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This is the news from DC's panels (I decided to combine them, because the information from both overlapped).
Bob Wayne, VP of Sales and Dan Didio, VP of Editorial conducted this panel. Dan started the panel off by talking about how in Britain, when one does a panel, they get given beer instead of water. He'd drain his glass of beer, and the next thing he'd know, he'd have another glass of beer. He remarked that it was great to be a guest in the UK.
A woman in the audience went out and came back and gave Dan and Bob bottles of beer. Thus started the fine, new Texas tradition that the DC guys get beer during their panels. Fans bought them beer at the panels all weekend. That will probably go into my budget for next year.
The woman who paid for the first 2 beers? She asked them out to dinner that night DURING the first panel. They politely declined, but that's the first time THAT has ever happened in my panel going experience.
Didio started off the panels by joking that the nice questions and comments came to him, and all of the ugly stuff got to go to Bob. Bob Wayne jokingly reminded the audience that he was from around here, and that he knew that he could carry a concealed weapon.
Didio stated that the strength of the DC Universe was it's characters . . . all of it's characters, including the science fiction ones, the western ones, and their villains. He stated that back in 2003, Greg Rucka, Geoff Johns, Judd Winick, and himself sat down and brainstormed about way to invigorate the comics line. Out of this, came Infinite Crisis.
He encouraged us in the press or with online access, to go out and make up the craziest stories we could think of, and to report that it happened in the panel. The more people talking about their comics online, the better, he said. Didio also said that he might flat out lie about some things. He said that his major job was to just waffle around.
Dan then launched into a funny story about how Detective Chimp came to be in Days of Vengeance. Dan loved Detective Chimp, and he talked about it to everyone in the DC offices, and how it was met with absolute . . . silence. He even went to editor Joey Cavalieri and pitched the idea, "Let's have Detective Chimp in Days of Vengeance, it'll be great!" and was met with absolute . . . silence. So finally he called up Bill Willingham, and made his pitch, and was met with absolute . . . silence. Then Bill said, "Dan, I want to KISS you. I LOVE Detective Chimp, he's one of my favorite characters, I'll do you proud."
Out of the 4 mini series leading into Infinite Crisis, there will be 4 Crisis Specials wrapping up the series, telling us things they couldn't, because of things happening in Infinite Crisis. There's also a 5th mini-series coming out of this, but he can't talk about it yet.
Dan then launched into another story. He arrived at the Dallas Fort Worth airport. His baggage handler gets his bag, and then says to him, "I just *love* what you're doing with Infinite Crisis." Dan thanks him, and then the handler asks, "What happens to Nightwing?" Dan says he stood there, he looked at his bag over in the guy's hand, and said, "Nightwing is going to be fine." He joked he needed to find another airline to fly.
So yes, apparently Nightwing is going to live through Infinite Crisis.
There was a lot of joking about "When we say Crisis, things never look good for The Flash." They did say they would address Flash's children for awhile, and then, they wouldn't. Barry is NOT coming back from the land of the dead.
They both said Infinite Crisis #1 was to create a sense of confusion in the DCU. "This is the worst day in the DCU:" there is war in the galaxy, OMAC is taking over the country, and villains are taking over the neighborhoods. Who do the iconic characters save? What are the choices to be made? Who is going to lead, and who is going to take charge? The last panel of the comic is meant to evoke, "Thank GOD they are here!"
Didio states that the heroes are trying to do the right thing in Infinite Crisis, and it's forcing them to make choices. The characters believe that they are doing the right thing, even if the choices they make are wrong ones. They hope to create a cohesive universe going forward from Infinite Crisis.
Animal Man is going to play a pivotal role in Infinite Crisis.
The panel members report that more people were happy to see the return of Jason Todd than hated it. Dan Didio said it was a "stupid death" and that DC didn't want to do stupid deaths. He wanted a character's death to have meaning, and implications for the other characters. Dan said that the return of Jason Todd made Batman have to look at his greatest failure on an ongoing basis, and that it also had implications for the other Robins as well.
He said Ted Kord's death created a stir, and brought the character Booster Gold back into everyone's consciousness, and that was the sort of thing that they were aiming for. If you see a body in the DCU, while Didio has his job, that character is going to be dead. Ted Kord is dead, although there may be another Blue Beetle coming. It was implied that Booster might be making a comeback somewhere, too.
Dan did say that when characters do die, and that characters will die in Crisis, that he hopes new characters with the old name will follow them.
Dan also said that sometimes they test the water about characters in comics. Two examples of that were the Kara Zor-El storyline in Supergirl and the Jason Todd return in Hush. Both of them had positive reactions, so now they are back.
Dan also states that as much as people complain about no new characters in the DCU, when they create some, they don't sell. The recycled characters sell.
Breech is going to be cancelled. Didio also reported that there is going to be a pruning of the DC line and a restyling of the line post Crisis. Didio doesn't like multiple versions of characters, although he said that Green Lantern was an entirely different beast from the multiple versions rule.
