DF Interview: Justin Jordan continues the saga of ‘Summoners War’ with its newest chapter, ‘Awakening’

By Byron Brewer

Civil war rages across the land of Alea. These armies summon magical creatures to battle each other in a seemingly never-ending struggle – and newly-trained summoner Rai has been thrust onto the front lines.

Now, Rai and her companions are stranded deep within hostile territory, occupied by soldiers on the ground and sky pirates in the clouds above. But a cunning new bounty hunter stalks her every move, and Rai's skills will have to be stronger than ever to make it home alive.
Discover new friends, new foes and powerful creatures in the next chapter of the action-packed Summoners War saga, Awakening, from writer Justin Jordan, artist Luca Claretti and color artist Igor Monti based on the popular mobile game. I’ve been aboard since Legacy, so when I heard about Awakening I sat down with scribe Justin Jordan to see what is next.


Byron Brewer: Justin, right out of the gate (as we say here in Kentucky horse country), remind readers how you became involved as a chronicler of the Summoners War saga.



Justin Jordan: I got involved through Skybound. I’ve done several creator-owned series for them, and we’ve always a had a good working relationship, so a couple of years ago when they became involved with the Summoners War franchise, they asked me to come onboard as part of their writer’s room.



Byron: Are there any story threads that stem from your last comic in the series – Legacy – that we should know of as we prepare to pick up Summoners War: Awakening #1 in April? Any carry-overs of note?



Justin Jordan: I think the big one is that Rai and Tomas, our two very inexperienced leads, are stuck far away from home with an artifact that could upset the balance of the world and lots of people looking for them. You don’t really need to have read the first series to enjoy it (although I think the first one is a lot of fun, so….)



Byron: For those uninitiated (and you know who you are!), describe the world of Summoners War. What canvas will we be dropping ourselves into?



Justin Jordan: On the world of Alea, it’s possible to summon monsters to do your bidding, assuming you have the mana crystals to do it. Which, naturally, means that war breaks out fighting over this vital resource.

This series takes place a few decades before the main game Summoners War: Sky Arena, showing us what the world was like when everyone was at everyone else’s throats.


Byron: Introduce readers to Rai, your POV character here. Who is she, who was she, what challenges await in this limited series?



Justin Jordan: Rai is confident, capable, and in waaaaaaay over her head, although good luck getting her to admit that last part. She was a girl from a nowhere town with no real future who taught herself to summon as a way to get out.

She should have been careful what she wished for, since she ended up halfway across the world with a dead mentor, a surly bodyguard, and an adorable sidekick…and an entire army hunting for her.


Byron: Before we go on, maybe we should tell exactly why Rai and others are called “summoners” and how that plays out in the franchise.



Justin Jordan: Rai and other summoners can learn to summon monsters to fight for them. This is a rare and valuable skill, and it means you’re going to end up fighting in the war. Rai has two monsters she can summon, but more powerful summoners can have a lot more than that.



Byron: Can you spotlight just a few of the new characters we will be meeting in Awakening?



Justin Jordan: I think the two biggest are Captain Eve, the commander of a flying pirate ship who has surprising connections to the greater world of Summoners War, and Malakhan, the dark bounty hunter who is relentlessly pursuing our heroes. I was tapping into my inner Star Wars fan a bit for both of them, and I think people are going to dig them.



Byron: Talk about the pulse-pounding art of Luca Claretti and Igor Monti.



Justin Jordan: It’s amazing. They really make the world of Summoners War come alive. Working with Luca has been a pure pleasure the entire time, as he just gets what I am going for. I hope we get to do a bunch more stuff together.



Byron: Justin, my friend, it has been awhile since we’ve done this. Tell me, what projects do you have upcoming that you are free to tell readers about?



Justin Jordan: My horror comic Harrower is coming up right now from BOOM, which so far people seem to have really liked, and I’ve got Zero Ghost coming out later this year from 247 Comics. Urban Animal over at Webtoons is still rolling, and I’d bet people who like Summoners War will like it.



Dynamic Forces would like to thank Justin Jordan for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions. Summoners War: Awakening #1 from Skybound, Com2uS and Image Comics is slated to be on sale April 19th!



For more news and up-to-date announcements, join us here at Dynamic Forces, www.dynamicforces.com/htmlfiles/, “LIKE” us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/dynamicforcesinc, and follow us on Twitter, www.twitter.com/dynamicforces.

We got our first look at the Amazon Prime series Fallout during the series’ panel Saturday at CCXP in São Paulo, Brazil. Based on the video game series of the same name, Fallout is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have. Two-hundred years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind—and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird, and highly violent universe waiting for them. The cast is led by Ella Purnell as Lucy, Aaron Moten as Maximus, Walton Goggins as The Ghoul, and Kyle MacLachlan as Overseer Hank. The cast includes Moisés Arias, Sarita Choudhury, Michael Emerson, Leslie Uggams, Frances Turner, Dave Register, Zach Cherry, Johnny Pemberton, Rodrigo Luzzi, Annabel O’Hagan and Xelia Mendes-Jones. Fallout will premiere on Amazon Prime Video April 12, 2024. 

