Writer Dan Slott has signed a new exclusive contract with Marvel. Elijah Wood’s production company is teaming up with Oni Press for a pop-up imprint. Batman‘s newest villain is revealed. All on Comic Book Club News for December 5, 2023.
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Episode Transcript:
Dan Slott resigns with Marvel.
Elijah Wood teams up with Oni Press.
New Batman villain revealed.
This is Comic Book Club News for December 5, 2023.
Dan Slott Reups Exclusive Contract With Marvel:
Dan Slott has resigned with Marvel. And to be clear, we mean he’s signed again, not left his job. That was a confusing way of wording that, I guess.
As reported by Popverse, the news was announced at this past weekend’s LA Comic Con. Said Slott: “I’m very grateful to be part of Team Marvel and hope to keep earning my keep with them for years to come!”
Slott has been working for the publisher consistently for the past two decades, after jumping back and forth between both Marvel and DC. He’s currently writing both the adjectiveless Spider-Man book, and the Spider-Boy spinoff, both of which have been bestsellers for Marvel. Beyond that, he recently fulfilled a lifelong dream by writing a Doctor Who graphic novel for Titan Comics. Per the exclusive agreement, writers are not allowed to write for major publishers like DC.
And honestly, if Slott, an enormous Doctor Who fan, wasn’t allowed to write that book, he probably would have resigned. This time we mean the other one.
Elijah Wood Teams Up With Oni Press For Pop-Up Imprint:
Elijah would if he could… And he can. Or more specifically, his production company SpectreVision can team up with Oni Press for a new, pop-up imprint called High Strangeness.
While it has yet to be announced how many titles will be under this imprint, they will all focus on “real” paranormal stories that have been documented throughout the 20th Century.
Said Wood via press release: “Comics feel uniquely suited to explore this wide-ranging spectrum of paranormal phenomena, utilizing the limitless possibilities of the medium to give shape to the often gaussian accounts of what cannot be explained through traditional means.”
I mean, I’m always trying to give shape to gaussian accounts, you know me.
To give further legitimacy to the project, Jim Perry, a popular podcaster behind true tales of the paranormal podcasts, will serve as a creative consultant on the project. You’ll have to wait a while for whatever this turns out to be, though, as High Strangeness won’t debut until 2025. Pretty… Gaussian if you ask me. Did I use that right? I bet I did.
New Batman Villain Revealed In Latest Issue:
In Batman #140, written by Chip Zdarksy with art by Jorge Jimenez, we met the next great villain to go against Batman. Only with a very familiar face. Spoilers for the issue past this point.
In the latest arc of the series, Batman has seen his mind taken over by the Batman of Zur En Arrh, an alternate personality that is far more extreme than Bruce Wayne. After battling versions of Zur from throughout he multiverse, including a Frank Miller inspired version, Batman is beaten.
When he wakes up, he finds out he’s been taken captive by his version of Zur… With one major difference. The villainous Batman has found a way to transfer his personality into the body of Failsafe, the unstoppable robot from Zdarsky’s first arc on the series. Yikes!
You’ll have to wait a bit to find out what happens next, as the three subsequent issues flash back and forward to show the origin and future of The Joker. But after that, we’re back with an arc that seems to throw Batman in a prison of Zursafe’s design. I don’t know if he’s actually called Zursafe, I just like portmanteaus.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. And if you don’t allow me to use gaussian portmanteaus, I will resign.
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