Vacation, Monopoly Scrabble, and remembering John Romita Sr.

Tonight a new Star Trek strategy game. Disney moves its movies again, green Lantern goes to war, blade gets a new series and remember John Romita Sr. All that and more on this edition of Multiverse tonight Comic books, sci-fi, fantasy and more. If you're looking for a roundup of geeky news, you're in the right place. This is Multiverse tonight. Here's our host, Thomas Townley. Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Session. Multiverse tonight, episode 191. And well, it's vacation time for me. Yep, i'm taking this whole week off. In fact, i'm taking like nine days off from work, so that's pretty big for me. I only maybe take vacation war two times a year and with Smallville Con being at the end of this week and I badly needed a vacation from work, you know I don't have motivation when I'm there. I just feel like I'm just going through motions. You know It was time to go take a long break, get some things done around the house and do other things. Like Yesterday, my good lay wife and I went to see Hamilton. The touring production was at the Wichita Sentry II Convention Center this past couple of weeks and we got tickets for the very last showing through the Hamilton ticket lottery, which meant those nearly $200 tickets were $10 apiece And we got Primo seats. We got Row C, which was the front row right up against the Orchestra Pit dead center, and it was ugh, it was great. Of course, you know different actors and what you see on the Disney Plus version, you know has to be expected, but they were still very good. I mean, they put their hearts and souls into it and you know, if it comes to your town, download the Hamilton app, put in for the lottery, maybe you'll get a couple of good $10 seats. And of course, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, the Smallville Con will be taking place this upcoming weekend. As I record this, which will be what Saturday and Sunday, the 24th and 25th of June, and it's a big one for me. I have a booth there. So if you're a listener to the podcast and you happen to be at Smallville Con, come over and see me. I'm over next to the wall And it will be basically, you know, recording little podcast segments here and there. I've got some interviews. Of course, interviews I want to do. You know I'll be taking pictures, video, you know this to me is nice because not only is it a convention, that it's just a stone's throw away from my house, 30 miles from Hutch, but it's basically it's more cozy. You can be more intimate, so to speak, with the guests and everything you know. Really just sit down and talk with them. It's a great thing. But well, we're breaking it off with the news. There's not a ton of news today, so you know I'll say it up front. But let's get started with this past weekend's box office report And we'll start at number 10, which saw the debut of Asteroid City, the new Wes Anderson movie. Wes Anderson's never appealed to me, but you know, if he appeals to you, there you go. Number six, or number nine, is FastX, which fell from number six to number nine. The Boogieman fell from number five to number eight. Guardians of the Galaxy, volume three, fell from four to number seven, making in another half or another $5 million domestically, which puts its worldwide toll right now at $821.6 million. Then is the debut of the film The Blackening. I have no idea what that film's about. It sounds like a horror movie. The Little Mermaid dropped from number three to number five with $11.6 million. Its overall worldwide gross is just under half a billion. Then we go to Transformers, rise of the Beast, which dropped precipitously from number one all the way to number four, raking in another $20 million. By the way, that is over a 67% drop week over week. So far, transformers Rise of the Beast worldwide has gone to $227.3 million. At number three is Spider-Man Across the Spiderverse, which lost roughly half the audience week over week, making a number of $27.8 million. It has earned just under a half a billion dollars worldwide. At number two was Disney Pixar's Elemental, which I think they were hoping for. That number one slot They were hoping for. Disney Pixar's Slump Number two is not that bad. It was a holiday weekend. Maybe people just wanted to see the number one movie more. At number one was the debut of The Flash, which made $55.1 million domestically, making $139 million worldwide. Maybe I'll check it out when it gets to streaming. I'm just, you know, i just have no mojo to go to a theater right now. Anyway, let's go on to the Star Trek news And we start Star Trek news with Star Trek Picard, which may be