HBO has released the first teaser trailer for House of the Dragon Season 2 today during the show’s CCXP23 panel in São Paulo, Brazil. The second season is set to release in summer of 2024 with returning stars Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Eve Best, Steve Toussaint, Fabien Frankel, Ewan Mitchell, Tom Glynn-Carney, Sonoya Mizuno and Rhys Ifans. We also get to see multiple new cast members and the roles they’ll play including Clinton Liberty as Addam of Hull, Jamie Kenna as Ser Alfred Broome, Kieran Bew as Hugh, Tom Bennett as Ulf, Tom Taylor as Lord Cregan Stark, and Vincent Regan as Ser Rickard Thorne. House of the Dragon is set 172 years before the events of Game of Thrones and tells the story of House Targaryen. 

With Gen V already wrapped up, Amazon Prime is staring the push for The Boys season four with a new teaser trailer released first at at the comic event CCXP in São Paulo, Brazil on Saturday and now on-line. The new season is set to release in 2024 and features a world divided and on the brink. Victoria Neuman is on the verge of the White House and controlled by Homelander, who is pulling together his power while Butcher has lost everything. Now he must convince The Boys to work with him again before it’s too late. The Boys stars Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capone, Karen Fukuhara, Colby Minifie, Claudia Doumit, and Cameron Crovetti. And joining the cast in the new season will be Susan Heyward, Valorie Curry, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. The series is based on The New York Times best-selling comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, who also serve as executive producers.  

While most people are focused on one comment Disney CEO Bob Iger said at the New York Times business summit earlier this week, another comment is most likely the real reason The Marvels and other films aren’t doing as well at the box office. The headline catcher was Iger saying there wasn’t enough supervision on set, ″The Marvels was shot during Covid. There wasn’t as much supervision on the set, so to speak, where we have executives [that are] really looking over what’s being done day after day after day.” But the other thing he said is more likely the culprit as the moviegoing experience has changed since Covid and people aren’t just going to the movies to go to the movies, their going for specific films and they’re deciding to wait and watch some at home. “The experience of accessing [the films] and watching them in the home is better than it ever was. And [it’s] a bargain when you think about it. Streaming Disney+ you can get for $7 a month. That’s a lot cheaper than taking your whole family to a film. So, I think the bar is now raised in terms of quality about what gets people out of their homes, into movie theaters.” 

We haven’t even started season two of Reacher and Amazon Prime Video has already given the Alan Ritchson lead series a third season renewal. The series which will return on December 15th, features Ritchson in the title role as veteran military police investigator Jack Reacher, who receives a coded message that the members of his former U.S. Army unit, the 110th MP Special Investigations, are being mysteriously and brutally murdered one by one. Pulled from his drifter lifestyle, Reacher reunites with three of his former teammates turned chosen family to investigate, including Frances Neagley (Maria Sten); Karla Dixon (Serinda Swan), a forensic accountant; and fast-talking David O’Donnell (Shaun Sipos). Sten is the only other actor to return from season one. The series is based on Lee Child’s novels with the second season based on the 11th book in the series, Bad Luck and Trouble. Ritchson announced the renewal while at a panel at CCXP in São Paulo, Brazil where he also showed an extended trailer for season two. 

Join Marvel’s Mightiest Mutts in their very own Infinity Comic! When Ms. Marvel and Kraven the Hunter crash through the Best Buds animal shelter, Kamala discovers an adorable ally and new best friend. MARVEL MUTTS #1 has launched on Marvel Unlimited in the exclusive Infinity Comic format. This six-part series from creators Mackenzie Cadenhead, Takeshi Miyazawa, and Raúl Angulo is the latest drop from Infinity Comics’ “Friday Funnies,” the line of humor titles designed for fans of all ages. And in MARVEL MUTTS it all goes to the dogs: The pooches of the super-powered are now the stars of their own Marvel Unlimited-exclusive series, and they’ll get in all kinds of cute, cuddly, and (sometimes) mischievous adventures while they show newbie, Mittens, what it’s like to roll with a pack. “[Marvel Comics Editor in Chief] C.B. Cebulski, a tried-and-true cat lover, called me one day and asked if I’d be interested in writing a ‘Friday Funnies’ series about the dogs of the Marvel U,” writer MacKenzie Cadenhead recalls on how the series came to be. “And when he said it would be called MARVEL MUTTS, I was in. I honestly think his entire criteria for approaching me was that he knew I was a serious dog lover.”

