Our boy Gil Short is at Wondercon right now at the DC Nation panel, and for those that can’t make it or watch it live on Newsarama, we’re here to give you updates as we get them. We’ll be updating this post as we get more information, and it will be all in quick tidbit form – not written out.
- “Geoff, how has your role changed at DC?” DiDio asks. “I’m kind of doing what I did for Blackest Night for the whole company,” Johns replies. “Overseeing the film slate, TV, animation, video games–stuff like that. Working with Jim on the MMO. I love Superman and Batman, we have Superman and Batman movies, we’re filming Green Lantern which now which looks amazing. The goal is, let’s get all of our characters out there everywhere. Not just Superman and Batman.” DiDio: “Does this affect your writing at all?” Johns: “No. I’ll be writing all my books, and some new projects next year.”
- Turning to Lee, he joked, “I’ll probably be doing what I did for All-Star Batman and Robin, but for the whole line. So kiss your comics goodbye!”
- “It’s very frustrating that Green Lantern Rebirth is out of print right now in all forms.” A clearly shocked Johns asked “it is?” DiDio joked, “That must be Jim Lee’s side of the co-publisher job.” “How do you spell Green Lantern?” Lee asked.
- Lee said that Green Lantern Rebirth and the fifth volume of The Losers being out of print must be “anomalies” and that he would fix it as soon as possible.
- “What’s going on with the MMO? My friends and I are dying for it to come out!” “MMO are gigantic games,” Lee said, noting that he flew in from Austin, where the game is being developed, this morning. “They’re not ready to announce an official date, but if I had to say, I would guess…soonish?”
- DiDio plugged J. Michael Straczynski’s upcoming run on Wonder Woman, and admitted that something they’ve struggled with the character–and several other characters–was the lack of depth on “the bench” for their villains, acknowledging that it’s something they’re working on.
- Will the DC MMO reflect the current continuity of the comics? Lee said that the game begins in a “pristine” DC Universe–e.g., Bruce Wayne as Batman–but, “once we get set up and started, it’s very likely that we’ll be able to take stuff happening in the comics and mirror it in the online space, and vice versa.”
- Next question was about price increases, from $2.99 to $3.99. DiDio had fans raise their hands to demonstrate that even though $3.99 might scare people off, most people bought Blackest Night at $3.99. DiDio said that he’s found if the story is good, people will pay more, but if fans are on the fence, “price will break the book.” Lee said that you just have to give your fan’s their money’s worth, as he thought happened in Blackest Night.
- Next question was about to be about Ralph and Sue Dibny, but Johns asked the crowd if they read Blackest Night #8 yet. Seems that most people had, but they still didn’t get to the question.
- “More Secret Origins?” “I really like those books, because I can hand Green Lantern Secret Origin to anybody,” Johns said. Lee praised them for being really accessible. “We always want to be accessible to the biggest number of people possible,” DiDio said, citing Secret Origins book as an ideal introduction for a new reader.
- Fan is talking about delays in comics. “I’m trying not to look at Jim Lee,” he said. Then he started talking about Flash Rebirth. “Oh no, you’re both up there,” he said about Johns. DiDio said in the last year they went through “extraordinary measures” to fix the problem of late books, and were on-time about 95% of the time. He acknowledged that the problem is that frequently the books that end up being late are the ones that are the most anticipated.
- DiDio talked about Flash Rebirth specifically, saying that it was something that would be “on the shelf” for a long time (which is to say, something people would keep around and read in years to come), plus it didn’t really directly affect other monthly books, so they wanted to make sure they got it right.Continued below
- Next question was basically this: do you get mad that Marvel sells more books than DC? “Here’s the fun part,” DiDio said. “You’re looking at three of the most competitive people in comics, sitting here right now.” The very first panel I sat on, I sat next to Jim. He answered every question, but he doodled, and gave me the drawing afterward. That was my biggest fanboy moment…and now we’ve got two of the most creative guys in comics in a position to implement change. Trust me. this is going to work really well.”
- Next question concerned “digital initiatives.” Lee said he’s never seen anything on the digital side that is as compelling for him as a printed comic, saying you can’t replicate things like the four-page spread in Blackest Night #8. Another advantage of printed comics, according to Lee: “You can read them on an airplane as you’re taking off.”
- “Any plans for Nightwing?” DiDio: “Yeah, he’s Batman!”
- Any chance of new Invisibles material? “We’re keeping Grant (Morrison) really busy with Batman right now,” DiDio said.
- “We could really use a new History of the DC Universe?” “The closest to that we’re doing is a DC Universe: Legacies book. It basically looks at five generations of superheroes–we’ve been able to isolate five different periods of time for DC Comics. The first one up is Andy Kubert inked by Joe Kubert, doing the era of the Mystery Men, the ’40s to the ’50s. Then we have the team of Garcia Lopez and Dave Gibbons doing the dawn of Superman up to the boarders of Crisis on Infinite Earths. Then we have George Lopez doing post-Crisis on Infinite Earths. Then we have Jerry Ordway, jumping the world of Zero Hour. Then the current era by Rags Morales.” All of that will be written by Len Wein.
- Any chance the next “event book” could be by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee? The fan thought it would be a “perfect match.” Johns: “Mm. Me too.”
- Next person up was irritated with rapid roster changes in team books, specifically Teen Titans. “I agree with you, I think you need stability on team books,” Johns said. “There will be some stability brought back to the Teen Titans.”
After “fixing” Green Lantern and Flash, who’s next? “The whole DCU, basically,” Johns said. - Lee then said he was expecting someone to give him a hard time about All-Star Batman and Robin delays. Apparently he forgot one of the earlier questions? “I have some news,” Lee said. “I met with Frank (Miller). He realized that it’s really not part of the All-Star universe, it’s part of the Dark Knight Returns universe. The first half of the story, chapter one, is done, Chapter two will come out–it’s going to be re-branded, renamed, ‘Dark Knight: Boy Wonder.’ We’re looking at February 2011. Six issues, coming out on a monthly basis.”
