Newstime: The Stories You Might Have Missed This Week

From film to TV, gaming to comics and everything in between, here’s what you might have missed in pop culture news this week.

TV

After confirming the upcoming The Dark Crystal series Age of Resistance will be a prequel, Netflix has announced a star-studded voice cast. The line-up includes Taron Edgerton, Anya Taylor Joy and Nathalie Emmanuel portraying the main Gelfling antagonists, welcoming Helena Bonham Carter, Natalie Dormer, Eddie Izzard and Mark Strong will be voicing Gelflings. It has also been revealed that Mark Hamill, Simon Pegg, Jason Isaacs and Andy Samberg are also on the roster for voice talent.

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has conjured a fandom expansive enough to cement a third and fourth season, formatted as parts three and four. The darker version of the teenage witch will return early next year for part two, with production expected to begin on three and four as the plot develops.

Paws what you are doing. Salem’s got some special news for you. Listen up right meow. pic.twitter.com/xUWwOU21ei

— Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (@sabrinanetflix) December 18, 2018

FILM

The highly anticipated trailer for the Hellboy reboot dropped yesterday, showcasing Stranger Things‘ David Harbour in fine form. Hellboy will open in Australia next April.

Fans were also treated to a trailer for the next year’s Men In Black: International, posted overnight. This latest installment in the franchise is set for international release June 2019.

Actor/director/producer Penny Marshall passed away aged 75 this week due to complications with diabetes. Marshall directed the hugely successful Big, being the first female director in Hollywood to gross more than $100 million in the US Box Office. Onscreen, she was famous for playing Laverne in Laverne & Shirley, a popular Happy Days spin-off series.

Start your summer binges! After Stan unveiled a massive deal with Disney last week, Netflix has announced that all eight Harry Potter films will be available in January.

Calling all witches and wizards, on January 15th it’s time to go back to Hogwarts pic.twitter.com/7seUpggEkR

— Netflix ANZ (@NetflixANZ) December 18, 2018

Tom Holland’s Spider-Man could potentially make an appearance in Sony’s Into the Spider-Verse sequel. Speaking on Empire’s podcast, producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller teased the possibility, stating that “nothing is off-limits” when asked.

Jason Momoa has shut down rumours about Henry Cavill moving on from Superman in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. 

Henry Cavill is still our Man of Steel. Watch Jason Momoa shut down rumors about Henry moving on from Superman. pic.twitter.com/iDddD2jN34

— Entertainment Tonight (@etnow) December 13, 2018

Highly anticipated DC release, Wonder Woman 1984 wrapped on production this week after shooting for the past six months. The film is set for release in 2020.

GAMING

It’s official – Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the fastest selling Nintendo home console game of all time in Australia, surpassing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, all of which have shipped over 10 million copies to date.

“We look forward to bringing exciting experiences to players in 2019 with new games in the Animal Crossing and Pokémon series, alongside Yoshi’s Crafted World, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and more,” Nintendo Australia Managing Director Kamon Yoshimura said.

My Hero Academia protagonist Izuku ‘Deku’ Midoriya is the latest character to join the already impressive roster of Shounen Jump heroes featured in the upcoming fighting game, Jump Force. Bandai Namco dropped the news earlier this week, along with an all new Story Mode and Avatar trailer, demonstrating the game’s character customisation features.

ANIME

Madman Entertainment announced this week that in addition to the January release of Dragon Ball Super: Broly, the film will also be screening in IMAX at Melbourne’s IMAX Theatre. Madman’s streaming service, Animelab, will be adding a new Dragon Ball film to their site every week in lead up to the film’s release on January 24.

Netflix gifted their users a very “metal” Christmas, early this morning, with fan-favourite Sanrio mascot Aggretsuko’s very first Christmas special now available to stream on the service.

HERE IT IS!!! STREAM MY HOLIDAY SPECIAL ON @netflix NOW! (2/3) pic.twitter.com/4EbMLrMFC3

— Aggretsuko (@aggretsuko) December 20, 2018

The trailer for Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel II. Lost Butterfly has been uploaded online this week. The film is currently set to open in Japan early next year and is anticipated that it will hit Australian cinemas like its predecessor.

Whilst no Jackie Chan cosplaying as Chun-Li this time, City Hunter is receiving a fresh anime feature! City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes has released a trailer and poster this week online and is due for release in Japanese theatres, this February.

COMICS

Marvel has announced a month-long tribute to the late great Stan Lee. From this week onwards, various Marvel books’ covers will include a tribute to Stan Lee, concluding on January 9.