gone, but of course there's always tie-in media. In this case it's a new prequel novel starring Seven Nine which delves into her story. After Voyager came home, writer David Mack teased it on Twitter saying quote set a couple of years after Voyager's return from the Delta Quadrant. Firewall tells the story of young Seven of Nine, having been denied a place in Starfleet, venturing alone into the galaxy to find her own identity and purpose in life. Seven's journey leads her to join the rogue, law-enforcing core known as the Fenris Rangers. But embracing her new destiny might mean sacrificing the most important thing in her life her friendship with Catherine Janeway. I'm halfway through the manuscript. I think it's going to be really, really good a coming-of-age story as well as an adventure. Unquote. Firewall is slid for release on February 27th 2024. A new Star Trek strategy game has been announced. This new game will be called Star Trek Infinity and will come from Paradox Interactive and Paramount Consumer Products. According to the official announcement, quote Paradox Interactive and Paramount Consumer Products announced new grand strategy game, star Trek Infinite Boldly go where no one has gone before, exploring unique stories and quests on PC and macOS. This fall, paradox Interactive and developer Nimble Giant Entertainment, under license from Paramount Consumer Products, revealed the game set a few decades before Star Trek, the next generation. The players will run an entire fleet within the Star Trek Universe Command, one of the four major factions in the galaxy or in the quadrant, the United Fertile Plants, the Ramen Star Empire, the Cardassian Union or the Klingon Empire. Star Trek Infinite will be coming out to PC and macOS this fall. I've played. We've had similar games like that in the past. I can't remember what the name of that one was, but there was one where you were basically trying to outmaneuver the Earth faction, so that might be interesting. Might be worth checking out. Anyway, let's go on to the Star Wars news. Roger, roger, and Star Wars news begins with Disney, which is adjusting its release calendar again, this time adding a new Star Wars movie and the Moana live action adaptation to the schedule and delaying the next three Avatar movies by year. Now this will mean Avatar 5 will come out in 2031. Among the highlights of the overall, the live action Moana will be released on June 27th 2025. Dead Tool 3 has been moved up from November 8th 2024 to May 3rd 2024. The untitled Star Wars movie will be coming out December 18th 2026. Avatar 3 will go to December 19th 2025, avatar 4, december 21st 2029, and Avatar 5 to December 19th 2031, which means that the final Avatar movie will be coming out 22 years after the original 2009 film. Other changes include a massive Marvel reshuffling. Captain America Brave New World will be moving from May 3rd 2024 to July 26th 2024, which will delay Thunderbolts to December 20th 2024. Blade moves to February 14th 2025, and Fantastic Four to May 2nd 2025. Avengers, the King Dynasty, gets pushed back an entire year, from May 2nd 2025 to May 1st 2026, and it will be taking the Police of Avengers, secret Wars, which will be moved back from May 1st 2026 to May 7th 2027. Of course, your mileage may vary. They might move these again With the addition of that new Star Wars film in December 2026, that means that two movies set in a galaxy far, far away will be released in that year. Another separate Star Wars movie has been pushed from December 19th 2025 to May 22nd 2026, and their Star Trek film is still set for December 17th 2027. Now, disney hasn't clarified what any of those films are about, so just keep your ears to the grindstone Owl Elsewhere. The new Alien movie produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Fede Alvarez, will be open on August 16th 2024. We need Aliens vs Star Wars. Let's see that. Come on, let's get behind that everyone. Aliens vs Star Wars or Aliens vs Disney Princesses? That would be even better. Ubisoft showcases its new game during Xbox's recent showcase. Star Wars Outlaws, a new action-adventure game set between the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, is being billed as the first ever open-world Star Wars game. Outlaws centers on a new female protagonist named K Vess. In the trailer, we've got a glimpse at Han Solo's Frozen Carbonite, giving us an idea of what the timeline of the game is set. Unfortunately, no gameplay was shown, but fans won't have to wait long, as a gameplay reveal will take place on Monday, june 12th. Vess will be voiced by Humber Lee Gonzalez, while her companion, nix, will be voiced by the Bad Batches, d