Amph The DC thread, if you ask me.

I found it overly thick with introductory exposition

 

DC Nation Panel at Wizard World Chicago.

The DC Nation Panel on Friday was led by Executive Editor Dan DiDio, who arrived with three costumed characters. The three joined him on stage and included evil Mary Marvel, Black Canary, and Spoiler as Robin.

DiDio first introduced himself by saying: "I am the current and future editor of DC comics," to which the crowd cheered knowingly.

Also on the panel were:

- Writer Gail Simone
- Writer Sean McKeever
- Senior Coordinating Editor Jann Jones
- Vice President of Sales Bob Wayne
- Tiny Titans writers Art Baltazar and Franco
- Artist Ethan Van Sciver
- Writer Geoff Johns
- Artist Tony Daniel

DiDio asked someone in the audience to explain what Final Crisis is about. A few fans tried but struggled, which garnered laughs from both the crowd and the panel.

"Barry Allen's back," a fan yelled. DiDio polled the audience to see what Flash they liked best. Jay Garrick and Bart Allen didn't win, but Barry Allen and Wally West were both favorites.

"Martian Manhunter died!" another fan yelled.

DiDio then asked the panelists what they thought of the death of Martian Manhunter in Final Crisis.

- McKeever: "Who is that?"
- Johns: "No comment."
- Jones: "More Chocos for me."
- Daniel: "I'm the one guy who's pissed off.
- Van Sciver: "Now that Tony said that and got applause, I'm outraged!"
- Wayne (to DiDio): "I thought you could spell Nightwing better than that."
- Baltazar: "Can we bring him back in Tiny Titans?"
- Simone: "Good thing I believe in reincarnation."

DiDio then opened the panel to questions from the fans.

- With Barry Allen back, does DC have a better plan for what to do with Barry than "what you had for Wally?"

Van Sciver: "Oh of course."

DiDio: "Wally will be around. He's part of the Titans team right now, and he'll be part of that team for the foreseeable future."

- What's the latest on the kids line? Jones: Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam is coming out in July (and will be previewed her on Newsarama early nexst week). "He picks up on a lot of the threads left by Jeff Smith," Jones said. "It really captures the charm of the character," DiDio said.

- Were copyright issues behind the creative changes to Captain Marvel, Blue Beetle and Captain Atom? DiDio: Blue Beetle and Captain Atom changes were purely creative choices. With Shazam, "we'd like the title character to have the same name as the title of the book. Simple as that," DiDio said.

- Will there be an Ambush Bug Showcase? Wayne: It is "under consideration."

- Will Final Crisis become more clear? DiDio: It does become more clear as the story develops. The first three issues set up what's coming. It is the heralding of the Fifth World, and Darkseid twists it for his own needs. "How it affects the other heroes will come out in some of the one-shots and the rest of the series."

- Are we ever going to see the original Aquaman again? At that point, Johns and Van Sciver began whispering, saying "can we say it?" Finally, Van Sciver stated, "We'd like you to refer to Blackest Night for the answer to that."

- What is going to happen with The Spectre? DiDio: "He's all over Final Crisis: Revelations." It's all about Crispus Allen and how much he's needed for Final Crisis.

"And also see Blackest Night," Van Sciver added.

"And Tiny Titans," Jones laughed.

- Are there any plans for Captain Atom? Johns: He will be in the Superman and Action Comics stories that he and James Robinson are doing and will pay a "major role."

McKeever: Fans will also see Bombshell in Teen Titans, who has similar powers.

- Can Simone share who the two new members of Secret Six are? Simone: The team will be Deadshot, Catman, Scandal, Ragdoll, an "A-list Batman villain and a new character I've created. The first issue of Secret Six starts with a huge, huge trip from San Francisco to Gotham, and we see a new villain I've created that is such a bastard that even re-reading a script I've written, I was freaked out."

Simone said that in the second issue, "we have a certai

 

Highlights from Comic Con.

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-DC and the creators of Milestone have come to an agreement and the Milestone characters will return. Only now they will be part of the DCU proper. Icon and Hardware will be appearing in JLA #27, as part of a new arc by Dwayne McDuffie. Static Shock may appear in the Terror Titans mini-series, before appearing in Teen Titans. This story will ignore the events of "World's Collide" from 1994, the crossover with Superman, Steel and Superboy. Dakota will be part of New Earth and not an Earth from the Multiverse. McDuffie will also write the lost chapter that would tie everything up as part of the old continuity. Also, we will have collections of the older Milestone books.

