Kyle Higgins, Alec Siegel + Rod Reis return to the world of ‘C.O.W.L.’

‘C.O.W.L.: 1964′ will launch in August and will tie into Higgins’ larger Massive-verse line of titles.

Kyle Higgins, Alec Siegel and Rod Reis will reunite 10 years later for C.O.W.L.: 1964, a three-issue miniseries that begins later this summer.

C.O.W.L., which has officially joined the Massive-verse titles overseen by Higgins, first launched in 2014. Set in the 1960s, the comic centers on the Chicago Organized Workers League, the world’s first super-hero labor union, which battled super villains, organized crime and eventually their own faltering public image. The previous series has been collected into two volumes.

“Returning to C.O.W.L. is very special for me,” said Higgins. “The series’ origins date back to my college thesis film, The League, and before that to the short story I wrote that got me into film school. It’s something that’s been with both Alec and myself for a long time. When Alec, Rod and I started this book In 2014, the idea of building it to be a part of a something larger wasn’t something that we thought we would ever be able to do. Now, as we come back to finish the core story, we’ll also be setting the stage for the future of C.O.W.L. and in some ways, The Massive-Verse.”

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Dracula and Blade’s daughter team-up to save humanity in ‘Dracula: Blood Hunt’

Danny Lore and Vincenzo Carratù bring the vampire lord and Bloodline into the bigger ‘Blood Hunt’ fray this summer.

You can’t have a vampire crossover without Dracula, and today Marvel announced that everyone’s favorite vampire lord will appear in a three-issue miniseries that’ll accompany this summer’s Blood Hunt event.

Dracula: Blood Hunt by Danny Lore and Vincenzo Carratù will feature Marvel’s version of Dracula teaming up with an unlikely ally, Blade’s daughter Bloodline.

“One of the most interesting things about Dracula, for me, is that he doesn’t run on mortal time, and because of that, his reasoning tends toward shadowy and full of schemes,” Lore said. “Right now, his goal is to keep Brielle safe—but what does it mean to protect the kid of the No. 1 thorn in your side? And why?”

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David Pepose and Dave Wachter introduce a new Punisher this fall

A retired SHIELD agent will take up the mantle, becoming ‘the Danny Ketch to Frank’s Johnny Blaze.’

Spencer & Locke co-creator and former Savage Avengers writer David Pepose will team with Planet of the Apes artist Dave Wachter on a new Punisher series, as a retired SHIELD agent named Joe Garrison takes up the mantle once held by Frank Castle.

“The man might be different, but the punishment remains the same,” said Pepose. “I wanted to introduce the Danny Ketch to Frank’s Johnny Blaze.”

Now that is a great analogy. If you read the recent Jason Aaron-written Punisher series, you know (SPOILER!) that Frank Castle has moved on from this earthly plain. No, he isn’t dead, but he’s on Weirdworld, helping kids and not being the Punisher. So now someone new is stepping into the role.

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Scarlet Scarab will make her comic book debut in July

The character from the ‘Moon Knight’ show on Disney+ will appear in a Moon Knight miniseries.

Layla El-Faouly, the character played by May Calamawy in the Disney+ show Moon Knight, will make her comic book debut in Moon Knight #25, with her costumed identity, the Scarlet Scarab, soon to follow.

The character will be shown in flashbacks as a member of the Karnak Cowboys, a mercenary group that Marc Specter was a part of. The character will then make her superhero debut in Moon Knight: City of the Dead, a new miniseries by David Pepose and Marcelo Ferreira.

Jed MacKay, writer of Moon Knight, said that the character will debut in one of three stories that will appear in Moon Knight #25, an oversized issue featuring art by Alessandro Cappuccio, Alessandro Vitti and Partha Pratim. 

“Working on Moon Knight #25 was a bit of a mammoth task… 70 pages of story, cutting between three stories, each with their own artist,” Jed MacKay told IGN. “It was a really exciting opportunity to have that much space to work in, telling a Moon Knight story in a longer form than we’re usually used to.” 

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IDW explores what happened after ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’ in a new miniseries

Marc Guggenheim and Oleg Chudakov pit Captain Kirk and crew against their doppelgängers.

IDW continues to explore new and established frontiers in their Star Trek comics line, and their latest announcement points to more of the latter — Star Trek: The Motion Picture–Echos will follow the original crew in the immediate aftermath of the first Star Trek film.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture hit theaters way back in 1979, and its place in history stands as being the first Star Trek film and immediately proceeding the much more loved Wrath of Khan. I honestly couldn’t even tell you what the story was about, but it sounds like writer Marc Guggenheim and artist Oleg Chudakov thankfully have a better memory than I do.

“Despite watching the occasional fragment of a Star Trek episode here and there with my father, my true introduction was going to see Star Trek: The Motion Picture with my grandparents—I was entranced. I’m thrilled that IDW and Paramount Global have allowed me to revisit that time period, which was so impactful to me and my love of Star Trek,” Guggenheim said. “Almost all Trek stories are told from the point of view of the Enterprise crew, but I was interested in telling a story from the perspective of an outsider as a means of recapturing how it felt for me when I first saw Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

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Loki returns in a new miniseries by Watters + Peralta

The Asgardian god takes a road trip around the Marvel Universe this summer.

Dan Watters, the writer of, among other things, the excellent Home Sick Pilots, will make his Marvel debut this summer on Loki, a four-issue miniseries starring the Asgardian god of mischief.

Watters will work with artist Germán Peralta, whose work has appeared in Black Panther, Maestro and Strikeforce, among other titles, as they send Loki on a cosmic road trip of sorts.

“It’s hard to say what a delight it is to be making my Marvel debut, even more so to be doing it with the God of Stories himself—taking him all the way around the Marvel Universe and back again,” Watters said. “I can’t wait for all to see the beauty Germán’s art is breathing into this tale we have to tell you, full of magic, danger—and if Loki can’t help himself (he can’t)—quite a smidge of mischief.”

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What Are You Reading? | ‘Pulp,’ ‘Amazing Spider-Man,’ ‘Hedra’ 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 — including comics from the past, present and future.

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

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Marvel announces new ‘X-Men’ titles, creative teams in San Diego

The ‘Dawn of X’ brings six new titles featuring Marvel’s merry mutants.

Jonathan Hickman’s run on the X-Men starts with House of X and Powers of X, but what happens after that?

In San Diego this weekend, Marvel revealed the details of what the X-titles would look like after these two miniseries end, announcing six titles and their creative teams. The titles will kick off in October and November.

House of X and Powers of X lay the groundwork for a whole new world of X-Men stories for years to come, and the Dawn of X books are the promise of that new world come to life,” X-Men Senior Editor Jordan D. White told Marvel.com. “They are the start of the new era that will change how we think of the X-Men and the kinds of stories we tell with them. It all begins here.”

The titles are:

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All-star line-up assembles for new Spider-Man tale

‘Amazing Spider-Man: Full Circle’ will feature appearances by Nick Fury, Wolverine and Peter Porker.

Marvel has announced a new Spider-Man project titled “Full Circle,” which brings the character together with Wolverine, Nick Fury and Peter Porker — and features the work of a Murderer’s Row of writers and artist.

I mean, check out this line-up: Written by Nick Spencer, Jonathan Hickman, Gerry Duggan, Al Ewing, Chip Zdarsky, Kelly Thompson and Jason Aaron; Art by Chris Bachalo, Chris Sprouse, Greg Smallwood, Michael Allred, Rachael Stott, Valerio Schiti, Cameron Stewart and Mark Bagley; Cover by Rod Reis.

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