[This piece originally appeared at comiXology in 2008, and is essentially unchanged. Did they ever come out with that Creature Commandos comic?]
Baltimore Comic Con Saturday Programming
11:00AM-12:30PM - DC Nation
Join DC editor Dan Didio as he, and special guests*, discuss the current DC Universe, as well as hint at the future of the DC Universe.
*Special guests meant Geoff Johns, James Robinson, Sean McKeever, Bob Wayne, Ian Sattler (who is very rude), Sterling Gates and Jimmy Palmiotti (who is very nice).
This panel was definitely geared towards a certain aspect of comic fandom, existing solely for the purpose of showing a room full of people what the next few months of solicitations for DC Comics will look like. Although there may be some moments of frank honesty that are interesting enough, the scope and purpose of this grouping of fan favorite creators is clear: DC is going to be publishing more comic books featuring Superman and Batman. This is what the covers look like. Hold for applause.
It's easy enough to criticize a public relations display; and doing so stands in clear opposition to a PR display being exactly what the packed room of DC fans wanted. Let's do it anyway.
• DC will continue to publish Final Crisis as a mini-series—the recently published third issue will be followed by a fourth.
• The Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge mini-series will also be having future issues.
• These will be joined by two new one-shots: Final Crisis: Submit and Final Crisis: Resist.
While this information isn't exactly surprising or new, it was met with a pretty excited response that was completely out of proportion with the fact that the comics were vaguely referred to as existing in the near future, which everyone knew before they sat down.
Before they left the Final Crisis topic for Kryptonian waters,Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns was discussed, and although logic and sense long ago lost the battle with silly conceptual ideas as comic book storylines, it has still been hoped that the idea of a rainbow spectrum of Lantern corps is a joke. Not so! Because here come the Red Lanterns, and according to Johns, they are really hot to trot to ice Sinestro. (Red stands for rage!) There's probably a reason why, maybe having to do with Sinestro laughing hysterically every time a new color of Lantern enters the room. "I'm a Blue Lantern. Stop laughing at me! I'm the embodiment of love. STOP LAUGHING." When the subject of the Blue Lanterns came up again later, Johns mentioned that, while he and Peter Tomasi had discussed whether or not the concept of a love corps was "lame," they had finally realized that "love can be scary as well." Yes, it certainly can.
The talk of developments in the Superman franchise began with cover displays of a "New Krypton" story with a bit of explanation from James Robinson. The story is about how there are more Kryptonians on Earth because the Bottle City of Kandor has increased in size, and is no longer in a bottle. Probably due to a dedicated Superman panel later in the day, the topic of Kryptonians changed focus to Supergirl. Didio introduced Sterling Hayden, the latest in a long line of creators who will finally make Supergirl the character DC and fans have always wanted her to be—it wasn't said outright, but the only imaginable explication of that remark is that Supergirl will now be a character that people willingly purchase in a comic store, as opposed to being irritated by. Sterling's optimism was clear: after asking those in the audience to raise their hands if they were reading Supergirl, only to witness the feeble and lackluster response, he promised that next year "all of you will raise your hands." This will apparently need to be taken on faith.
Geoff Johns used this opportunity to drop the earth-shattering revelation that he will be bringing the Creature Commandos back into the DC Universe. The reaction in the room was a bit mixed, with a small number of people seeming to have what could best be described as a stroke brought on by orgasm. However, the majority had to wait until Johns, and eventually Didio, explained that the Creature Commandos was an old DC team made up of monsters that are similar to Frankenstein, vampires and werewolves, led by a normal human being. Johns described the human as "the real monster." This explanation was enough to get the remainder of the room on board for something they seemed to think had never been done before, perhaps missing the fact that this is a revamp of an old property.
The Geoff Johns portion of the panel then continued with an update on the Justice Society of America: it will continue to come out. According to one individual in the audience, this is great, as JSA is awesome. There will be an upcoming Power Girl series written by Jimmy Palmiotti and illustrated by Amanda Conner that will follow along with what Johns had established for the character in his Justice Society work. New readers who pick up the title mistakenly thinking that (because this is almost the entire team that produced The Pro) the comic will be satirical and gross will be disappointed, as Palmiotti says Power Girl will be "lighter" in tone.