Didio and Wayne said several things about the series "52." It is going to be weekly, starting in May, and it will fill in, in real time, the missing year in the DCU post Infinite Crisis. They could not speculate on the price of this comic at this point, and evidently DC is changing up the way they solicit and take orders from retailers. Adam Strange is going to be in "52" so evidently he survives Crisis. "52" will have special backup features, as well as the ongoing storyline. Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, Greg Rucka and Geoff Johns are all co-writing it together. He doesn't know how they are doing it.
Lobo is not going to be in Crisis.
El Paso plays a big part in the Blue Beetle story. This thrilled the comics fans from El Paso.
Dan also brought up an interesting point about the Wonder Woman storyline. Wonder Woman killed Medusa, and no one said a thing. Then she killed Max and Cheeta, and everyone erupts with outrage. She kills someone that looks like a monster, and that's fine. She kills someone that looks human, and that's not. Is there really any difference? Wonder Woman is a warrior.
There is no significance to the Bat signal being on The Spectre in Infinite Crisis #1. It was just a way to show that the scene takes place in Gotham.
There is absolutely NO legal issues involving publishing rights to the Charlton characters. The only exception to that is that Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt went to the creator. If there's problems in other areas, like TV or movie rights, it has nothing to do with DC. DC has the publishing rights to the characters without issue.
The DC booth was not at Wizard Texas because there was not enough staff to man it and that they are revamping it.
Dan Didio emphasized that DC is not "darkening the characters." He says it's all about creating drama, tension and realism. He said he hears a lot of complaining from fans over 40 (not me, I swear!) about how comics aren't geared to children any more. He stated that a great and interesting story will pull new readers in. He went on to say that kids don't like reading things aimed at a younger audience, they like to read things aimed at an older audience than they are, it helps them to feel older. He also said that kids don't generally like the same things that their parents do . . . they like to find their own characters and heroes to like. (Sidra and I had a nice, spirited discussion about that afterwards, considering that she and I *do* like the same characters and comics, but we finally decided that maybe she's an exception to the rule, considering my youngest daughter likes Spiderman and The Fantastic Four.) They are trying to get comic fans for life.
George Perez is getting involved with Infinite Crisis. Marv Wolfman is going to be co-writing 2 issues of Teen Titans and the Teen Titans Annual.
Angel/Matrix/Supergirl is not coming back. "No comment" to the question of whether we'll see Barbara Gordon in costume or not. There was more than one question about whether she'd wear her black or blue costume (anyone want to explain why this is an important question?) which Dan refused to speculate on. G'nort is not going to show up and save the day.
A good 50%-75% of the creative teams are going to change post Crisis.
There will be a Legion of Superheroes crossover involving Crisis (and no, I didn't ask.) Zero Hour will be addressed in Crisis, hypertime will not be.
The only definite DC movies are the Supe's film in June and V for Vendetta in March.
Whedon is indeed working on a Wonder Woman film, though. And there will probably be a Batman 2 film. There is a lot of Hollywood interest in DCU characters, but right now, nothing is definite.
An Absolute version of Sandman is coming, and another Authority series is coming . . . sometime.
There is no Starman planned until James Robinson finds the time in his busy schedule to write some. Right now he's busy with film work.
They have tried to emphasize the difference between Superman and Captain Marvel by making Captain Marvel more mystical. Jeff Smith, of Bone fame, is working on a Captain Marvel mini-series.
There is a hardcover of Fables by Bill Willingham coming. It will feature new stories focusing on individual characters.
Sin City 2 is currently filming in Austin.
A new Brave and Bold monthly series is coming eventually, and Mark Waid will be writing it. Right now Mark's waiting to see who lives and dies in Crisis so he can find out who he can use and who he can't use.
Regarding the Bats family: post crisis, things will change radically. One won't be a member of the family any more. Batman is going to be forced to resolve some of his control issues, too.
More Shadowpact is coming.
Go look at the Jim Lee blog. The sword and sorcery thing involving Sky Rider is true.
Bruce Wayne is not going to appear on the TV show Smallville. DC currently doesn't want to dilute the impact of their characters. The Bats movie was successful, so they want to keep the success there.
The powers that be at DC have declared that the Teen Titans are teens and The Outsiders are 20-somethings.
There are no more Daredevil/Batman crossovers planned.
We may be seeing more dollar books. Dan likes the concept and they sell better than the 10 cent ones.
Dan Didio talked for awhile about how to break into DC comics. He said the best way in the world is to get published elsewhere, be it prose, comic writing or comic art, and then show the best of it to them. He said that he and Bob Wayne both read about 200-300 comics a month, looking for talent. He said that he wasn't trying to be conceited, but that he felt that DC needed to be the highest stop on the comics writers/artists progression model.
Dan thought that Stephen King's writing for Marvel would be good, because it would give comics as a whole more exposure. However, he said that bringing in prose writers to write comics is turning out to be a tougher road to climb than expected.
Zatanna might be reappearing.
There is a sequel to Vertigo's Fight Club in the works.
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