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.
§ Dynamite revealed ThunderCats ’85, a new series written with art by George Kambadais. Unlike Dynamite’s other ThunderCats comics, it takes place in the continuity of the original 1985-89 cartoon, although plot details beyond that were vague. Issue #1 will be released on January 6, 2027. In the meantime, issue #1 of Greg Pak & David Cousens‘s relaunch of the main series is available now, and issue #2 of Saladin Ahmed & Andrea Arcari‘s Cheetara will be released tomorrow.
§ Image announced The Territory, a post-apocalyptic five-issue series by writer Joe Pruett (Viking Moon) and artist Philippe Xavier (Crusade). The comic follows a man and a young girl working together to survive 16 years after the collapse of civilization, as they’re hunted across every corner of the Territory “toward[s] a common destiny neither of them could have anticipated.” Issue #1 will be released on January 6.
§ Marvel dropped an Avengers: Doomsday commercial to tie in with the start of Major League Baseball’s World Series, featuring players Bryce Harper, Freddie Freeman, Jacob Misiorowski, Junior Caminero and Randy Arozarena making their way to the Fantastic Four’s Earth-828, where Pedro Pascal‘s Reed Richards throws a ball at Yankee Stadium.
Speaking of Doomsday, The Hollywood Reporter revealed German actress Sandra Hüller (Project Hail Mary, The Zone of Interest) has an undisclosed role in the December 18 release. Could she be playing Doctor Doom’s mother Cynthia, or one of his entourage of Latverian witches? We’ll find out soon enough.
§ Eidos-Montréal dropped “Encore,” an appropriately named new track for the Encore Edition of Guardians of the Galaxy, the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 of the 2021 video game, by Star-Lord (the band created to provide the in-universe origin of Peter Quill’s codename). The Encore Edition will be released on November 5.
§ The official Ghost in the Shell website has revealed a new anime series is in the works, with Science Saru at the helm. Saru produced this year’s The Ghost in the Shell, a series retelling the story of the original manga by Masamune Shirow. If we had to guess, it could cover the manga’s second arc Man-Machine Interface (1997), or other comics that take place between both volumes.
§ The cast of Sabrina the Teenage Witch are reuniting to mark the show’s 30th anniversary with a 15-stop tour, kicking off in Beverly, Massachusetts, on Saturday, October 31. Melissa Joan Hart, Beth Broderick, Caroline Rhea, Nate Richert, Jenna Leigh Green, Elisa Donovan, and David Lascher will participate in the tour to reminisce about the show, act out sketches, and meet-and-greet fans. You can check tickets for each venue here. Sabrina the Teenage Witch premiered on ABC on September 27, 1996, shortly after the TV movie (also starring Joan Hart) aired on Showtime on April 7, 1996.
§ Via The Boardwalk Times, the estate of the late Rocketeer creator Dave Stevens has filed a notice of copyright termination to Disney’s rights to the property. The filing, which was allowed because it’s been 35 years since the release of the movie, means that unless a new deal is reached, Disney will only have until June 12, 2028 to create new Rocketeer media, merchandise etc. Despite attempts to mount another movie, the only Rocketeer media since 1991 was the 2019 Disney Junior cartoon, which featured Billy Campbell as Cliff Secord’s grandson Dave.
§ Finally, BBC News ran an interview with London’s Batman, an anonymous volunteer dressed as the version from the climax of Batman v. Superman (based in turn on the final Batsuit from The Dark Knight Returns), who engages in “random acts of kindness” in the British capital, “from paying for people’s fuel, to filling potholes, and even selling [the chocolate bar] Freddos for their long-lost price of 5p.” As far as we can tell, he’s not Robert Pattinson. You can follow his Instagram account here.