After this, the floor was yielded to Sean McKeever, who promised that he will continue to kill as many of the Teen Titans as possible, hopefully leading to the point where the book has only one character, and is called Teen Titan. He followed this up by saying that, seriously, he plans to have a lot more violence and blood in both that book and Terror Titans. Although he got some laughs out of this, it seemed like the audience reaction was a bit mild. This may be due to the significant jump from talking about Superman, Final Crisis and the JSA to talking about a book that, by any estimation, is nowhere near as successful as those three. Or it may be due to people being offended. It was impossible to tell.
Following the Titan discussion Didio again took over, to talk about the upcoming return of the Milestone characters to the DC Universe—due to the absence of Dwayne McDuffie, the subject wasn't treated with much depth. Of course, the depth of information given on any of these comics extended about as far as it took to repeat what will probably be the advance product solicits, so that was probably a good thing on the time-saving front.
As the cover-slide portion of the panel came to a close, Didio talked about an upcoming villain-based series that came about from his enjoying a series of advertisements DC had run earlier in the year, featuring parodies of motivational posters with characters like Hush and Mongul and other B-grade DCU villains. The oddness of the idea that the company was publishing comics inspired by fake advertisements that are essentially the same photoshopped parodies of motivational posters existing all over the internet was not addressed—apparently this means that all the "are you serious?" conversations happen behind closed doors. The various mini-series will include Deathstroke, Kobra, Solomon Grundy & Prometheus. The Prometheus one will be "very violent."
The question and answer period that took over the remainder of the panel was certainly an eye opener, but probably not in the way anyone sane would anticipate, as one of the questions was a grown man asking the panel what "RIP" stands for. Didio, in what had to be the most gracious moments of his career, responded that it stood for "rest in peace," thereby avoiding what has to be the soul-sickening feeling that would haunt any man who realizes that, yes, part of your job is to answer those questions. As was noted after the panel by another convention attendee, his six year old knows what RIP stands for.
One thing that came up a few times during the Q&A was people asking when a specific comic or character would be getting their own series, to which Dan Didio had to respond that the failure of these characters to find sales with previous attempts rendered them, for the current time, un-usable as stand-alone properties. These characters included an ongoing Batgirl (who will be seen in the Outsiders series), the Suicide Squad (who will appear in Manhunter) and Uncle Sam & The Freedom Fighters (who will appear nowhere). Another subject that came up often was whether this or that dead character will be returning, to which Geoff Johns began a relatively amusing long-running joke of hunching forward and grunting "Black Lantern," referring to the upcoming Green Lantern storyline that will serve as the years-late rip-off of the Marvel Zombies idea, where DC characters who are dead show up to cause problems. These characters include: Ralph Dibny, Ted Kord, Aquaman, Hawkwoman and the Martian Manhunter. Oddly enough, Bart Allen, a recently killed Flash, will not be among them.
When asked about the potential for weekly comics after Trinity, Didio referred to an as-of-yet undeclared weekly title that will not run for a full year (as 52, Countdown and Trinity did and do), to be followed up by a potentially unlimited weekly series. The weekly series was also cited-- in response to a question by a fan who had recently seen his favorite store close down, which he attributed to "people who buy their comics online" -- as one of the ways in which DC is trying to help the local comic shop. While Bob Wayne expressed some mild sympathy, he frankly admitted that DC had to accommodate the entire customer base, and they wouldn't be doing anything anytime soon to alienate the Amazon trade-purchasers.
The second-funniest moment came when a man costumed as the Silver Age Sandman responded with an angry, "I'm not Rorshach!" when Dan Didio misidentified him. In Didio's defense, the man had removed his mask, and the mistake was an easy one—a trenchcoat and a hat go a long way towards a costume; but without something in the facial area, the lists of possible characters is a long one. But this back-and-forth was trumped when someone asked about the story behind the upcoming Superman & Batman Versus Vampires & Werewolves -- to which the panel responded that everything one needed to know was in the title.
While there were other questions, and a few other comics covered as well, little of what occurred in the Oa Room at the Baltimore Comic-Con was much more then a preview of Previews, the direct-market catalog published by Diamond that serves as the bible for comics purchasers. Still, if Didio and members of the panel are to be believed, DC uses these panels as an opportunity to hear what fans have to say about their current product—and if this DC Panel is any indication of what those fans have to say, then DC Comics will have a successful period of sales in the coming months. Across the board, the room liked everything. Time will tell if those positive reactions translate to financial success.
