DC had a big day one at San Diego Comic Con this year. We have full stories up for the Shazam! director and schedule announcements, and the two new OGNs coming from Grant Morrison. With all the updates coming in, it was a little much to include it all in The Rundown, so here’s a special rundown of all the DC news we missed from yesterday.
– Geoff Johns finally confirmed what all the DC Rebirth books have been hinting at for the better part of a year: Dr. Manhattan is behind the events that lead to Rebirth. As to why it took so long to reveal, Johns said they didn’t want to overshadow Wally West’s return. Johns went on to tease his upcoming event with Gary Frank, “Doomsday Clock,” and show off some of the artwork. “There are people out there who believe the Watchmen should never be touched. But I have a story and I believe in it,” said Johns. If anyone can be trusted with those characters, it’s definitely him.
– DC announced a slew of new collectibles at the con, and most of them are drool-worthy. There will be a new DC Essentials action figure set designed by Jason Fabok, and based on the Rebirth character designs. In addition, they are releasing expansions for the Gotham City Garage, DC Bombshells, “Batman: Black and White,” and Harley Quinn: Red White and Black statues, the DC Artists Alley Designer Vinyls series, and the Batman: The Animated Series and DC Bombshells action figure lines. They will also have new medium size statues featuring the race between Superman and The Flash, and the trinity of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.
– Joëlle Jones will be joining Tom King on “Batman” with issue #33. Jones had previously done some Batman work on “Batman ’66.” The arc will be titled ‘A Dream of Me’ and will see Batman leave Gotham City on a “quest of renewal and redemption.” Female creators on the main Batman title are few and far between, so this will be a nice change of pace for the book. King also revealed that, in his mind, his Bat-story is ‘100 issues long’ and asks if Batman can ever truly get over his parents’ deaths.
– At DC’s Press Breakfast and Meet the Publishers panel where most of their announcements came, there were also a few smaller updates. Harley Quinn will be running for mayor of New York in an upcoming arc, and Paul Dini’s backups in the book will be taking a break until next year. The Milestone relaunch is still coming, and will be “codified” in the next few months. DC wants to do more “evergreen” stories like “Watchmen” and “The Dark Knight Returns,” and Neil Gaiman will be involved in some capacity. And the last bit of news is that there will be no variant covers for the upcoming Dark Matter line, even though it’s hosting some of DC’s top artistic talent. Along with their lean pricing strategy, it really feels like DC is making a point to be more consumer friendly.
