After a slow first day New York Comic Con 2018 kicked into a new gear as DC Comics, Marvel, Netflix, Amazon and others brought some big panels for day two. The announcements during the second day of NYCC 2018 ranged from comics, movies and TV shows. This wide range of showing made it clear that comic books are really taking over all forms of entertainment. What’s great is that it is not just Marvel and DC Comics. With all that said let’s take a look at the big announcements from the second day of NYCC 2018.
AQUAMAN EXTENDED MOVIE TRAILER
The second day of New York Comic Con kicked off in a big way with DC Comics and Warner Bros. releasing an extended trailer for Aquaman. The trailer was more of a extended sneak peek that normally isn’t released to the public. The extended look was just over five minutes with two extended sequences featuring Aquaman and Mera. The color palette for the movie is now much more vibrant than earlier looks that had more darker tones to it. It’s clear from the entire thing that it is taking much more of an inspiration from Wonder Woman than Snyder’s Man of Steel and Batman v Superman.
The odd part of the first extended sequence was that it felt out of place as it looked like it belonged as part of an Uncharted game rather than Aquaman. This scene will hopefully make more sense in context to the story. The second scene was much better, mostly because it gave us our first look at Black Manta and his crew in action. Though it is a bit worrisome that both extended sequences felt like they were happening against green screen the entire time rather than practical effects. That is something that is even more apparent when we see Aquaman in his comic book accurate costume at the end of the trailer. Though seeing Aquaman in his gold and green costume does give me hope for the movie.
Source: Warner Bros. Pictures YouTube
FIRST LOOK AT DC BLACK LABEL’S THREE JOKERS
Geoff Johns possibly had the largest presence in terms of announcements during the second day of NYCC 2018. From his panel we got new looks and details about the comic books he has coming down the pipeline. As a big Batman fan the one that was most exciting was what we learned about the upcoming Three Jokers comic. The Three Jokers comic is by far the series I’m most excited for from the Black Label imprint.
Seeing the designs for the three different Jokers was enough to build hype for the series. Luckily Johns and DC Comics also gave us our first look at the designs for Batman, Batgirl and Red Hood. The costumes for all three seem to be from previous versions of the characters. With Batman his suit looks like it is from Morrison’s Batman Inc. run. Meanwhile Batgirl and Red Hood costumes are more in line with Barbara Gordon and Jason Todd’s pre-Flashpoint suits. Given the choices in design it won’t be surprising if it was done on purpose as those costume do represent the time periods of the three Jokers this series is based around.
Source: Newsarama
GEOFF JOHNS POWERS UP SHAZAM
With the Shazam movie hype slowly building we got to learn more about the comic Geoff Johns is writing starring Billy Batson. During his panel Johns said “The cover kind of tells you the tone of the book…..It’s gonna be a continuation of the first era of the book, and there’ll be a retelling of the origin, with the Rock of Eternity.” That quick overview is more than enough of a strong pitch to sell Shazam being one of the comics that will be a must have for DC Comics fan. Even though I’ve never read a Shazam solo series I am very intrigued at what Johns has planned for the character. He already showed he knows how to write the character during his Justice League run. What Johns has planned now should be fun to find out
Source: CBR
DOOMSDAY CLOCK BRINGS BACK LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES AND JSA
Continuing the look at Geoff Johns upcoming work we got to see what is coming up in Doomsday Clock. From the covers shown off during the NYCC panel we can now expect the Legion of Super-Heroes to make a big appearance. This was something followers of Doomsday Clock have been hoping for given the role Saturn Girl has played in the series so far. With the look at the Legion ring it looks like we may learn more about Saturn Girl in the series and possibly see other Legion of Super-Heroes characters showing up.
Along with that, one of the covers showed Doctor Manhattan interacting with the JSA. Given that the JSA were previously exiled on their own universe on Earth-2 this is a great thing to see. If we get to see the JSA now become part of the main DC Universe continuity it would add so much more history to the universe. And since Johns is going to be also working on a Stargirl series this isn’t surprising to learn.