11:00AM-12:30PM - DC Nation
Join DC editor Dan Didio as he, and special guests*, discuss the current DC Universe, as well as hint at the future of the DC Universe.
*Special guests meant Geoff Johns, James Robinson, Sean McKeever, Bob Wayne, Ian Sattler (who is very rude), Sterling Gates and Jimmy Palmiotti (who is very nice).
This panel was definitely geared towards a certain aspect of comic fandom, existing solely for the purpose of showing a room full of people what the next few months of solicitations for DC Comics will look like. Although there may be some moments of frank honesty that are interesting enough, the scope and purpose of this grouping of fan favorite creators is clear: DC is going to be publishing more comic books featuring Superman and Batman. This is what the covers look like. Hold for applause.It's easy enough to criticize a public relations display; and doing so stands in clear opposition to a PR display being exactly what the packed room of DC fans wanted. Let's do it anyway.
• DC will continue to publish Final Crisis as a mini-series—the recently published third issue will be followed by a fourth.
• The Final Crisis: Rogues' Revenge mini-series will also be having future issues.
• These will be joined by two new one-shots: Final Crisis: Submit and Final Crisis: Resist.
While this information isn't exactly surprising or new, it was met with a pretty excited response that was completely out of proportion with the fact that the comics were vaguely referred to as existing in the near future, which everyone knew before they sat down.
Before they left the Final Crisis topic for Kryptonian waters,Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns was discussed, and although logic and sense long ago lost the battle with silly conceptual ideas as comic book storylines, it has still been hoped that the idea of a rainbow spectrum of Lantern corps is a joke. Not so! Because here come the Red Lanterns, and according to Johns, they are really hot to trot to ice Sinestro. (Red stands for rage!) There's probably a reason why, maybe having to do with Sinestro laughing hysterically every time a new color of Lantern enters the room. "I'm a Blue Lantern. Stop laughing at me! I'm the embodiment of love. STOP LAUGHING." When the subject of the Blue Lanterns came up again later, Johns mentioned that, while he and Peter Tomasi had discussed whether or not the concept of a love corps was "lame," they had finally realized that "love can be scary as well." Yes, it certainly can.The talk of developments in the Superman franchise began with cover displays of a "New Krypton" story with a bit of explanation from James Robinson. The story is about how there are more Kryptonians on Earth because the Bottle City of Kandor has increased in size, and is no longer in a bottle. Probably due to a dedicated Superman panel later in the day, the topic of Kryptonians changed focus to Supergirl. Didio introduced Sterling Hayden, the latest in a long line of creators who will finally make Supergirl the character DC and fans have always wanted her to be—it wasn't said outright, but the only imaginable explication of that remark is that Supergirl will now be a character that people willingly purchase in a comic store, as opposed to being irritated by. Sterling's optimism was clear: after asking those in the audience to raise their hands if they were reading Supergirl, only to witness the feeble and lackluster response, he promised that next year "all of you will raise your hands." This will apparently need to be taken on faith.
Geoff Johns used this opportunity to drop the earth-shattering revelation that he will be bringing the Creature Commandos back into the DC Universe. The reaction in the room was a bit mixed, with a small number of people seeming to have what could best be described as a stroke brought on by orgasm. However, the majority had to wait until Johns, and eventually Didio, explained that the Creature Commandos was an old DC team made up of monsters that are similar to Frankenstein, vampires and werewolves, led by a normal human being. Johns described the human as "the real monster." This explanation was enough to get the remainder of the room on board for something they seemed to think had never been done before, perhaps missing the fact that this is a revamp of an old property.The Geoff Johns portion of the panel then continued with an update on the Justice Society of America: it will continue to come out. According to one individual in the audience, this is great, as JSA is awesome. There will be an upcoming Power Girl series written by Jimmy Palmiotti and illustrated by Amanda Conner that will follow along with what Johns had established for the character in his Justice Society work. New readers who pick up the title mistakenly thinking that (because this is almost the entire team that produced The Pro) the comic will be satirical and gross will be disappointed, as Palmiotti says Power Girl will be "lighter" in tone.
