Hello comics fans, and welcome to the very last Comics Relief of 2016. It’s been a rough year all around, but there have been several highlights in the world of comics (DC’s Rebirth, anyone?) We start this week with Marvel bringing a little real world politics into the pages of Captain America. Read on for all the details.

Will Marvel’s newest Falcon get deported??

With longtime Marvel character Sam Wilson taking up the mantle of Captain America, that left a vacant spot in the Marvel Universe for someone to take up the wings and name of the Falcon, his former heroic persona. That person ended up being Latin-American hero Joaquin Torres. But in a preview for next week’s Captain America: Sam Wilson #17, it looks like our newest Falcon might face a real world obstacle: deportation.

In the preview for issue #17,  it seems the conservative news media in the Marvel Universe is trying to get the all-new Falcon deported for being an undocumented immigrant. You can see the preview for the issue by Nick Spencer and Paul Renaud by clicking on the following link:  [Newsarama]

IDW Comics’ CEO to write new horror anthology book

IDW Publishing is known primarily for its wealth of licensed comics like Transformers and Ghostbusters, but the company does have some successful original IPs. Now IDW CEO and Publisher Ted Adams has announced that he will be writing his first creator-owned comic book series and adding to those original properties, with a new horror anthology called Diablo House, together with newcomer artist Santi Perez. This would not be Adams first time as a comics writer, as he wrote a 2015 adaptation of Richard Matheson’s The Shrinking Man illustrated by Mark Torres.

In an interview, Adams said “I was in Barcelona last year for the Barcelona Comics Festival, and was doing portfolio reviews. I met an artist named Santi Perez. It’s very rare that this happens. but I loved his art so much that I actually tried to buy some of his original art when he was showing it to me, which he wouldn’t sell me. But I hired him basically on the spot to do some work for us.”

“My book is very much in the vein of the DC horror comics that were prevalent in the ’70s — House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Ghosts, The Witching Hour, all those kinds of books.” He added “The premise is that there’s a house in La Jolla, California, called Diablo House, which is modeled after Antoni Gaudí’s work in Barcelona. Basically, in this house, there’s a host, just like there would be in classic horror comics, and people can go in and essentially sell their soul to their devil. Every issue’s going to be a throwback to those twisted tales from the ’70s. Every issue is going to be a standalone story. I’m looking forward to sharing it with the world.” The first issue of Diablo House is set for the second half of 2017. [CBR]

Love is Love benefit comic actually released its second printing first

Did you grab a copy of Love Is Love, the all-star benefit comic from DC Comics and IDW, which helps the victims and families of the Orlando Pulse shooting? If you did, you were one of the lucky ones, as copies of this comic, which features work by Jim Lee, JK Rowling, and a who’s who of comic book greats, sold out quickly upon release this week. But if you did get a copy, you actually got a second printing of the book, not a first printing…even though this week’s issue was the first released.

So what happened? Apparently, there was a post-production delay on the first printing of the book, because the UPC barcode was misprinted, and needed a sticker adding to every copy. Because of this, the publishers issued a second printing, which got to comic book stores before the first printing. The first printing will show up in stores sooner rather than later, as well as a third printing down the line. Eventually, there will be no excuse not to get this book and help out those in need who were so affected by this year’s tragedy. [Bleeding Cool]

Doom Patrol artist redesigns DC icon the Martian Manhunter

Many have tried to redesign Martian Manhunter’s original costume while retaining many of the original visual elements. Here’s my attempt. pic.twitter.com/m3nqooZvxN

— Nick Derington (@NickDerington) December 20, 2016

Although the J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter, was a founding member of the Justice League of America back in 1960, and served with the team for most of its long history, the New 52 replaced his founding member status with Cyborg instead. Although he had his own title during the New 52 era, he seems to be MIA in DC Rebirth.

Maybe hoping for a comeback, current Doom Patrol artist Nick Derington has redesigned J’onn, with a new look that is a little more in line with his classic appearance, although still updated for the modern day. He showed fans his new Manhunter design via Twitter (which you can see above). Considering how important J’onn is on the Supergirl TV show, maybe DC will bring the character into the new Supergirl title, and maybe they’ll take up Derington on his offer of updating the character. [Newsarama]

Classic member of Marvel’s New Mutants gets a new identity in U.S.Avengers

One of the original members of the very first X-Men spin-off title The New Mutants was Roberta DaCosta, aka Sunspot. Since those classic New Mutants days, he’s become a member of X-Force, and more recently joined up with his New Mutant buddy Cannonball as a member of the Avengers. Now Sunspot is going to be leading the U.S.Avengers, which is a new branch of the team put together by American Intelligence Mechanics, or A.I.M.

But it appears as if Roberto won’t be calling himself Sunspot anymore — instead, he’ll be taking up the unused name of the original Thunderbolts leader, Citizen V. And judging from the preview panel above, he still prefers the old name. The first issue of U.S.Avengers by Al Ewing, Juan Vlasco and Paco Medina hits on January 4, 2017. You can check out a preview at the following link:  [CBR]

Frank Cho shows off rejected Han Solo Star Wars cover

It’s been a controversial year for artist Frank Cho. He lost his gig as Wonder Woman cover artist due to conflicts with writer Greg Rucka, who (allegedly) found Cho’s artwork too cheesecakey and sexist. Apparently, Marvel also had him re-do a recent cover for their Star Wars title. Originally, he did a version of slave Leia (no surprise there), until Lucasfilm/Disney informed him that they had retired the slave Leia look for promotions or art. So he did a Han Solo cover instead. Still, Disney even requested changes to that one, asking that Han’s famous line “I know” from The Empire Strikes Back be removed (who knows why). You can see Cho’s finished art above, and the changed one in our gallery below. [Bleeding Cool]

Images: Marvel Comics / DC Comics / IDW Publishing