Bradley Baker. Ubisoft and Massive announced Star Wars Outlaws back in 2021, but the title was not announced and no information beyond the game's open-world concept was revealed. Sounds interesting. I'm a fan of Zelda as an open-world game, but we'll see what this does and if it ever comes to the Switch, because I'm not buying a separate game console to play a game, so no. Anyway, let's go to the DC Comics News And we begin DC Comics News with the CW, which has renewed Superman and Lewis for a 10-episode 4th season. Two iconic Superman comics have just been sold for over $1 million each. This year's Superman Day took place on June 12th, when fans of the Men of Steel celebrate the DC hero with artwork and stories of their favorite ventures. Two of Superman's most iconic and most expensive comics were sold at an auction hosted by Golden Action Comics Number One and Superman Number One, which were graded by CGC Comics, which gave the Action Comics Number One a CGC of 3.0, lot 12 grade and Superman Number One a CGC 7.0 Lot 2 grade. A post of the CGC Comics Instagram account read just days after the annual celebration of hashtag Superman Day, two early hashtag Superman Comics graded by hashtag CGC were sold for more than $1 million each. There were the top lots in a spectacular at Golden and Co auction sale on June 14th and you can get more info on the sale by soaring through the link in our bio. Now. That copy of Action Comics sold for $1.5 million and the copy of Superman Number One sold for $1.62 million. Superman debuted at in National Press Action Comics Number One in 1938 by Ryder Joel Siegel and artist Joe Schuster. Dc followed that up in 1939 with Superman Number One, and we'll be talking, of course, with Rick Stacey at Smallville later this week and maybe we'll ask him about what he thinks of those prices. Warner Brothers doubling down on its relationship with the Flash director, anthony Machetti, and producing partner Barbara Machetti. The duo and their double-dream banner have inked parallel deals first look deals with Warner Brothers Pictures and Warner Brothers Telgian Group slash Max. Now the machete relationship with the company dates back to Warner's New Line's It 2017. The duo is already working on the It's Spinoff. Welcome to Derry for Max. The multi-year deals were announced by Mike DeLuca and Pam Abdi, co-chairs and CEOs of Warner Brothers Motion Picture Group, and training Dungy, chairman, ceo of Warner Brothers Telgian Group. And there's more news about Anthony Machetti. It's been announced officially and Machetti is going to the Batcave. I have the release of the Flash. Machetti has decided to keep his feet firmly in the land of DC. Machetti finalized a deal to direct the Brave and the Bold, the feature project that will be the bold, introduce a new big screen version of Batman, one that will fit into the expansive universe being developed by DC Studio Heads James Gunn and Peter Saffron. That sounds interesting. Of course, i hate to say it. Is there any Anything we haven't done with Batman? You know, i'm sure there's. There's a handful of villains left, but you know one, don't kill the villain at the end of the movie. I'll. You know, let's make this a thing. You know, james Gunn, pure, pure Saffron. Let me, let me just put this out there We're not killing villains, we're putting them in Arkham Asylum. Batman doesn't kill, not need now He might something, intentionally, unintentionally, might happen, but Batman doesn't kill, He saves them. He shoves them into the asylum or into prison, black gate, and that's it. So let's, let's, let's, put that on front street anyway. John Stuart is back to headline a brand new Green Lantern series this fall. Now, of course, there's been several heroes to wear the mantle of Green Lantern, but John Stuart is one of the most popular and While Hal Jordan is the first Green Lanterns to start his own ongoing series, john Stuart, so his popular sky right, sky, sky, sky rocket thanks to the justly anime series. Now DC has revealed that it's had, it's has plans for John Stuart when the publisher announced It's two Green Lantern books at the beginning of the year. Hal Jordan's Green Lantern is already in stores and Now the John Stuart lead title has been announced, called Green Lantern War Journal, from writer Philip Kenny Johnson and artist Montos, was set to debut in September. Green Lantern War Journal will follow John Stuart as he's pulled back into action after attempting to retire from the world of super heroics. The series will follow the developments of the backup stories for Hal Jordan's Green Lantern. Green Lantern War Journal number one goes on sale September 19th. And