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.
§ That Texas Blood is returning after three-and-a-half years, with issue #21 on June 3. The new arc of Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips‘s crime series, published by Image, will follow Sheriff Joe Bob Coates in 2003, as he’s called in to the country’s largest and richest ranch, “where family grievances are blooming into full-blown war.” A facsimile, newsprint edition of the series’ first issue will also be released on the same day. That Texas Blood‘s last issue was released in December 2022, although a spin-off, The Enfield Gang Massacre, was released the following year.
Image also announced The Eye Collector, a cosmic horror series by Jonathan Ball (Last Breeds) and GMB Chomichuk (Apocrypha: The Legend of Babymetal), starting June 24. The book tells a multi-generational story revolving around a creature that’s awakened when Apollo 11’s astronauts make wishes over the Moon, and who then proceeds to offer two neglectful parents the chance to pursue their dreams, “in exchange for their son’s eyes.” It was originally published by Heavy Metal’s Virus imprint in 2021.
§ Via IGN, IDW announced The Rocketeer: Infiltrator!, a new series by writer Gabriel Hardman and artist Dean Kotz, starting July 8. The book will see Betty pose as a defector to Nazi Germany, and Cliff Secord as her brother and manager, and an MI6 agent as her movie co-star, all to uncover an Axis superweapon. As well as their mission, Cliff will have to contend with the British spy possibly stealing her real affection! The current Rocketeer series, the King Kong crossover The Island, will conclude in the meantime with issue #4 sometime in June.
§ Via Collider, Titan revealed a graphic biography of Steven Spielberg by Amazing Ameziane, simply titled Spielberg. The book will imagine how the director would tell his whole life story, as opposed to just the part he adapted into the semi-autobigraphical The Fabelmans. It will be released in September, in-between between the release of Spielberg’s latest film, Disclosure Day, on June 12, and his 80th birthday on December 18. It will mark Ameziane’s fifth biography of a major filmmaker, following books about Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Sergio Leone, also published by Titan.
§ At AIPT, Ignition Press unveiled Dispatched. Not to be confused with Nebula Award-nominated video game Dispatch, the action series by writer B. Clay Moore (Bloodland) and artist Daniel Gete (Skin Police) revolves around a former black ops agent working as a delivery driver, who finds himself trapped in an office park’s parking garage after terrorists lay siege to it. He “must rely on his instincts, his training, and a van full of mystery packages as he fights his way through escalating danger to save hostages.” Issue #1 releases June 24.
§ NetEase revealed Black Cat and White Fox will be the next playable characters added to Marvel Rivals. White Fox/Ami Han will be the first addition for Season 7: The Hunt is On, which launches today. White Fox, a South Korean spy and shapeshifter (known as a kumiho), was created by Young hoon Ko, and first appeared in 2014’s webtoon Avengers: Electric Rain #1.
§ Warner Bros. dropped the teaser trailer for Dune: Part Three, revealing Brian K. Vaughan wrote the film with director Denis Villeneuve. The movie, based on the second book, Dune: Messiah, marks Vaughan’s first produced film script. The Saga scribe previously worked on LOST, an unproduced reboot of Buck Rogers, and as showrunner on Under the Dome, and penned unrealized screenplays for Silver Surfer, Gundam, and a remake of Forbidden Planet. Dune: Part Three will be released on December 18, the same day as Avengers: Doomsday.
§ Speaking of Buck Rogers, Mad Cave will release a new edition of Flash Gordon: The Movie Adaptation, the official comic of the 1980 film, on July 7. The book, by Bruce Jones, the late Al Williamson, and Rick Veitch, was originally serialized in Whitman’s Flash Gordon #31-33 in 1981. The reveal comes on the heels of Mad Cave announcing a reprint of Marvel’s Last Starfighter adaptation, and the new era of their Flash Gordon series in the coming months.
§ Universal Studios Hollywood unveiled this year’s Fan Fest Nights events, running the weekends of April 23-25, May 1-3, 7-9, and 14-16. They will include two manga-inspired events, One Piece: Grand Pirate Show, a live stunt extravaganza at the WaterWorld venue, and screenings of Sailor Moon: The Miracle – Moon Palace Chapter Deluxe, a 4D short film that originally premiered at Universal Studios Japan in 2018. Tickets are available now.
§ Finally, at EW, Daredevil: Born Again star Charlie Cox hammered another nail in the coffin of the MCU’s Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), revealing the show’s creators considered revealing the character was alive and imprisoned by Wilson Fisk in the first season finale, before deciding against it. “Sadly, that was not the case,” he says, “because we didn’t believe that it was realistic. And the thing about our show is we try to keep it as realistic as possible.” Foggy, who was killed off in the first episode of Born Again, will appear in flashbacks in the second season, which will premiere on Disney+ on Tuesday, March 24, at 9pm ET.