TOM TAYLOR ON FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN
Probably my favorite announcement during the second day of NYCC was Marvel announcing Tom Taylor and Juan Cabal are working on a revive Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man series. As Revolution readers know I am a big Tom Taylor fan. His work on Injustice, Injustice 2 and All-New Wolverine were among my favorite comics in the last few years. So for Marvel to give Taylor a Spider-Man series has me very excited. And with All-New Wolverine artist Juan Cabal along for the ride Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man will look great along with whatever fun story Taylor has in store for us. With this Marvel continues to strengthen the Spider-Man line as now we have Amazing, Spectacular and Friendly Neighborhood anchoring the franchise.
Source: Marvel.com
MILES MORALES NEW SOLO SPIDER-MAN ADVENTURES
Speaking of Spider-Man, while Peter Parker will have three big solo series Miles Morales isn’t being left out of the fun. With Miles being the star of the Spider-Verse movie it is not surprising to learn that Spider-Geddon is his big event. With Peter busy starring in so many other comics this will be a good chance to have Miles at the forefront of a Spider-Man event.
Along with Miles big role in Spider-Geddon we got to learn more about his solo Spider-Man series. Before NYCC we Marvel announced Saladin Ahmed and Javier Garron were the creative team for Miles Morales: Spider-Man. Now we got more details on what Ahmed and Garron have planned. Those plans will include Miles learn hard lessons about keeping secrets, something his predecessor and mentor Peter has learned the hard way. How this will help the Miles Morales: Spider-Man standout from all the other Spider-Man Family comics will be the big question for the series.
DARTH VADER FALLS, NEW STAR WARS COMICS RISE
Star Wars seen a big revitalization in the comic book world thanks to the comics Marvel has been publishing. All of Marvel’s Star Wars comics have been good to great, especially reading them in trade format. Unfortunately we learned that Kieron Gillen’s Darth Vader comic will be ending with issue #25. That unfortunate news was balanced out by Disney announcing a comic titled Shadow of Vader by Chuck Wendig. The series will be an anthology series showing the impact Vader had on different characters in the Star Wars Universe.
What’s interesting about this announcement is that this series wasn’t announced by Marvel. Instead it was part of LucasFilm Publishing. This is yet another example of Disney not using Marvel to publish all the comics for their characters. It’s an odd move given that you would think Disney would look to Marvel to publish are the comic book adaptions for their IP.
Source: io9
BOOM! STUDIOS’ BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER REBOOT
After being announced at San Diego Comic-Con we finally learned who the creative will be for the new Buffy The Vampire Slayer series by BOOM! Studios. The series will be written by Jordie Bellaire and with artwork from Dan Mora, while Josh Whedon will serve as a consultant. Given how well BOOM! Studios has done in updating various franchises, specifically Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, I am fully confident in this new Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Having Whedon on board as a consultant will help the series keep the key elements fans love from the franchise while Bellaire and Mora update it with a 2018 setting.
Source: CBR
X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX STILL ALIVE
After Fox debut a new trailer for X-Men: Dark Phoenix news came down that the movie will release in June rather than in February. The choice in pushing back the date puts a big question mark on the quality and confidence in the movie. Even with the confidence shaken it does not look like it is stopping Fox from talking about X-Men: Dark Phoenix. During NYCC there was an extended look at what is likely the opening to the movie. From what was shown it seems as though the X-Men: Dark Phoenix will be taking some inspiration from the Fantastic Four’s origin with how Jean Grey becomes the Phoenix. That information does build on what we saw from the recent trailer, though it does not create more excitement for the movie, especially since it is now eight months away.
Source: Comicbook.com
NETFLIX’S UMBRELLA ACADEMY PREVIEW
Netflix continues to be a juggernaut in the entertainment industry and they are now going deeper into the comic book world by adapting Umbrella Academy. Having a Netflix show will no doubt be a great thing for Umbrella Academy. Even though I am not familiar with the comic book the posters and description of Netflix series got me very interested in what it will be about. It’s a good example of the power of Netflix and it’ll greatly help that we will be able to binge watch the first season of Umbrella Academy. That is much more effective with current viewing habits than going with the weekly episode release route.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
THE BOYS TRAILER AMAZON SHOW TRAILER
Like Umbrella Academy, I am not familiar with The Boys comic but the trailer was more than enough to sell me on checking out the series. Amazon did a great job playing up the superhero tropes during the trailer to subvert expectations and twist it with the characters at the end. And like Umbrella Academy, I will try to go in not looking into more information than what was released at NYCC. Hopefully The Boys show deliver on the promise set up by the trailer.
Source: Amazon Prime Video YouTube