Scott Speedman is going bad.The actor, most recently seen co-starring on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, has joined the cast of Sunflower, the thriller that Lovecraft Country creator Misha Green is writing and directing for Lionsgate.Jurnee Smollett and Isabel May are already on the call sheet for the feature that will shoot in South Africa in spring of 2024.In Sunflower, two women, played by Smollett and May, struggle to escape from a deranged college professor who holds them hostage on a remote sunflower farm. Speedman is playing the deranged college professor. (via The Hollywood Reporter)

The Boy And The Heron is set to arrive in theaters in North America on December 8th. Following a solid theatrical run in Japan, the latest from Studio Ghibli, titled "How Do You Live" in its country of origin, is already receiving wide acclaim before it hits the West. Originally billed as the last film from legendary director Hayao Miyazaki, Ghibli's latest has been granted prestigious recognition by the New York Film Critics Circle. The Circle ranked The Boy And The Heron as the best animated film of this year, which is impressive considering some of its competition. (via ComicBook.com)

Here is the film's official English trailer: https://youtu.be/t5khm-VjEu4

Today Skybound unveiled a horrifying first look at Creepshow Vol. 2 #5, the finale of the second volume of the smash-hit comic book anthology based on Greg Nicotero’s hit Shudder TV series produced and licensed by Cartel Entertainment. Season 4 of the Shudder TV series of the same name is out now on AMC and AMC+. Brian Witten is overseeing on behalf of Nicotero’s Monster Agency Productions. Creepshow Vol.2 #5 features stories by Saladin Ahmed (Miles Morales: Spider-Man), Artyom Topilin (I Hate This Place), DB Andry (Resonant) & Tim Daniel (End After End), and Matthew Roberts (Manifest Destiny). The conclusion to the second volume of Creepshow arrives in comic book shops on January 17, 2024. In the freaky finale, “Sinister” Saladin Ahmed and “Hair-Raising” Artyom Topilin first spin a horrifying yarn about a politician who tries to protect the youth from “dangerous” comic books in “Burning Ambition”! Then, “Dastardly” DB Andry & “Terrifying” Tim Daniel are joined by “Murderous” Matthew Roberts to tell the story of a boy who sacrifices the things he loves to feed the monster under his bed in “Keep It Fed”! In addition to the main cover by Guillem March (Batman), Creepshow Vol. 2 #5 comes with an incredible lineup of variant covers, including a cover by Artyom Toplin and the final cover in the set of 1:10 incentive connecting covers by iconic horror artist Skinner. Creepshow Volume 2’s all-star creative roster also includes Garth Ennis (Preacher, The Boys), Becky Cloonan (Wonder Woman), Phil Hester (Gotham City: Year One), Michael Wash (The Silver Coin), Dan Watters (Homesick Pilots, Arkham City), Abigail Larson (Sandman Universe: The Dreaming), Zoe Thorogood (It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth), Joel Farrelly (Tell Me a Story), Nick Dragotta (East of West), Alisa Kwitney (Mystik U), and Goran Sudžuka (Ghosted, Year Zero). The Creepshow comic miniseries deal was brokered by Striker Entertainment. Creepshow Volume 2 #5 (of 5) (Lunar Codes below SRP $3.99) will be available at comic book shops and digital platforms including Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, comiXology, and Google Play on Wednesday, January 17, 2024.

The full list of covers is below:

Creepshow 2 #5 CVR A by Guillem March (1123IM256)

Creepshow 2 #5 CVR B by Artyom Topilin (1123IM257) 

Creepshow 2 #5 CVR C by Skinner (1:10 Incentive) (1123IM258)

Felicia Hardy and Mary Jane Watson have always had more in common than they think, and this March, they’ll combine their wits, expertise, and superpowers to take down an emerging new threat in JACKPOT AND BLACK CAT! The four-issue limited series is written by Celeste Bronfman, who penned both Mary Jane’s first outing as Jackpot earlier this year in Amazing Spider-Man #925 and her first solo issue as Jackpot that hits stands in January. Bronfman will be joined by rising Marvel star Emilio Laiso, the acclaimed artist known for his recent work on Guardians of the Galaxy and X-Men Unlimited. The series’ covers will come from renowned artist Adam Hughes. After teaming up in Jed MacKay and C.F. Villa’s Eisner-nominated Black Cat & Mary Jane: Beyond one-shot as well as the Mary Jane & Black Cat “Dark Web” tie-in series, Mary Jane and Felicia Hardy have risen to be one of Marvel’s most dynamic duos. Now that Mary Jane is an up-and-coming super hero herself, they’ll take their bond to the next level on an action-packed adventure to take down a villain that’s blackmailing… EVERYONE, including Black Cat and Mary Jane. Tough choices and daring missions await as Mary Jane and Black Cat become entangled in a plot that’s brought the world to its knees. LUCK BE THE LADIES! When someone blackmails Black Cat into a public and blatant crime spree, Jackpot comes to her aid! What classic Spider-Villain is behind the blackmail?! Someone with history with at least one of our titular heroines! "MJ’s been a hero since day one, and I’m so excited to continue her journey as Jackpot – this time with Felicia Hardy by her side!” Bronfman shared. “Opposites attract, and I’ve always loved the push and pull of their friendship. Expect them to butt heads through heists, betrayals, and the unexpected!" Check out the debut issue’s cover now and be there for Mary Jane and Black Cat’s next great caper when JACKPOT AND BLACK CAT #1 hits stands in March.