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.
§ Dark Horse revealed a Usagi Yojimbo Winter Special One-Shot, featuring three new stories by series creator Stan Sakai & colorist Emi Fujii; Julie Sakai (Chibi Usagi); and Zack Rosenberg & Jared Cullum (Usagi Yojimbo: Kaitō ’84). The stories will respectively follow Usagi learning to make Dorodango spheres; woodcutters struggling to prepare for New Year’s celebrations; and a gang disrupting an orphanage’s Christmas Eve. It will retail for $5.99 on January 27, 2027. Kaitō ’84‘s trade paperback will be released beforehand on November 24.
The publisher also unveiled a full color edition of Space Usagi: Warrior. The new edition of Sakai’s series will feature colors by Fujii, and a new back-up by Shawn Daley, where Usagi gets “stranded on a strange planet where unbreakable crystals hide a dark secret.” Originally published in 1996, Warrior was the third and final volume of Space Usagi, and saw Usagi and Lord Kiyoshi battle space pirates for the Shirohoshi clan treasure. Issue #1 (of 3) will cost $6.99 when it releases on January 6, 2027.
§ Via Den of Geek, IDW announced Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tear in Time, a third continuation of the TV show (itself a spin-off of the Mutant Mayhem movie) by writer Andrew Joustra and artist Louie Joyce. It will see the latest incarnation of the turtles get taken into a dystopian future by Renet Tilley, to save the world from the alien Triceratons. Issue #1 releases December 12. Issue #2 (of 3) of Joustra and Joyce’s second Tales comic, Coastal Chaos, will arrive on October 21.
§ Marvel dropped a new TV spot for VisionQuest, providing us a brief first look at a very Ultron-esque Jocasta (T’Nia Miller). The series will premiere with two episodes on Disney+ on Wednesday, October 14.
Speaking of the MCU, Avengers: Endgame Encore opened domestically at No. 1, grossing $26 million in North America, and $60 million overseas. The rerelease (featuring a new ending, mid-credits, and post-credits scenes) now brings the former highest-grossing movie of all time’s box office to a total of $2.88 billion worldwide. In the meantime, you can read a spoiler breakdown of the new footage with the Russo brothers at Empire magazine.
And in more MCU news, Deadline reports Sony is planning a similar rerelease of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, that would (among other things) restore Rosario Dawson‘s deleted appearance as Netflix MCU mainstay Claire Temple. Despite the timing, we should remember Sony also released an extended cut of No Way Home, titled The More Fun Stuff Version, in 2022. Brand New Day has grossed $2.5 billion worldwide to date, surpassing No Way Home‘s haul of $1.9 billion.
§ Finally, Deadline also reports new Resident Evil movie producer Carter Swan is developing a film version of The Crying Boy by Niall O’Rourke and Rob Moran. The Ringo-nominated horror comic, published by Keenspot in 2024, follows a widow who must save her young son, when a painting of a crying child that he “befriends” turns out to be hosting a demon. Rona Mark (Objects Attack!) will pen the script.
