WonderCon 2025: Bad Idea’s New Series ‘Ordained’ To Be Adapted By Derek Kolstadt
by Gary Catig
Bad Idea used to think of themselves as comic rebels running the business in unconventional ways. Initially, they did not do digital, variant covers, or trades, and partnered with select shops to sell their titles. During WonderCon this past weekend, the publisher announced they were moving away from that model to embrace the norms in the industry. They also shared their upcoming slate of comic series — an ambitious line-up featuring some very talented creators.
Planet Death kicks off the next wave of Bad Idea books. It is written by Derek Kolstadt, scribe of the first three John Wick Films, and Robert Venditti with art from Tomás Giorello and Dave Stewart. It is a D-Day style invasion of an alien planet with an aim to destroy a powerful weapon. Kolstadt drew inspiration from films such as Hell is for Heroes and The Guns of Navarone and considers it a love letter to his days playing Starcraft and watching older kids play Warhammer. Issue #0 arrives April 30th, 2025 with issue #1 arriving in July.
Cul De Sac was revealed last time Bad Idea was at WonderCon, and now we have a release date. Arriving in August, the comic is considered a The Goonies or Runaways with vampires. There are a group of families that live on a cul de sac and the children learn that their parents are vampires. The kids go on the run and something even worse begins hunting them. The comic is from creators Mike Carey and Jonathan Wayshak. It releases this August.
Survive, from Venditti and artist Doug Braithwaite, comes out in September. It’s a story about two men — a Russian soldier and an American spy — trapped onboard a sunken submarine at the bottom of the ocean. They must put their animosities aside and work together to escape and survive.
Giorello has another book arriving this year in October called Save Now with writer Matt Kindt. People who backed the superhero time-traveling tale on Kickstarter have been waiting for a while because halfway into production, Kindt had a fantastic idea, which caused the originally planned threeissue comic to expand by one issue.
Not to be outdone, Venditti has three books in the next wave the last of which is Ordained. It is a street level crime story that follows a priest who goes to a hospital to deliver last rites to a patient who happens to be an Irish gangster. When he experiences a miraculous recovery, he sends his underlings to kill the priest to keep his secrets from coming out. Unfortunately for the criminals, the priest is a former special forces soldier who found his faith in combat. It’s a tricky situation since the priest must survive without killing any of his assailants.
Even before its release, which is in November, Ordained is already in the process of being adapted. Kolstadt is writing and producing the adaptation with Bad Idea. They have a currently unnamed Oscar nominated A-list actor attached.
Finally, there is Habitat, which was revealed last year at WonderCon. At the time, the creator’s were Joshua Dysart and David Lapham. Joining the project is Bill Sienkiewicz. It’s a post apocalyptic tale in which a billionaire, his family, and staff take refuge in his high tech bunker. Then things go horribly wrong. Dysart describes it as a “contained horror story inside the highest tech bunker you’ve ever seen.” Artists Lapham and Sienkiewicz do interior art at different temporal points.
