OK, by now everyone has already done their Comic-Con coverage for New York. The event took place a couple of weeks ago. Things were a little screwy for me the week I SHOULD have been doing this but at least (we can assume) every panel report has been posted, which should make this easy for me. To make it easier, I’m sticking with Comic Book Resources for my coverage, unless I’m drawn somewhere else. So let’s look at the highlights (and lowlights, let’s admit it) of the DC Entertainment panels to begin the Late NYCC coverage.
It’s only right to start with the DC Nation panel. Wait, is this good news?
(Dan Didio) then began by reiterating the announcement that prices would be reduced to $2.99 linewide, after noting that last year DC had tried to justify $3.99 with more value such as backup features. “But $3.99 is a tough price point. We’re going back to $2.99, and we’re going to hold it at $2.99.”
However, this means dropping the aforementioned backup features, which is a shame unless they bring back something like Showcase. The backups were a good way to give lesser-selling characters a moment in the spotlight, like the new Blue Beetle who had developed a fan base away from Ted Kord too late to save the main comic. Also, I heard somewhere (and correct me if I’m wrong) that they were taking pages away. Oh, here we go. Four Color quoting from Robot 6.
In what’s clearly a desperate move to salvage themselves, DC has announced they’re going to lower their prices by a dollar for several titles that are 4 dollars, and even drop backup features. But there’s one little problem:
The move to the lower price will mean a decrease in story pages — from 22 pages to 20 in a standard 32-page comic — as well as the loss of co-features in eight titles, including Action Comics, Adventure Comics and Detective Comics.
Oh, so what good is it then? All that means is there’ll be less story room, and considering how bad they’ve become, it won’t make much difference to anyone already disillusioned with their shattered universe. And 2 of those 3 titles above have lost their main stars – Superman and Batman – one more reason why they’ve lost audience.
Considering how few advertisements comics have nowadays (especially compared to a decade or so ago), what are they going to do with those pages? You get the occasional product placement, but most of the ads are for DC (or Marvel in their comics) comics and merchandise. Those small advert pages are long gone, and rest of it is “give us money”. Why not try to diversify their ad content? It’s not like we’re going to fast forward past them like we do TV shows.
Oh, I like this line considering that internet firestorm back in May:
DiDio began by asking fans who was reading “Brightest Day” and whether they were enjoying the Aquaman story. One fan praised the addition of the new Aqualad, particularly for adding diversity to the DCU.
Emphasis mine, but remember the fallout early this year after Chris Sims realized how many minority characters were getting shafted because DC wanted “their” character back at the expense of the legacy characters? (My first article on it and the followup if you missed all the fun.) Yeah, now we have black Aqualad. Who I hear can’t swim, much less breathe underwater. And what happened to the previous Aqualad/Tempest/what does he go by now? Guess our little “tadpole” should have survived on TV past the Filmation years, because it seems to have to be a Super Friend to get some love at DC Comics. And speaking of bad comments:
“Does anybody want to complain about Cassandra Cain and just get it over with?” DiDio joked. Several fans did. “She’s waiting outside the Batcave for a memorial for the Spoiler,” DiDio said.
Insert your own comment there, but keep the swearing down, please.
On “Green Arrow,” a fan suggested DC bring back Lian Harper. DiDio was puzzled for a moment, then, “Oh, the dead kid.” A young girl dressed as Speedy also asked for Lian’s return, and was invited onto the dais.
“The dead kid”. Emphasis and facepalm mine.
The young girl on the panel perked up in a discussion about Grant Morrison and the Damian Wayne version of Robin. “What is Grant Morrison taking?” she said.
A question about Cassandra Cain led to the young girl mentioning that the character will appear in “Red Robin.”
Just how “young” was this girl. Granted, a lot of people wonders what Morrison is taking (and hopes he continues taking it). And how does she know Cassandra is showing up in Red Robin? And does she know if she’ll be evil again?