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-DC has also gained the license to relaunch Archie superheroes from the 1940's and 50's. These will be the original versions and not the Impact versions or the 90's revamp from the Archie company. JMS will be introducing them in the pages of "The Brave & The Bold".

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-Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Schiver will follow up on the return of Barry Allen from "Final Crisis" with "The Flash: Rebirth", a six issue series coming early next year.

-Mike Grell will be supervising the relaunching of "The Warlord", ignoring the recent attempts. He even guaranteed that he will pencil the book at one point in the near future.

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-Kevin Smith and Walt Flannegan will team-up to bring us a three part Batman mini-series called "Batman: Cacophony", which will feature the return of Onomatopoeia from his run on Green Arrow. He has two issues in and he'll have the third done before it is solicited.

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-After "R.I.P.", we will have "Fight For The Cowl" in the Batman books. Catwoman will still be a major part of the DCU and the Bat books, despite not having a book.

 

Oh God oh god Neil Gaiman writing Batman.

 

Yes. Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert will be writing the two part story called "Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader?" in the pages of Batman and Detective Comics. It will hit in January and yes, it is meant to parallel Alan Moore, Curt Swan and George Perez's story "Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?" from 1986. In December, Denny O'Neil will also do a two part story that looks at Gotham in the aftermath of the "R.I.P." arc.

 

O'Neil, Morrison, Gaiman, and Dini all writing Batman at about the same time.

Oh me oh my

 

The only one I'm sure won't blow is Dini. Yes, I'm feeling cynical. It's Monday.

 

I'm going to punch you straight in the mouth!

 

Even if this sucks (and is endlessly late) it will still be awesome just to have Walt and Kevin working together on a comic.

 

Yay! My first human contact in months!

 

Anyone read the Joker's Asylum oneshots?

So far I've read Joker's Asylum: Scarecrow and it was pretty good.

 

I liked all of them, but Penguin and Two Face were the best. Penguin because the whole thing was just depraved and Two Face for how **** the ending was

 

All I know is Geoff Johns writing for DC is the best thing to ever happen to them. His Green Lantern run has been brilliant. I'm currently going through all of the Green Lantern trades. I loved the last two issues of Action Comics, the Brainiac stuff has been great. I need to read his original Flash run and can't wait until he starts up that book again. I loved what he did with Infinite Crisis. How is his JSA stuff?

 

You know all the other things he's done?

None of it is as good as his JSA

 

I haven't gotten a chance to read much of his JSA work, but I've enjoyed his work on Action Comics and Green Lantern.

 

Action comics was terrific this week. Batman RIP maybe in the end I'll get it but right now it's going over my head.

 

Really? This RIP issue was pretty easy to understand and it explained the other issues as well.

 

DC Nation from the Baltimore Comic Con.

 

Holy mother of God was "Rage of the Red Lanterns" awesome.

 

DC nation this week had a list of ten things, five tricks (falsehoods) and five treats (truths) about upcoming stories and what not

* SEVERAL HEROES WILL PLAY A GAME OF ROUND ROBIN, BUT ONLY ONE WILL WEAR THE COWL.
(treat, the Battle of the Cowel storyline)
* THIS YEAR THE JLA WILL REACH A NEW MILESTONE FOR ROSTER CHANGES. (treat, the Milestone Heroes)
* YOU CAN TRUST ALL OF THE TITANS. (trick, it's way too obvious)
* THE DEAD AREN'T THE ONLY ONES WHO WILL WALK THE EARTH AGAIN IN THE DCU. (???)
* TO SAVE THE DCU YOU WILL NEED A SHIELD, A BUG, AND A HOOD. (treat? The Archie Heroes in Brave and Bold.)
* HUSBANDS AND WIVES WILL STAY ON THE SAME SIDE OF THE LAW. (trick, this isn't even trying.)
* THE OWL AND THE BUTLER ARE THE SAME PERSON. (??? ALFRED IS ACTUALLY OWLMAN?
* THE BEST WONDER WOMAN FOR THE JOB IS A WOMAN. (trick, the whole "Best Wonder Woman is a man" thing in WW
* THERE WILL BE A NIGHTWING IN THE DCU. (???They'll be at least one with new Krypton)
* AMBUSH BUG WILL JOIN THE JUSTICE LEAGUE?OF THE FUTURE! (???)

 

Regarding Rage of the Red Lanterns: This is how you do an event comic. Wow. I am somehow not surprised that Geoff Johns has written the best event comic of the year to date, by far.

First of all, great art all the way through. If I'm going to give special props to a few pages, it'll be the opening sequence, the gathering of the Red Lanterns two-page spread, and the introduction of the blue cat Red Lantern (I laughed so loud seeing that sight gag I scared people on the bus). The dialog was top-notch and memorable, especially the Hal and Carol dialog while she's flying, "We must extinguish all other light", "Do you believe this is Justice?" and my favorite smack-down line in recent months, "Show them fear."

And there were some really, really great moments. The black comedy of "I'm not afraid of you." "No? What about death then?" "N-" "Was that a no?" was perfect. And the book ended with absolutely the best closing scene I can remember in quite some time. Hal gets burned by Laira, who is now a Red Lantern. He goes tumbling through space, on fire, as the red power burns away his protection against the vacuum. His ring starts spouting off warnings. "Warning. Ring incapacitated." "Warning. Ring Incapacitated." "Power corrupted." "Power levels unknown." Hal is literally burning alive. And then, the flames go out. "Ganthet sensed your anger" says some unknown voice. "Power levels 88%." The voice continues "And that of the Red Lanterns." The ring continues "Power levels 108%." A blue lantern symbol shows up in the middle of Hal's power ring. "Power levels 164%." "I have been chosen to help lift up those who need it. There will be others, Hal Jordan. But for now, there is only me. I am Saint Walker. It is imperative we retrieve Sinestro before he is sacrificed. If this universe is to survive the Blackest Night we will need him alive." We see Saint Walker, the Blue Lantern. "Power levels 200%."[/black]

It's all fantastic, not one wasted page, and it goes to highlight how badly Final Crisis has failed. This is what Final Crisis #1 should have been like. Not Darkseid as a gangster and a plotline that made no sense to people who had been following DC for years. Darkseid's reveal at the end of the first issue, in all his terrible might and glory. Not saving it until a man in a chair in book four could make an uncharitable gesture. Seeing Laira with the bad guys ended being a lot more of a punch in the gut than seeing Mary Marvel, even though both have had their fall to the dark side plotlines running for over a year. Seeing Carol and Hal flying together meant a lot more than Superman sitting by Lois Lane's bedside. And the introduction of Saint Walker was absolutely brilliant, and a mirroring "Oh crud" moment has yet to really happen in Final Crisis. The release of Anti-Life could have been that moment, but instead Morrison went for the camp of OMG we needs to kills teh Internets!

It's almost enough to make me forgive Johns making Hal the main character rather than Kyle!

 

Whoa. Hold up there, Longshanks. Darkseid as a gangster was perfectly understandable to people who had read Seven Soldiers. And Darkseid in book four was perfect. Anything before that would have lessened the impact.

Final Crisis is different from most comic events in that the tone is so off. This is not our heroes engaged in a huge war or epic space battle. This is our heroes when they have already lost. It was inevitable. The revel of Darkseid came after we had seen his plans already eliminate the greatest opposition. The Trinity; down, the world; enslaved, the heroes; besieged and losing, and the hope of the world, the man immune to the anti-life equation Mr Miricle; shot before he could save us. Dan Turpin was a man who we saw was brave and tenacious, but even he couldn't do anything. He was reduced to a husk begging someone to help him or to stop it. It was the defeat of a man who never backed down or gave an inch. His transformation was the death of the human spirit, while the world sickens and decays around them. Showing him before that moment would just be having a bad guy appear, this way we know that the Gods have come and they bring ruin with them. We can't resist, we are forced to Submit.

I'm sure Blackest Night will be awesome, but I figure in a summer spectacular way. I don't expect to get feelings of dread and actual fear from the issues like I did with FC.

 

Which is also why the ones who inspire hope are missing, captured or corrupted. Superman, Earth-22 Superman, Hal Jordan, Batman, Wonder Woman and Uncle Sam. They're the beacons of hope in a world without it now. That's partially why Barry is back. He'll inspire hope because he saved the day once at the cost of his life and will do so again.

My guess is, when Superman comes back, he'll help Dan Turpin to resist Darkseid due to their friendship.

 

Judd Winnick is going to write the upcoming Batman arc "Battle for the Cowl".

 

No, Tony Daniel is writting it.