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Comics: He-Man limited series; Marvel's DOC Justice & J-Team; and Skybound's Heart Attack
You could send in $10 for a pair of X-ray specs, or just check out our latest comic book news roundup. In today's line-up, we bring you developments on He-Man, Marvel's newly-announced hero team, and an X-Men-esque series from Skybound.
With the major news of Kevin Smith's He-Man series at Netflix breaking over the weekend, you'll be happy to know that DC and Mattel will be keeping the Masters of the Universe momentum going with a six-issue limited series, He-Man and the Masters of the Multiverse.
“With multiple He-Mans working together from different dimensions to save the multiverse, this series created in partnership with the expert writers and illustrators from DC Comics will be sure to delight new and old fans alike, while adding an entirely new dimension to the Power of Grayskull," said Rob David, VP of Mattel in a statement.
Written by Tim Seeley and drawn by Dan Fraga and Richard Friend, the limited arc finds Anti-Eternia threatening every single member of the multiverse, feeding on power and leaving destruction in his wake. To stop him, the remaining He-Men of the multiverse must band together to save what's left, but they can't do it alone. In order to win, they'll need the help of Prince Keldor, the man who would be Skeletor!
“DC has had a long-standing and exciting partnership with Mattel in bringing the adventures of He-Man to comics and our fans,” added Hank Kanalz, SVP, Publishing Strategy and Support Services. “DC also knows what it means to showcase characters from across its own multiverse; I’m looking forward to seeing the different iterations of He-Man and other Masters of the Universe characters in this series.”
Issue #1 goes on sale Wednesday, Nov. 20. Inhyuk Lee is handling cover art.
Earlier today, the Marvel Twitter account teased the arrival of a brand-new superhero team, DOC Justice and the J-Team. The name appears on a timeline that dates back to the early '60s, showing the progression of teams from the Avengers, to the Defenders, to the Thunderbolts. As Newsarama points out, the timeline curiously leaves out the New Warriors, a group that's still looking for a home to air its TV show.
"The next great Super Hero team... #MarvelComics," reads the accompanying caption of the tweet.
The term "justice" is most often associated with DC's Justice League, but it looks like Marvel is about to co-opt the word for its own purposes. Not much is known about DOC Justice and the J-Team, but the post does promise that we'll get to see them arrive before the year is out.
Lastly, we bring you news of Skybound's upcoming new comic series, Heart Attack from writer Shawn Kittelsen (Mortal Kombat 11) and artist Eric Zawadzki (The Dregs, Eternal). Set in a future where gene therapy has cured Americans from most diseases, a group of super-powered, mutant-adjacent individuals known as Variants have begun to crop up. Considered second-class citizens and denied their basic human rights, this disenfranchised group decides to rebel against the system.
"Way back in 2014, I had an idea for this series that was all about the future — a nightmare that America could become, if we weren't careful. But in 2019, many of us are living that nightmare daily, in one headline after another — hatred, violence, injustice, disparity, disenfranchisement and more. So while this book is set in the future, it's really about our world today. It's about how people find love in hopeless times, and how our personal bonds inspire the courage to rise against forces bigger than ourselves," said Kittelsen. "I'm super grateful to everyone at Skybound for the time and effort they've put into this series, and for giving me a platform to tell an unconventional sci-fi love story that's more concerned with emotional arcs than action scenes. The best thing about working on this series has been collaborating with Eric. Whatever's in my mind's eye when I'm writing scripts, Eric finds a way to make it more impactful, dramatic, and beautiful. His character performances are award-worthy. It's impossible for me to imagine this book drawn by anyone else. Add Michael's colors to that, and this book is a visual stunner. I can't wait for you all to see what we have in store!"
"All the politics, fireworks and twists and turns are just the backdrop of a story about two people who find a very special connection with each other," said Zawadzki. "What excites me about this comic is how it uses a sci-fi metaphor to convey that universal feeling of developing a crush on someone new. That feeling of being with that new person in your life is emotionally very powerful and I think we found a unique way of capturing it. Shawn's scripts have been challenging in specific ways that have forced me to grow as a storyteller and that's been very exciting for me. There are certain sequences in this series that I can’t wait to show off."
Like the He-Man book we mentioned above, Issue #1 of Heart Attack goes on sale Wednesday, Nov. 20.
