Comic News You Can Use: Deadpool Sequel, New Garth Ennis, and Russian Comics

With Deadpool being the undoubtable, crowned champion of superhero movies last year, there is no question that the sequel is building up a considerable buzz months before we’ll even see a trailer. Just recently, both Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead have been confirmed for at least a cameo appearance if not a bigger role, but there is bigger news in store! Cable has already been dropped in and Domino has been confirmed to be in the works with ten actresses competing for the role. Despite the crowded script, Deadpool is still promised to be front and center of his own movie.

In an interview with Deadline, screenwriter Rhett Reese states: “Yeah, it’ll be a solo movie. It’ll be populated with a lot of characters, but it is still Deadpool’s movie, this next one. We’re pushing forward very hard. I think by every account we will shoot it this year, and we’re on our multiple draft now. It’s taken different twists and turns, but it’s really coalescing, and we’re very, very excited.”

Exciting indeed!

In other news, Garth Ennis is greeting the New Year in the only way he knows how, with a new comic! That’s right! His second release with AfterShock comics, titled Jimmy’s Bastards, will be a super spy drama a la James Bond with an Ennis special twist. The official synopsis states:

Jimmy Regent is Britain’s number one super spy, a devastatingly handsome secret agent with a license to kill and style to match. Sailing effortlessly through mission after mission with wit and panache, defying danger again and again, Jimmy always triumphs and always gets the girl- gets rather a lot of girls, actually. But now a new and particularly dangerous secret organization has arisen, their sights fixed firmly on Jimmy’s head. Two hundred young men and women in ultimate physical condition, trained in all the arts of deception and death, each bearing a curious facial resemblance to… Jimmy? Every one united with one terrible aim: Get Daddy.

Intriguing! While it’s pretty assured there is an artist tied to the project, we have no idea who it is. The only thing anyone knows is that it’ll be released this summer and will most likely blow our minds. Though AfterShock is a relatively knew comic company, this is Garth Ennis’s second work for the publishers, the first titled Dreaming Eagles about an ace flying company in WW2. That series is now in a collected hardcover for all your Ennis consumptions.

Finally, Russia’s biggest comic company, Bubble Comics, is looking to expand westward with four new works. If the biggest surprise isn’t the fact that Russia has a comic company (of all people, I should know that), it’s that it’s only been around for five years and is already considered to be the who’s who of Russian comic illustration.  It helps it’s the only comic publishing company in town too. With the company’s home country’s success, including expanding in to movies with its most successful title Major Grom, Bubble has now set its sights on English language distribution for later this month.

The titles announced are:

Allies
Genre: spy drama
Writer: Natalia Devova
Artist: Alina Erofeeva
Colorist: Victoria Vinogradova
First issue cover: Yulia Shevtsova

Nika Chaikina was the best in her field: a master thief that became a secret agent, she has completed many successful missions around the world and saved the planet from the forces of evil multiple times. But in the end the evil won.

Nika had lost everything she fought for… She will never get her old life back but she must move forward. Now she has to gain back her strength, overcome the pain, defeat her inner demons – and begin the new war. Because the evil keeps growing: a powerful corporation wants to control all the people with superpowers and establish the new world order. After surviving a personal tragedy Nika can help people that gained superpowers to cope with changes in their lives – and avenge herself. But first she needs to put together a team. She is going to need allies…

Demonslayer
Genre: action horror
Writer: Alex Hatchett
Artist: Anastasia Kim
Colorist: Lada Akishina
First issue cover: Natalia Zaidova

Hell came to Earth! Vicious Antichrist has united all the legions of Hell under his banner, and now our world faces great danger! But the mankind is under the protection of Demonslayer – perhaps the greatest hero in its history.

After taking on a mission of saving the planet, Demonslayer gathered a team of like-minded individuals that help him fight forces of evil! Little imp from Hell called Sneak, the shaman Black Hound, the witch Queen of the Rot, the homeless girl Yana and the living nightmare Balor that lives inside her mind – this magical squad doesn’t look like your typical heroes but they are the last hope of the Earth in the face of the demon invasion!

Igor Grom
Genre: detective thriller
Writer: Alexey Zamski
Artist: Natalia Zaidova
Colorist: Maria Vasilieva
First issue cover: Ilya Kuvshinov

Major Igor Grom was the best policeman of Saint Petersburg… until the war on crime didn’t break him completely. Grom had lost a woman he loved, his friends and colleagues – and, worst of all, he lost himself…

But Igor isn’t giving up. He pulls himself together and gets back to what he joined the police for – helping people and saving Saint Petersburg. And even after falling to the very bottom he is going to open his city from new, unpredictable sides and see right into its dark soul. Maybe that’s where he will find the answers he’s looking for.

Realmwalkers

Genre: fantasy adventure
Writers: Roman Kotkov and Evgeniy Fedotov
Artist: Anna Rud
Colorist: Anastasia Troitskaya
First issue cover: Ivan Elyasov

We’ve got two kinds of news: a fantastic one and an even more fantastic one. First of all, our Earth is just a part of the Collar of Worlds that consists of many parallel worlds. And, second of all, the gods that you read about in myths and legends actually exist. And any world that they visit will be destroyed in an apocalypse!

But don’t worry: there are heroes that will not let that happen. The universe is protected by the Realmwalkers – the mighty warrior of the ancient lineage Andrey Radov and his wife Kseniya that can control plants and their friend – the former Ivan Tsarevich who transformed into the Grey Wolf. Whenever one of the Earths gets a divine intervention, our trio immediately races to help! And their coordinators in this journey are the deathless ruler of Eden Koschei and Vasilisa the Wisest that observe the Collar from the edge of the Universe.

Each new world is unlike the previous, each new monster is more dangerous – but the Realmwalkers are no weaklings either. They have magical abilities and incredible weapons – but the most important thing they have is themselves. Together this team can defeat any enemy and save all the worlds from annihilation… if they don’t get tired of each other first…

Check out your comic stand this month for all of these great, Russian titles!