IDW has announced a relaunch to their Transformers line, due to kick-off in March. The new series, written by Brian Ruckley with illustrations by Angel Hernandez and Ron Joseph, will focus on the origins of the Cybertron war between Autobots and Decepticons.

To celebrate Women’s History Month, IDW Publishing has teamed up with Hasbro to publish a 48-page anthology Synergy: A Hasbro Creators Showcase which will include five new stories from women comic creators.

The Six Million Dollar Man will soon be re-born at Dynamite Comics, with a brand-new series set to debut in March 2019, to be written by Christopher Hastings with pencils by David Hahn.

DC has unveiled the variant covers and announced the creative line-up for Detective Comics #1000, set for release on 27 March 2019. The landmark issues will include an original story from Peter J. Tomasi and the Arkham Knight’s canonical debut in the comics from artist Doug Mahnke as well as contributions from an all-star list of creative team-ups: Kevin Smith and Jim Lee, Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev, Warren Ellis and Becky Cloonan, Paul Dini and Dustin Nguyen, Denny O’Neil and Steve Epting, Christopher Priest and Neal Adams, Geoff Johns and Kelley Jones, Tom King, Tony Daniel and Joelle Jones, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo and James Tynion IV and Alvaro Martinez. The books will also feature variant covers from Steve Rude, Michael Cho, Jim Steranko, Bernie Wrightson, Frank Miller, Tim Sale, Jock,m Greg Capullo and Bruce Timm with a wraparound cover from Jim Lee, Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair.

In March, Netflix’s Glow will be hitting shelves in comic-book format IDW. The four-issue mini-series will be written by Tini Howard with art by Hannah Templer.

Sony’s Spider-Man, from one of 2018’s biggest video games, will be getting his own six-issue miniseries. Due for release in March 2019, the title will be written by Dennis Hopeless with illustrations by Michele Bandini.

THIS WEEK’S PICKS  A TRIBUTE TO CLASSIC COMICS, MELBOURNE

For the last comic news of 2018, in lieu of the usual recommendations for your pull-list, this Melbourne comic book fanatic wanted to pay tribute to his local store, Classic Comics, which will be closing its doors after 25 years on December 31st.

For the Melbourne comic book community, this news has been a dreaded and shocking revelation. For all of 2018, Classic Comics was celebrating its 25th anniversary with a year-long commemorative sale, nobody saw the unfortunate plot-twist that, due to circumstances out of their control, the Bourke Street alleyway treasure would be bidding us farewell before commencing year 26.

Anybody who has ever visited Melbourne would be forgiven for not discovering Classic Comics. Tucked away down an alley, like many of this cities favourite cafes and bars, sitting between a salon and the iconic Play DVD, just like that elusive back-issue, you needed to dig for this beloved store.

To understand why a legion of comic readers are in mourning, you had to have visit the Imperial Hotel on December 8, where generations of Classic Comics customers were drowning their sorrows with nostalgic tales of fonder times.

Many were even speaking of stopping collecting full-stop, if they weren’t able to do so at their beloved local. I say local, but readers from all corners, South, West, East and North, even interstate, called Classic Comics their stop for all their reading needs. And to see young and old comic fans swapping war-stories between sobs and grins spoke volumes as to what defined Classic Comics: community.

A small store with a small team of dedicated staff, Classic Comics was a tiny shop with a huge heart and that’s all due to its dedicated squad of Giuseppe, Jarrod and Luciano. As a standing order customer, one didn’t simply pick-up their comic bag at Classic Comics. Weekly trips were only complete with a discussion of why Superman is the greatest superhero movie all time with Jarrod, falling for age-old dad jokes from Giuseppe, aka Pino, or being charmed by Luciano, aka Looch’s immortal optimism – I still to this day haven’t heard him speak ill of a book or film. Speaking furthermore to the family built by owner Giuseppe and the boys over a quarter of a decade, after leaving the store for full-time work, Looch could still be found helping out on busy weekends or special events like Batman Day and Free Comic Book Day.

If you never had the pleasure of visiting Classic Comics, I highly recommend spooling through their Facebook page. The gang regularly made hilarious skit-videos, ingenious cosplay photos (their Jurassic Park-themed shoot for Halloween this year was nothing short of genius) as well as their weekly Clerks Choices post, letting you know which books were worth your cold hard cash.

It’s with a heavy heart that we bid adieu to Classic Comics, but for those who would like to keep track of the gang’s movements, Giuseppe will still exist online via eBay as well at cons, both locally and interstate. Jarrod is part of the Chatflix team, a delicious pod discussing forgotten film gems from yesteryear, who are also joined by Looch for pop-culture/comic-book themed flicks.

We’ll miss you, Classic Comics.

LEAD IMAGE: Rian, The Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance