Happy New Comics Day everyone, and welcome to your mid-week edition of Comics Relief! Today we’ve got news on the return of Steve Rogers to the Captain America role, plus Mike Mignola’s art getting the deluxe treatment at IDW. But first, some news on DC’s “It Girl” of the moment, Miss Harley Quinn. Read on for the full scoop…
Harley Quinn gets a Jim Lee illustrated special in time for April Fool’s
By now, it’s likely you’ve seen the new Sucide Squad trailer, wherein Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn steals the show. Harley has definitely become one of DC’s lead characters, and to celebrate that fact, DC is putting out a new one-shot called Harley Quinn and the Suicide Squad April Fool’s Special. The special is written by Rob Williams and drawn by none other that DC co-publisher Jim Lee, and featuring additional art from Sean Galloway.
According to the official description, “Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel, M.D., welcomes you to Evil Anonymous, the support group for super villains in need; where no problem is too insane or homicidal, and where discretion is assured as only a clown princess of crime can—which is to say, not at all. But when Harley Quinn starts using her patients’ own evil schemes against them, it turns out that a much bigger, far more dangerous, and truly life-altering joke is being played on her.” The one-shot comes out on April 6th. You can see the full Jim Lee cover below. For more info, check out our full story here: [Nerdist]
Marvel Teases New Thunderbolts Series
With all the titles coming from All-New, All-Different Marvel post-Secret Wars, it was pretty surprising there wasn’t a comic with the name Thunderbolts among them. Well! That looks to be changing very soon. The “bad guys go good” series, originally from writer Kurt Busiek and artist Mark Bagley, was a critical and fan favorite for years.
There have been other iterations of the team over the past two decades, but judging by the teaser that Marvel released this week, we can see that original members Moonstone and MachVII are back in the fold, so this is likely the classic team. Who the creative team is on this new Thunderbolts series is still a mystery, but I imagine we’ll know a whole lot more very soon. You can see the teaser image below: [Newsarama]
Aftershock Comics Teams Up With comixology and Amazon
New comics publisher Aftershock has already made quite a splash during its brief existence, and now they’ve officially announced a new distribution agreement, making AfterShock Comics’ slate of titles—such as Replica, InSeXts and American Monster—all available on both comiXology and the Kindle Store.
In a statement, EIC Mike Marts said, “since our official launch less than a year ago, AfterShock has experienced incredible traction and acclaim through our inaugural titles from some of the industry’s most celebrated creators. We’re extremely proud of our growing content library and excited to offer AfterShock’s current and future titles to a much wider audience through this partnership with comiXology and Kindle.”
Steve Rogers Returns to the Role of Captain America
It was only a matter of time wasn’t it? On ABC’s Captain America 75th Anniversary Special, Marvel officially announced that Steve Rogers will be back wearing the costume and shield of Captain America once again. And all just in time for his fifth big screen outing in Captain America: Civil War. The new comic will be called Captain America: Steve Rogers, and is coming from the creative team of Nick Spencer and Jesus Saiz. In case you’re wondering, the former Falcon Sam Wilson will still retain the title Captain America as well. Why have one, when two is better?
Said writer Nick Spencer of his new series “Without spoiling too much of Standoff at this early date, something happens that restore Steve to full vigor, which will obviously greatly impact his own mission and his standing within the Marvel Universe. The biggest part of that? He’s Captain America once again.” For more on this announcement, check out our full story right here: [Nerdist]
DC Goes Full ’90s with new Bloodlines Mini-Series
In a true sign that rhe ’90s are absolutely, totally back, DC has announced a new mini-series in April giving fans a modern continuity version of the 1993 crossover event Bloodlines. The new Bloodlines is a six-issue miniseries, written by J.T. Krul and with art by V. Ken Marion, who had previously collaborated on multiple projects over at Aspen Comics.
Described by DC as a “dark and horrifying science-fiction epic,” this new version repeats the concept of the original, with aliens infecting humans with transformative results. This version of Bloodlines calls the process a “fate much worse than death.” The first issue, called Bloodlines: Hostile Takeover, hits on April 6th. [Comic Book Resources]
IDW Brings Out Mike Mignola’s Amazing Screw-On Head as an Artist’s Edition
Although fans of Mike Mignola‘s Hellboy were saddened recently to learn that he would no longer write/draw the adventures of Big Red once the current series wraps up, there is still news for Mignola fans to get excited about. The folks at IDW have announced that Mike Mignola is back with an all-new Artist’s Edition, featuring his Eisner Award-winning story, The Amazing Screw-On Head. This second Artist’s Edition featuring Mignola’s iconic art will collect the entire one-shot story by Mignola, as well as additional tales from the Screw-On Head collection. The Artist’s Edition hits this June.
Steve Dillon does new Preacher piece for charity
Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s classic Vertigo series Preacher is getting a ton of attention lately, due to the new TV series set to premiere on AMC this summer. Now Dillon is returning to the character he co-created, by drawing a new piece of Jesse Custer for this year’s London Super Comic-Con for charity. The convention is scheduled for February 20th and 21st. [Bleeding Cool]
IMAGES: DC Comics / Marvel Comics / Mike Mignola / Steve Dillon