After this, the floor was yielded to Sean McKeever, who promised that he will continue to kill as many of the Teen Titans as possible, hopefully leading to the point where the book has only one character, and is called Teen Titan. He followed this up by saying that, seriously, he plans to have a lot more violence and blood in both that book and Terror Titans. Although he got some laughs out of this, it seemed like the audience reaction was a bit mild. This may be due to the significant jump from talking about Superman, Final Crisis and the JSA to talking about a book that, by any estimation, is nowhere near as successful as those three. Or it may be due to people being offended. It was impossible to tell.
Following the Titan discussion Didio again took over, to talk about the upcoming return of the Milestone characters to the DC Universe—due to the absence of Dwayne McDuffie, the subject wasn't treated with much depth. Of course, the depth of information given on any of these comics extended about as far as it took to repeat what will probably be the advance product solicits, so that was probably a good thing on the time-saving front.
As the cover-slide portion of the panel came to a close, Didio talked about an upcoming villain-based series that came about from his enjoying a series of advertisements DC had run earlier in the year, featuring parodies of motivational posters with characters like Hush and Mongul and other B-grade DCU villains. The oddness of the idea that the company was publishing comics inspired by fake advertisements that are essentially the same photoshopped parodies of motivational posters existing all over the internet was not addressed—apparently this means that all the "are you serious?" conversations happen behind closed doors. The various mini-series will include Deathstroke, Kobra, Solomon Grundy & Prometheus. The Prometheus one will be "very violent."The question and answer period that took over the remainder of the panel was certainly an eye opener, but probably not in the way anyone sane would anticipate, as one of the questions was a grown man asking the panel what "RIP" stands for. Didio, in what had to be the most gracious moments of his career, responded that it stood for "rest in peace," thereby avoiding what has to be the soul-sickening feeling that would haunt any man who realizes that, yes, part of your job is to answer those questions. As was noted after the panel by another convention attendee, his six year old knows what RIP stands for.
One thing that came up a few times during the Q&A was people asking when a specific comic or character would be getting their own series, to which Dan Didio had to respond that the failure of these characters to find sales with previous attempts rendered them, for the current time, un-usable as stand-alone properties. These characters included an ongoing Batgirl (who will be seen in the Outsiders series), the Suicide Squad (who will appear in Manhunter) and Uncle Sam & The Freedom Fighters (who will appear nowhere). Another subject that came up often was whether this or that dead character will be returning, to which Geoff Johns began a relatively amusing long-running joke of hunching forward and grunting "Black Lantern," referring to the upcoming Green Lantern storyline that will serve as the years-late rip-off of the Marvel Zombies idea, where DC characters who are dead show up to cause problems. These characters include: Ralph Dibny, Ted Kord, Aquaman, Hawkwoman and the Martian Manhunter. Oddly enough, Bart Allen, a recently killed Flash, will not be among them.When asked about the potential for weekly comics after Trinity, Didio referred to an as-of-yet undeclared weekly title that will not run for a full year (as 52, Countdown and Trinity did and do), to be followed up by a potentially unlimited weekly series. The weekly series was also cited-- in response to a question by a fan who had recently seen his favorite store close down, which he attributed to "people who buy their comics online" -- as one of the ways in which DC is trying to help the local comic shop. While Bob Wayne expressed some mild sympathy, he frankly admitted that DC had to accommodate the entire customer base, and they wouldn't be doing anything anytime soon to alienate the Amazon trade-purchasers.
The second-funniest moment came when a man costumed as the Silver Age Sandman responded with an angry, "I'm not Rorshach!" when Dan Didio misidentified him. In Didio's defense, the man had removed his mask, and the mistake was an easy one—a trenchcoat and a hat go a long way towards a costume; but without something in the facial area, the lists of possible characters is a long one. But this back-and-forth was trumped when someone asked about the story behind the upcoming Superman & Batman Versus Vampires & Werewolves -- to which the panel responded that everything one needed to know was in the title.While there were other questions, and a few other comics covered as well, little of what occurred in the Oa Room at the Baltimore Comic-Con was much more then a preview of Previews, the direct-market catalog published by Diamond that serves as the bible for comics purchasers. Still, if Didio and members of the panel are to be believed, DC uses these panels as an opportunity to hear what fans have to say about their current product—and if this DC Panel is any indication of what those fans have to say, then DC Comics will have a successful period of sales in the coming months. Across the board, the room liked everything. Time will tell if those positive reactions translate to financial success.
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