Shortly after surpassing $2 million in sales for Isom #2, Eric July and Rippaverse Comics announced that blacklisted Marvel Comics artist Joe Bennett would be teaming up with Chuck Dixon for the upcoming Alphacore book.
Bennett was blacklisted by Marvel Comics back in September 2021 with a Marvel spokesman informing Games Radar that Bennett would not working on “any future Marvel projects” and that he had been relieved of his duties for the then upcoming Timeless #1.
Marvel’s blacklisting of Bennett came after Immortal Hulk writer Al Ewing announced he would no longer be working with Bennett after a 2017 political cartoon supporting Brazilian politician and former president Jair Bolsonaro, created by Bennett, began making the rounds on social media.
Ewing made his announcement on Twitter where he first described the political cartoon as “reprehensible.”
He wrote, “There’s an image doing the rounds that Joe Bennett drew back in 2017. I won’t link to it, but I have seen it, and it’s reprehensible.”
After a number of tweets, Ewing declared, “Immortal Hulk is done, but I won’t be working with Joe again. If people choose not to pick up my work with other artists in the future on the basis of my handling of this, I understand and accept. If I’ve lost your trust, that’s on me.”
In a video uploaded to the official Rippaverse channel Bennett revealed he would be the artist working alongside Chuck Dixon for Alphacore #1.
He said, “Hello, my name is Joe Bennett. For 30 years I’ve been making comics for big publishers in America. And now, I join Chuck Dixon, a genius writer, to develop a new comic book: Alphacore, a new title with tons of adventures, a lot of action and great artwork, I promise all of you.”
Bennett continued, “All of this, thanks to the brilliant iniative of the Rippaverse, the new publisher that’s changing the course of American comics. I’m proud of being a part of this initiative.”
He concluded, “Join us in this new era, I’m waiting for you!”
Dixon also shared the announcement and a splash page of Bennett’s artwork from Alphacore #1.
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He previously detailed that Alphacore “stars a team of superhero cops who patrol the skies and the streets of Forest Park in search of super creeps, wierdos, and villains. Boy, do they find them.”
“It’s full of action,” Dixon continued. “It’s kind of a police procedural meets a superhero epic.”
Not only will Bennett team-up with Dixon for Alphacore #1, but the two also collaborated on an unannounced Rippaverse book. Speaking with Bounding Into Comics, Dixon teased the series, “The second thing I did for [Rippaverse] was kind of in the vigilante, sort of Batman, Punisher mode, but I sort of turn everything on its head in a way that Marvel and DC wouldn’t allow you to do it.”
He clarified, “But not in a R-rated way. I’m still writing comics for a precocious 10-year old.”
What do you make of Joe Bennett joining the Rippaverse alongside Chuck Dixon?