now over to the Marvel news. And we begin Marvel news with blade. A new age of vampir hunting begins next month. Blade the day walkers Back in an all-new ongoing series written by Brian Hill and Drawn by Marvel. Stormbreaker Alina cast Cassin Grand. Blades like a saga will kick off when he unknowingly unleashes a dark ancient power that's been serving for decades, known only as the Adana. Marvel's entire supernatural underworld be thrown in. Turmoil adds up to blade. To handle it or pay a pound of flesh for his mistake, get ready for bloodbath and blackmail. As Hill and Cassin Grand return blade to his gory glory, he'll told polygon. Quote. Blade is a treasured character for me. Here We have an opportunity to explore history, reveal new aspects of his world and create a story that's brutal, sexy and bold As it travels into the world of monsters and magic. Unquote blade number one will provide an ideal entry point into the saga of this horror and pop culture icon, whose star powers set to grow even larger in the years ahead. Of course, don't miss the prelude comic coming to Marvel Unlimited later this summer, called blade first bite, where blaze forced to confront secrets from his past in order to find answers about his future. In this Revolu-revolu-revoluatory plunge into the characters, history from Hill and artist Mac Chatter, the Marvel zombies are rising again. In Marvel zombies black, white and blood. These four issues series will be released in time for Halloween on October 25th, featuring the zombified versions of Spider-Man, wolverine, daredevil, moon Knight and more Which will appear in this black and white anthology series, presented with a healthy splash of blood red all over. Sink your teeth into a pee Now. This has will showcase shocking new stories featuring some deadly characters as Deadpool, Carnage, electra, moon Knight and Darth Vader. Darth Vader, interesting the synopsis. This action packed early original gloriously gory anthology series is set in a year and a year gloriously gory anthology series is set in a universe where the Avengers, the X-Men, spider-man and many more Marvel heroes and villains Are be set by ever-growing zombie hordes and transformed into fleshing monstrosities and a brutal, blood stained world can't hope survive Or will creeping nine shambling horror win out at last? unquote. I know I'm, i'm over zombies. Let's, i'm over zombies. Let's just leave it there and move on into the geek news. Pat Sejak, the game show host who has been hosted Will of Fortune since 1981. I was five years old has announced his retirement after next season the show's 41st. Now no word on who will replace him. Sejak has won three daytime Emmy awards in the outstanding game show host category in 1993, 1997, 1998, as well as a lifetime achievement award in 2011. Dreamworks Animation and Netflix are jointly are jointly working on Orion and the Dark, a new CG family comedy written by Charlie Kaufman and based on a 2014 book by Emma Yarlette and Mayor. Sean Charmott will mark his feature debut with this dark, whimsical tale about a young boy confronting his greatest terror. That boy is O'Brien, voiced by Jacob Trimbley, an elementary schooler and full-time freedy cat, unnerved by heights, spooked by domestic animals and rendered nearly catonic by the worst plight of all. Of all, the dark only one night. The dark, voiced by Paul Walter Hauser, just about has had enough, so he takes Orion on nocturnal adventure to show the boy there's nothing to fear, but fear itself. Disney has given the green light to an animated series for preschoolers Disney Junior's Ariel. Inspired by the Lumbermaid, The new series follows a young Ariel and features some fan favorite characters such as King Triton, ursula, sebastian Flandre. As only the exciting new additions, disney Junior's Ariel is set to debut on Disney platforms worldwide in 2024. The Knuckles Paramount Plus series has cast several new actors, including Christopher Lloyd, paul Shear, kerry Ellways, stocker Channing and Rob Hubbell. According to Deadline quote, character details are being kept under wraps, so it's currently unclear if they will be doing voice work for characters from the sci-fi hedgehog universe or if they'll be appearing as human characters. Now the series will see Idris Elba reprising his role from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, while Adam Paley and Tika Shumpter will also return as their characters from the Paramount Films. Now, knuckles does not currently have a release date, but the streaming series is expected to arrive ahead of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which is currently slated to release on December 