Welcome back to The Beat Digest, a twice-weekly round-up of the biggest comics-related news stories we’ve missed every Tuesday and Friday. Is there a story out there you think we should cover? Be sure to let us know in the comments.
§ Riot Games co-founder and chairman Brandon Beck has donated original copies of 1939’s Action Comics #1 (the first appearance of Superman), and 1941’s Captain America Comics #1 to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC. Beck also donated a copy of Cap’s first appearance, and Captain America Comics #46, to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The latter issue, published in 1945, marked one of the first portrayals of a concentration camp in American pop culture.
§ ICv2 reports Top Shelf will release We Are Pan, a historical graphic novel by Andre Frattino (Simon Says) and Yasmín Flores Montañez (Sí, Se Puede: The Latino Heroes Who Changed The United States). The book chronicles Operation Pedro Pan (Peter Pan), which the US government and Catholic Welfare Bureau conducted in the early 1960s to relocate 14,000 children from Fidel Castro‘s Cuba. The book, which will feature a foreword by Alex Segura, will be released on June 2.
§ Dark Horse revealed the next entry in their Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories graphic novels will star Samuel L. Jackson‘s Jedi Master Mace Windu. Mace, by writer Justina Ireland and artist Georges Duarte (Harley Quinn), will follow a young Windu, who finds himself having to rescue the alien king he was assigned to protect. It will be released on August 11. In the meantime, Vol. 2 of the series, Hyperspace Stories: Grievous, will land in stores on March 17.
§ Mad Cave will release a new edition of The Last Starfighter Movie Adaptation, the original graphic novelization of the 1984 film by Bill Mantlo, Bret Blevins, and Tony Salmons. It will arrive on June 23, and mark the first in a number of Last Starfighter projects from the publisher, who announced they would release a sequel to the movie by Benjamin Raab, Deric A. Hughes, and Willi Roberts last year.
§ IDW’s Godzilla: The Roleplaying Game has gone live on Kickstarter, where it has already made double its $60,000 goal, with 27 days still left to go. The game, which marks the first tabletop RPG for the character, is based on the publisher’s new Kai-Sei Era of comics, where Godzilla and the other kaiju were awakened by the titular energy source, and will allow players to battle the monsters as members of G-Force.
§ Marvel Television uploaded the first episode of Wonder Man to YouTube for free. The acclaimed series, starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley, was released in its entirety on Disney+ on January 27.
§ Daredevil: Born Again season two has received a fast food tie-in from Blaze Pizza, who are now serving up a limited time Sweet Heat pizza. The mozzarella dish will feature an appropriately spicy red sauce, double pepperoni, roasted red peppers, and Mike’s Hot Honey. Drops will also be available every Tuesday when a new episode premieres via the Blaze Pizza app, with further offers available to loyalty program members. Born Again season two will premiere on Disney+ on Tuesday, March 24, at 9pm ET.
§ LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight continued to show off having the rights to Prince‘s album for the 1989 film, with a “henchperson orientation” video featuring the instrumental for “Trust” (the song played during the Joker’s parade in the movie.) The game, which’ll also feature a recreation of the “Partyman” sequence (song included), will be released on the PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S on Friday, May 29.
§ Finally, live-action One Piece star Iñaki Godoy teamed up with Sesame Street to teach Elmo the Japanese word for close friends, “nakama.” You can watch the charming YouTube short below. It’s the latest promo from Netflix leveraging their Sesame Street connection for various originals, after the streamer stepped in to co-produce the legendary kids’ show last year. One Piece season two premieres Tuesday, March 10.