Asked when Dick Grayson would go back to being Nightwing, DiDio said, “Dick Grayson is Batman now,” to much applause. The girl derided Dick’s appearances in the core Batman title under Tony Daniel, saying, “There’s no characterization there!” Bob Wayne joked, “Yeah, we’ll be talking about this at other conventions.” DiDio joked, “This might be the end of inviting people up.”
I think I like this girl. 🙂 If she is a plant, then DiDio didn’t learn his part right.
Other news includes Kid Flash racing Superboy–because that storyline hasn’t gotten old yet–Nick Spencer’s Jimmy Olsen backup finishing in a one-shot special, what sounds like a “civil war” (not the Marvel version) within the Outsiders team, and Static Shock coming out in April.
DiDio asked whether fans liked the new Wonder Woman costume, now that it’s had time to sink in. There was a solid level of applause, but also a few boos. One fan said she liked “that it’s real,” but another complained about “the straps and the jacket—it’s too much.” Another fan said, “Changing Wonder Woman’s costume is like changing Superman’s or Batman’s—you don’t do it.” But several other fans shouted, “Yes you do!”
Asked about the future of Blue Beetle Jaime Reyes and the possibility of a new ongoing series, DiDio said, “We’re getting ready to bring that character back in a big way. We’re looking for the right tone, but the answer is yes.”
We’re also promised a more stable Teen Titans crew, both in cast and creative staff, but I want to see if someone can undo the damage that title’s been suffering lately.
The next question: “What about Ralph and Sue?” A good level of applause followed. “You know, we come to these panels year after year, what we hear is, ‘why can’t characters stay dead?” DiDio said. “This is our gift to you.”
Can I return it, because it doesn’t work! Well, we’re out of that panel and including stuff I didn’t mention, nothing good but the price drop, and even that has it’s downsides. What about the DC Universe panel?
Showing a slide with a cross through the $3.99 price, (Senior Editor Ian) Sattler joked that, “they’ll now be $5.99.”
Don’t put it past them? 🙂 Let’s see, Brightest Day (don’t care), wait what’s this now?
The next slide was Batman standing over Oracle’s tombstone. Simone said that after the current arc of “Birds of Play” will be “Death of Oracle.” “It’s a game changer, you guys,” she said, adding that it would have repercussions throughout the DCU. After that will be a Catman/Huntress date and a crossover with “Gotham City Sirens.”
I’m not sure which idea is more disturbing, the possibility of killing Barbra Gordon or Huntress dating Catman. 🙂 So what else? Legion of Superheroes still has a backup story which will lead to a spin-off title, and…
Krul said “Green Arrow” would soon see the resolution of the Queen storyarc, then move into “Who is Black Arrow?” “Green Arrow’s needed a nemesis for a while, and this will set that up,” Krul said.
A David Mack variant cover to “Justice League” showed Dark Supergirl with Batman, which relates to the story arc beginning in #50 against the Crime Syndicate. “Out of all that we get a new villain, but one of the ramifications for that is that Supergirl in the Justice League will be Dark Supergirl.” Following that arc is “Shadow War,” which focuses on Eclipso, playing out images from the “Brightest Day” teaser. “You’ll see Obsidian become a really cool hero in a way he’s never done before.” Robinson added that “One of the first things [Eclipso] does is murder the Spectre.”
Dark Supergirl and Black Arrow. Spectre murdered. And the part I find most unbelievable is Obsidian becoming a “cool hero”. Weird. OK, bunch of jokes making jokes, hook-ups in REBELS–who cares.
“Green Lantern Corps” will feature Tyler Kirkham on art and a new villain called the Weaponer, who forged Sinestro’s original yellow ring. “He thought this was going to make him a rock star, but it turned out to be the worst thing ever to happen to Qward.”
Wait, the Weaponer is new? Wasn’t he in the Green Lantern: First Flight movie? Oh, here’s Shane Davis and J. Michael discussing working on Superman: Earth One:
“He can either become the best scientist in the world, the best athlete, and become rich and take care of his mother, or he can give all that up and be Superman,” Straczynski said of issues Clark Kent faces early in the book. “Something happens that kind of forces the decision on him.” He added that the destruction of Krypton “may have been a hit job.” Further, he said Jimmy Olsen would be a bit more intense, like the “bat$%$%” photojournalists he knows. Davis added that the dynamic between Kent and Olson was a highlight.