20th 2024. Now in this series, knuckles will be training Wade Whipple and the ways of the Kidna Warrior, the deputy of Green Hills. Now Wade has been portrayed as good natured but bumbling, and he would probably use a bit more training. Little else about the series is known at this time. Rick and Morty co-executive producers, stan Levy and Cartoon Network president Michael Owlin revealed an interview with ANC staff at the ANC International Festival that the team is currently in the process of recasting each of Justin Royland's roles in the series, but no voice actors have been chosen just yet. They liken the experience to how other actors have taken on the role of Bugs Bunny over the years since Mel Blank passed away. In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Walt Disney Company, the studio is releasing dozens of its beloved shorts in the coming months on Disney Plus, which have been restored to pristine quality. Kicking off in July, shorts such as the Skelton Dance, goofy Gymnastics and Aquamania will be made available to stream, and new batches of shorts debuts every month. Dorothy McKim, special projects and 2D animation producer, shared in a statement quote we are thrilled to be working with Kevin Schaefer and the studio's restoration team in presenting these beautifully restored versions of classic Disney animated shorts. Two of our top artistic talents have learned their experience and passion to the project to make sure that the films look their very best and are authentic to the creative intentions of the original filmmakers. We're very excited to be sharing these wonderful shorts with the Disney Plus audience. They have never looked or sounded better. Now Disney Plus will be debuting a collection of 20 newly restored shorts starting Friday, july 7th, featuring the such iconic stars as Mickey and Minnie Mouse, nalduk, goofy, pluto, chip and Dale and the studio's first star, oswald the lucky rabbit. This year marks the centennial of the Disney animation studio, which is being honored as part of the ongoing Disney 100 celebration. Ranging from classics to lesser known tales, this package of short films clues examples of Disney's earliest theatrical shorts, as well as a wide range of entertaining shorts featuring characters such as Chip DeHoy in 1956's Cinemascope Short starring Donald Duck and Chip and Dale, which will conclude the series in October leading to the Walt Disney Company's 100th anniversary on Monday, october 16th. And in unnecessary news. Unnecessary crossover news winning move games USA has announced Monopoly Scrabble Yep, monopoly Scrabble, a new board game that combines Hasbro's two biggest board game franchises. According to the description of the game, players will build words on a Scrabble board in order to move their Monopoly piece along a Monopoly track that covers the edge of the playing board. Players win by accumulating money on the Monopoly side of the game, with the player of the most wealth either hard cash or property value declared as the winner. Due to the limited number of moves allowed by the Scrabble board, it seems that Monopoly Scrabble won't linger for hours if one player builds an ever-growing portfolio of properties on the way to super wealth while the other properties are forced into debt, or that you might get that chance card that pushes someone in bankruptcy. I don't know about this. Would you be interested in playing this? Linda Hamilton is joining the cast of Stranger Things' fifth and final season. Netflix announced Hamilton's casting during the Streamers fan event in Sao Paulo, brazil, on Saturday. New details have not been revealed about the Hamilton's role. Hamilton is best known as Sarah Connor, to play Sarah Connor in the Terminator franchise, most recently in 2019's Terminator Dark Fate. She is nominated for both an Emmy and two Golden Globe Awards for her work in the CBS series Beauty and the Beast and received a third Golden Globe nomination for her performance in the USA Network movie A Mother's Prayer. After winning the best adapted screenplay Oscar for women talking, sarah Polly is on the most epic undertaking of her filmmaking career thus far. Deadline reports that she has been asked to helm the live-action version of Disney's Bambi, which is in very early development at the studio. Multiple sources tell Deadline that the project is a musical to feature music from six-time Grammy-winning country star. Casey Musgraves, mike Fitzerman Blue and Noah Harpster will write and write the most recent drafts of the script, and Chris and Paul Weihl-Weitz's depth of field will produce Yeah, live-action. Bambi, they're going there. Let's break it down, folks. It's