and respect each other’s work.”

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SDCC Slugfest | Star Wars, DuckTales, Thundarr + more

Today’s round-up of SDCC and related news includes items on a Junkyard Joe action figure, new titles coming from Dynamite, a big sale by Fantagraphics and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. With the San Diego Comic Con in full force, this edition covers news from today I haven’t already covered, plus a few items from the lead-up to the show. Hit the links for more information.

The first full day of the San Diego Comic-Con brought plenty of news and tiodbits from comic publishers, following a very busy couple of weeks for comic news. It’s hard to believe a week has already passed since DC’s All In announcement. But here we are! So let’s jump in.

We ‘ll start with some Star Wars comic news, which these days spans multiple publishers. Lucasfilm hosted a publishing panel today that covered several upcoming releases, including the Battle of Jakku comic coming from Marvel this fall. Today’s panel also brought the news that phase 3 of the Star Wars: The High Republic will come to a close next year, and Cavan Scott and Marika Cresta will help wrap it up at Marvel with a comic titled Fear of the Jedi:

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Slugfest | Spawny returns to kill off … Spawn?

Plus: News and announcements on ‘Uncanny X-Men,’ ‘Gilt Frame,’ Godzilla, Blacksad, ThunderCats and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you that we haven’t otherwise covered. Hit the links for more information.

McFarlane Productions has been on a roll introducing Spawn into various genres, and this summer they’ll return to the world of humor and satire with Spawn Kills Every Spawn. Like the previous Spawn Kills Everyone and Spawn Kills Everyone Too, this comic features the tiniest Spawn, Spawny, deciding to kill another set of comic characters — the Spawn universe.

Written by John Layman and illustrated by Rob “Sketchcraft” Duenas and colorist Robert Nugent, the five-issue miniseries sees Spawny arrive at a Spawn convention filled with Spawns from around the multiverse, all of whom are more popular than him. So he decides to become the most popular by eliminating the competition.

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Gail Simone + Eddy Barrows promise a ‘huge in scope and fun as hell’ Superman story this summer

The duo revisit Superman’s early years as he battles an alien threat starting in ‘Action Comics’ #1067.

After making room for the House of Brainiac crossover, Action Comics will return to its Superman Superstars initiative and a cast of rotating creative teams in July. Action Comics #1067 will kick off a new story by Gail Simone and Eddy Barrows set at the beginning of Superman’s career titled “Superman and the Challenge from the Stars.”

The storyline will run for three issues, and features a massively powerful alien race making Earth their arena. Danny Miki, Rex Lokus and Dave Sharpe round out the creative team.

“I love the classic Superman cast, and this story is deliberately meant to echo my all-time favorite Superman time period,” Simone said. “We didn’t want to tell a quiet story of Superman in a diner; we wanted to have a massive threat, a war taking place all over the world, and only Superman could possibly protect his adopted planet. It is unapologetically huge in scope and fun as hell, with one of the best art teams I’ve ever worked with…Eddy Barrows, Danny Miki, and Rex Lokus on colors!”

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Slugfest | Black Widow gets ‘Venomous’ in a new one-shot

Plus news and announcements on Hellverine, Misty, Nick Cagnetti, Paul Pope, Blood Hunt, Briar, Joy Operations and more!

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you that we haven’t otherwise covered. Hit the links for more information.

If you’ve been reading Venom of late, you know that the Black Widow — who already has a cool spider name — has gone and gotten herself a symbiote. This summer, writer Erica Schultz and artist Luciano Vecchio will “unleash Natasha Romanoff’s full potential as a symbiote warrior” in a new one-shot.

Black Widow: Venomous will not only show the super-spy figuring out how to work with her new partner, but will also set the stage for the upcoming Venom War event.

“Who doesn’t want to write Natasha Romanoff? And with a badass symbiote, it didn’t take much to convince me,” Schultz said. “Luciano Vecchio’s art is so amazing. It’s been so fun to delve into Nat’s spy craft techniques, and you just may learn something new about her.”

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Marvel reveals nine new X-titles as a part of ‘From the Ashes’

Gail Simone, David Marquez, Eve L. Ewing, Carmen Carnero, Jed MacKay and Ryan Stegman will plot a new course for the X-Men following the end of the Krakoa era.

During their panel at South by Southwest today, Marvel revealed their plans for the X-Men post-Krakoa, which include three core titles sporting the name “X-Men” as well as six other titles.

As most fans likely guessed, Gail Simone will write one of the core titles, Uncanny X-Men, joined by artist David Marquez. Current Avengers writer Jed MacKay and artist Ryan Stegman spearhead the adjectiveless X-Men, and Eve Ewing and Carmen Carnero team up for Exceptional X-Men.

“The X-Men are fractured in the aftermath of the end of Krakoa, scattered across the globe without a central base of operation,” Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort said. “What that means in practice is that all three titles carrying the name X-Men are core X-Men series—they all center around one of the major aspects of what the team has been about at different points. This is very much by design. We want to field a wide assortment of X-titles with different styles and tones and approaches, an X-Men book for virtually any taste.”

The other titles teased at the panel include solo titles for Storm, Wolverine and Phoenix, as well as some familiar team titles — X-Factor, X-Force and NYX.

“I think X-Fans are special in that we identify with having something different about us…and you’re going to feel that in this book, and what it means to have that thing about you that’s different, or exceptional. We go deep into the emotional part of that,” Simone told the crowd in Austin.

More details on the three core titles can be found below …

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