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.
§ At last week’s genre-centric Critics Choice Super Awards, James Gunn‘s Superman picked up Best Superhero Movie, and Best Actor in the genre for David Corenswet, while Milly Alcock won the equivalent Best Actress award for Supergirl. Over in the TV categories, Spider-Noir and The Boys tied for Best Superhero Series, and Antony Starr won Best Actor in a Superhero Series, and Best Villain, for his swan song as Homelander. DC also picked up a fourth prize, with Danielle Brooks‘s performance on Peacemaker winning Best Actress in a Superhero Series. For the full list of this year’s winners, click here.
§ In an interview with Collider, Brad Winderbaum confirmed seasons three and four of X-Men ’97 will be released in 2027 and 2028. The animated revival series premiered on Disney+ in 2024, shortly after original showrunner Beau DeMayo was fired for alleged misconduct, and season two (which will conclude tomorrow, August 12) arrived two years later. Winderbaum also tells us to expect seasons to remain 9-10 episodes, saying, “Sometimes you have to decide, ‘Do you want a season to come out sooner or do you want more episodes?’ I tend to vote to get them out as soon as possible, even if you have to save some stories for subsequent seasons.”
§ Over at Variety, actor/writer Simon Farnaby (Paddington, Wonka) revealed he planned to reteam with Paul King (who directed the aforementioned films) on a Star Wars movie revolving around a droid. “They [Lucasfilm] were like, we really need it to be a Star Wars movie,” he says, “which is probably why it didn’t get turned into a Star Wars movie! But we never really nailed it.” While Farnaby doesn’t mention the project by name, he may be referring to the animated A Droid Story, which was announced in 2020, but has never been mentioned by anyone involved in Star Wars since.
§ Down the Tubes shares 77 Publishing will release the second volume of Ian Gibson‘s Lifeboat, with Anna Morozova (2000 AD) taking over the art for the graphic novel. Gibson, who was best known for creating The Ballad of Halo Jones with Alan Moore, had completed the script for the second Lifeboat, and outlined the third, before his death in 2023. The sci-fi series, which debuted earlier in 2023, is pitched as being “What if Romeo and Juliet had had a child?” against the backdrop of an space mining colony revolution.
§ Via Games Press, Roditeli Productions will crowdfund a comic based on the controversial video game series Postal. Postal, which should not be confused with the Image Comics series, was created by developer Running with Scissors in 1997, and revolves around a man who goes, well, postal. The book will see “an ad for a sinister dating app” cause the character to descend “into a spiral of conspiracy-fueled madness.” It is being written by Kevin Roditeli (SWAT Kats) and Rob Cannon (Freak Snow), with art by Alex Riegel (The Scumbag), and is launching on Kickstarter today.
§ Viz Media posted a video of a conversation between two very different manga authors: Inuyasha creator Rumiko Takahashi, and horror icon Junji Ito. The conversation, which was filmed during last year’s Art of Manga exhibit at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, sees the pair discuss a potential collaboration, among other topics. The Art of Manga exhibit will relocate to New York’s Brooklyn Museum on October 3, 2026.
§ Finally, the Summer 2026 edition of SAG-AFTRA Magazine has revealed Canadian voice actor and director Michael Donovan died on March 4, 2026. He was 72 years old. Donovan’s roles included Master Roshi on the Ocean dub of Dragon Ball (1995); the Grey Hulk on 1997’s Incredible Hulk cartoon, a part he reprised in video games; Carnage on Spider-Man Unlimited (1999); Sabretooth on X-Men: Evolution (2000); King Randor on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002); and various characters on LEGO Star Wars projects. He also provided additional voices for The Force Awakens (2015), and Rogue One (2016). No information was provided on any survivors.