not for me, it's probably not for you, it's for the kids. So let it be And we begin. We end with, of course, some sad news. We'll have to talk about this later this week at Smallville. Legendary comic artist John Romita Sr has passed away at the ripe old age of 93. The news was broken by Romita's son and fellow comic book artist, john Romita Jr, who confirmed that he passed away peacefully in his sleep on Monday, june 12. Now Romita has had an illustrious career in the spirit of superhero comics, co-creating such beloved characters as Mary Jane Watson, wolverine and the Punisher. He said in a statement, quote I say this with a heavy heart. My father, john Romita Sr, passed away peacefully in his sleep this Monday morning. He is a legend in the heart world and it would be my honor to follow in his footsteps. Please keep your thoughts and condolences here out of respect for my family. He was the greatest man I ever met. Unquote. Born on January 24, 1930 in Brooklyn, new York, Romita had a graduate from Manhattan School of Industrial Art in 1947 and reserves his first paid gig for the Manhattan General Hospital at the age of only 17. After working as an anchor at a lithograph company, he stumbled into a job as a ghost artist at Timely Comics, which would become Marvel Comics. He continued to work at Timely and its pre-Marvel Curve successor at LIS Comics, even while he was enlisted in the US Army. His early work at the time included a 1953-1954 revival of Captain America, which led to the creation of M Levin, the human robot. During the 1950s, Romita also did uncredited work for DC before switching over to the company exclusively in 1958 and working on romance titles such as Young Love and Curl's Love Stories. He then returned to Marvel in 1966, soon succeeding Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko on The Amazing Spider-Man 39, following Ditko's falling out with Stan Lee. Across from me is tenure on the book. It became the company's best-selling title and airduce new characters such as Mary Jane Watson, the Rhino, the Kingpin, the Shocker and George Stacey. He went on to contribute to 56 straight issues of the main title, countless iconic covers, as well as various magazines format and newspaper spin-offs. Romita said about Amazing Spider-Man to Alter Ego quote "I was bringing a little more glamour to it. To listen to the fans at the time, what I was losing was the mystery and shadowy stuff. They thought it was much too much broad daylight and too much cuteness. That's a funny twist because Stan was worried when I was doing it. I didn't threaten to take me off it, but he constantly was telling me I was making Pierre Parker too handsome and everybody too good-looking. Even the villains were starting to look good And I was taken away from Aunt May", he laughed. I think there was another element behind in The Rise and Sales. For about a year Ditko and Stan were absolutely discreet on plotting. Ditko was plotting and they weren't even talking. It already had probably gotten a little bit confusing to readers for about a year. So between the fact that I brought in a new audience and didn't lose too much of the old audience, i guess I got the benefit of the rebound". By 1973, Romita began officially operating as Marvel's art director and had an influential role under the designs of Wolverine, luke Cage, the Punisher, bullseye and Tigra. His later work for the publisher included Monica Rambo's debut in Captain Marvel In 1982, the amazing Spider-Man Annual Number 16, as well as a number of commemorative issues across Marvel. Again, he was 93 years old. And that brings us to the end of this edition. Now please be sure to check us out on social media or Twitter at MultiverseTom, or also on Facebook and Instagram as well, and if you find value in the show, please feel free to head on over to MultiverseTonightcom, where you can contribute to the show, check our show notes, visit our T-Public store and so much more, if you're a subscriber. Thank you very much. Be sure to share this with your friends And if you're brand new to the show, please hit that subscribe button And, while you're at it, leave some feedback. Let me know how we're doing. There's 200 listens. I would like some idea of what you think Now. A special thanks to Shane Ivers for the intro music and Lobo Loco for the outro theme music. Thanks for watching this edition of MultiverseTonight. We'll be back in two weeks with more sci-fi and comic book news And, of course, watch this feed for another edition of the Spinner Act coming soon. Now please exit the universe in an orderly fashion. Good night. 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