Who’s taking bets on “I’m the goddamn Jimmy Olson”. 😀 Kevin Maguire is writing a character with “the power of the Silver Surfer and the personality of Sarah Silverman”. Just when you thought manic-depressive was the worst emotion you could give the Surfer.
A fan asked about the return of Space Cabbie. “The Congorilla Special features Rex the Wonder Dog,” Robinson said.
Another joked that Arsenal should fight Dex-Starr, referring to a much-maligned scene in “Rise of Arsenal” in which Roy Harper appears to fight a dead cat. After a lot of laughter, including from the writer of that scene J.T. Krul, Sattler said that the original scene was badly misinterpreted. “But just because of that, we’re going to do a whole 12-issue miniseries where people fight cats,” he joked
Either would be more enjoyable than some of what we get now. So let’s peek into the DC Animation panel for a moment.
They began with Superman/Shazam, which Timm explained came about because they wanted to make use of a character who hadn’t appeared much in animation recently. Once the idea of throwing in Black Adam came up, the project “started to get exciting.”
The first clip featured a knock-down fight between Superman and Black Adam, with Black Adam throwing lightning bolts and Superman blasting with his heat vision, both characters taking hits hard enough to knock them back into various pieces of architecture. Billy Batson, who hasn’t yet learned to become Captain Marvel, is helpless during the fight, but displays the bravery that marks him for the hero he is to become.
Miereanu described the story as a struggle between good and evil for the soul of Billy Batson, a summary Timm agreed with. Superman and Black Adam represent two different ways to use power, “and the question is, which way is Billy going to go with that?”
Outside of “hasn’t yet learned to become Captain Marvel”, unless this is an origin story for the Big Red Cheese, this sounds a lot better than what was planned for the live-action movie. Actually, it sounds pretty awesome. Now if there was only a comic that could feed off a movie like this. —->
They also brought up All-Star Superman, the DC movie coming after this.
“I think what Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely did,” said Timm, “was look back over the way Superman used to be in the early Silver Age. He took aspects of the character that people have avoided for the last forty years and embraced them. He didn’t point a finger and say, ‘Ha ha – look how goofy he is!’ but instead embraced the goofiness. It’s not played for camp. He does a modern take on that Superman and makes him relevant. They didn’t go out of their way to make it cynical or gritty.
“We wanted to do the comic straight up, and I think we did.”
I’m sold. Only a few comments from the Green Lantern panel.
“There will be changes within the Star Saphires now that Carol [Ferris] is queen,” Johns said in response to a question about such changes (the fan had suggested “more practical outfits.”)
That would be nice. Also learned that fans are a little too obsessed with the blood-vomiting cat and that Larfleeze sounds like Daffy Duck.
Next, Johns said that there would be “a huge fight between Hal and Kyle” following the conclusion of “Brightest Day.”
A fan asked about when the “War of Colors” might be coming. “The War of Green Lanterns is coming, we’ll see that first,” Johns said.
I can guess who is winning that one, but I’m still cheering on Kyle. And I thought we already had the various color Lanterns go to war with each other?
The next question was about making sure the series was accessible for new readers. Tomasi noted that the current state of comics storytelling makes it difficult to have every issue new reader friendly, but “You can go to every comic store, book store, and get the whole thing—it’s right at your fingertips.” Digital makes this even easier, he said. “You go on your iPad, you can get ‘Secret Origins,’ it’s right there.”
No, Peter, you don’t have to have EVERY issue new reader friendly, but a good jump-on point now and then (especially with all these arcs-for-trade stories) will bring in the more reluctant-yet-curious readers.The DCU Online panel didn’t gt too much interest from me because I don’t have time to play MMOs, but you can read about the panel and check out the trailer. I have to admit that it looks impressive though.
So those are the DC comics panels. Tomorrow we see what Marvel had to say, and then we look at everybody else.
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