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.
§ Via Variety, production on The Batman Part II has been temporarily paused while director Matt Reeves steps away to deal with an undisclosed family matter. “Matt has the full support of DC Studios and we look forward to continuing the journey soon,” a statement read. It’s unknown what impact this will have on the movie, currently scheduled for February 18, 2028, but in any case, The Beat wishes Reeves and his family all the best.
In other Warner Bros. news, incoming co-CEO David Ellison confirmed the company’s parent after the Paramount merger will be named Skydance. Skydance was the name of Ellison’s production company, which was founded in 2006, before the acquisition of Paramount in 2025, after which the company was known officially as Paramount Skydance. Presumably, the name Warner Bros. Paramount Skydance was deemed to be too big, unlike the resulting company.
§ In Disney news, Avengers: Endgame Encore has allowed the film to reclaim its crown as the highest-grossing movie of all time from Avatar. The fourth Avengers movie has made a total of $2.925 billion worldwide thanks to its extended rerelease on September 25, while Avatar, which has had five rereleases since its debut in 2009, has grossed $2.923 billion. Either way, the Mouse, which owns Marvel Studios and Avatar distributor 20th Century Studios, wins!
Meanwhile, Variety reports Disney will begin licensing out titles to Netflix as a way of drumming up hype for future Disney+ exclusives, such as the first two seasons of Percy Jackson (season three of which premieres November 20). No Marvel or Lucasfilm productions are listed as being slated to go to the streamer, which hasn’t had any besides the Spider-Man films since Disney+ launched, but with Avengers: Doomsday, Star Wars: Starfighter et al. on the horizon, it’s entirely plausible they will.
§ Halo and Destiny creator Jason Jones, and Destiny 2 narrative director Margaret Stohl, have launched a new production company, called Stone Kite. While its projects will encompass many different types of media, its first is One Zero One, a four-issue comic by Jones, Eric Heisserer, and a host of artists (including Dan Panosian, Ramón K. Pérez, Alitha Martinez, Raúl Allén, and Hyeonjin Kim), imagining a war between humanity and robotic soldiers. Issue #1, which is 80 pages long, was released last week, while physical copies are available to pre-order now.
§ Mad Cave will publish French graphic novel The Great Death Vol. 1 in English this winter. A contemporary fantasy graphic novel, created by writers Régis Loisel & JB Djian with artist Vincent Mallié in 2007, The Great Death follows a student and her friend, who discover a hidden world of “little people” in the countryside, and how the “fragile balance” between their world and ours is beginning to fail. It will retail at 240 pages for $19.99 on December 23.
§ Weird Work creators Jordan Thomas and Shaky Kane are crowdfunding a sequel, The Floating God Murders. The book, which launches on Kickstarter today, follows detective Ovra Sawce as he’s sent to a moon colony to investigate an apparent serial killer. The first Weird Work was also crowdfunded on Kickstarter, before being released by Image in 2023.
§ Finally, writer Si Spurrier (The Flash, John Constantine, Hellblazer) has launched a serialized prose novel about the Minotaur on Patreon, titled Asterion (the creature’s actual name in Greek mythology), or The Cretan Project. The book is a sympathetic take on the Minoan half-man, half-bull, in “a tale about othering, parenthood and childhood’s end, set at a time when nations were clashing and religions were waxing fanatical.” You can read the first chapter (or listen to an audio version) via the links provided here.
