WW PHILLY: DC NATION PANEL

[MattBrady]

by Matthew Reichl
Special to Newsarama

According to DC’s senior story editor Ian Sattler, DC will have an amazing 2009, following the fallout of the major crossover title Final Crisis at the “DC Nation!” panel at the Philly World Wizard Con.

With several members of the DC creative talent, including Final Crisis artist J.G. Jones and upcoming Power Girl series co-writer Jimmy Palmiotti, Sattler fielded questions and previewed upcoming issues and series of popular characters from the DCU.

Accompanied by a slideshow, Sattler went through a series of new and upcoming covers, including a Superman/Batman issue where the two appeared to be in a fight, with Batman upside down, leading to Sattler joking about it being the “disco issue.”

Trinity, the new weekly book, was featured, by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley. This was followed by a cover to a new issue of Green Lantern. “This is the cover to a secret origin story to Green Lantern,” Sattler said, asking if anyone has been reading Green Lantern. The room applauded in response.

When the slideshow shifted to a new issue of the recently announced [url= http://www.newsarama.com/nycomiccon2008/DC/powergirl.html Power Girl[/url] series, the audience applauded before Sattler could say a word.
When asked for more stories involving Power Girl, Sattler responded saying “the JSA Annual deals with Power Girl, and we’ve got a whole Power Girl series that’s popping.”

The floor was soon opened for questions by the audience.

“If you could do more stories with Batman in the 51st universe, that would be great,” a fan commented.

“What’s going on with Jason Todd?” someone in the front asked, in reference to the mantle of Red Hood.

“Jason Todd is being Jason Todd,” Sattler said, adding that there will be some story dealing with the next Red Hood soon.

“We have a real advantage to do really great character stuff, with as much as we can with Amanda on it,” Palmiotti said of the Power Girl series. “We just felt this should be something you can read from issue one where you can get everything,” he continued. “We kind of play with the nuances of character, as she wants things done her way. I’m always interested with characters like Peter Parker and Mary Jane, that’s what I like in Power Girl.”

Asked about what’s coming up in Superman, Sattler said, “We’ve got Jeff johns and James Robertson working on a Brainiac story they’re kicking off. That story goes on to the next and then the next. The Superman stories really get big, heading into the Fall and huge into 2009.”

[Are there] “Any plans for a second JSA book?” an audience member asked.

“We’re going to make it through the Gog story first and see which characters are left over,” Sattler said.

Questions then turned to Final Crisis. “The threat level of Final Crisis is huge,” Sattler warned. “We’re seeing right off the bat how that’s playing out. Like with Martian Manhunter - what happens to him and what becomes of him; we’ll see in Final Crisis: Requiem what happens to him.”

The panel was asked if there was chance for an Aquaman relaunch.

“We get asked that question a lot, so we’re aware of the lack of Aquaman,” Sattler said.

Finally, Palmiotti was asked if it was challenging to keep Jonah Hex interesting.

“I don’t think we’ve actually done one story where he got the bounty and got the reward,” joked Palmiotti, who said there were almost 30-something issues where the Western themed character would go after a bounty for a reward, only to come home empty-handed.

[Ken B.]

Wait, was this it for DC? They really don't care for Wizard World these days.

[rorschach_42]

Not much in this panel that hadn't been covered before, I think. I hope their is better panels for DC later.

[jmcl89]

I guess Final Crisis must be progressing fairly well, or JG Jones wouldn't be let out of the house to go to conventions

I'd suppose if DC has any real news they'll save it for Saturday.

[aceatkins]

Thanks for that utterly pointless panel recap. Incidentally, I believe you mean James Robinson, not James Robertson.

I certainly hope Sattler is a better speaker than the reporter made him out to be, because he comes off as a bit of a boob.

[apoehler]

Originally Posted by aceatkins

Thanks for that utterly pointless panel recap. Incidentally, I believe you mean James Robinson, not James Robertson.

Not to mention Geoff Johns, not "Jeff johns." But hey, don't worry about minor details like the correct names of two of the best writers in comics today or anything.

[Question86]

Yeesh, even Didio was there when I went in '06.

[lpmiller]

yes, don't you dare make typos and mistakes while tossing things up from a convention like that! Next thing you know, you start typing 'teh' and all hell breaks loose!

[protege]

And where are the cover shots?

[KACH]

Originally Posted by aceatkins

Thanks for that utterly pointless panel recap. Incidentally, I believe you mean James Robinson, not James Robertson.

And by "Jeff johns" I think they mean "Geoff Johns".

***

No pictures from this presentation to show?

--J.

[aceatkins]

Originally Posted by lpmiller

yes, don't you dare make typos and mistakes while tossing things up from a convention like that! Next thing you know, you start typing 'teh' and all hell breaks loose!

Heaven forfend that we expect reporters to actually spell things correctly when posting news items. Especially when there was literally not a single shred of new "news" to come out of this panel. What was the rush? The extra five minutes it would have taken to proofread that post would have spared the writer and this site some eyerolls.

[jbz16]

From the comments above....


It looks like the natives are restless.

[Corpulent1]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

The panel was asked if there was chance for an Aquaman relaunch.

“We get asked that question a lot, so we’re aware of the lack of Aquaman,” Sattler said.

Argh, curse your reticent bones, Mr. Sattler! I want my Orin back already.

I hope we hear something substantive soon.

[vbartilucci]

About the only piece of actual news that came from the panel was that Jim Shooter is still the writer on Legion of Superheroes. Who asked such a pointed and important question? Well, modesty forbids...

He ran through teaser covers for FC, (featuring Batman trussed up in a crucifixion-like pose), Tiny Titans (featuring Supergirl and Blue (Jaime Reyes) Beetle) and Power Girl (technically the term for a photo showing only a person's head, neck and upper chest is a "Bust Portrait", but I just can't DO it...).

The audience questions were fairly lackluster and pedestrian, with no real winners.

Ian Sattler is very inexperienced at running panels. He didn't introduce the members of the panel (we all know who they were, but it's only polite), he made no real attempts to keep the energy level of the room up, and spent much of him time saying "Be patient, it's gonna be really cool."

I gotta say it...I missed Dan.

[JLAJRC]

I hope Saturday is better, because this has been a boring Con based on the coverage. The only thing Marvel announced was a Magneto origin mini, while DC has announced squat. Plus, no videos?

[Ken B.]

Originally Posted by vbartilucci

About the only piece of actual news that came from the panel was that Jim Shooter is still the writer on Legion of Superheroes. Who asked such a pointed and important question? Well, modesty forbids...

Why is that not in this article? That's pretty important, as I like Shooter's current story (I never read his old Legion stuff)

That's really damn important, since he was rumored to be kicked off due to coming events of Legion of 3 Worlds.

Talk about half-assed journalism.

[Alan Coil]

About time DC got some coverage.

[Alan Coil]

Originally Posted by Ken B.

Wait, was this it for DC? They really don't care for Wizard World these days.

I don't think this is a DC problem. I think Wizard is in a partnership with Marvel. Remember that Wizard always has 10.0 CGC comics for sale at inflated prices the day the new comics come out.

I looked on the Wizard site for ticket ordering information for Chicago. There are about a dozen different Marvel incentives available, and one for DC.

[vbartilucci]

There was a news item or two a while back about DC planning to stop supporting Wizard World altogether, because of the lopsided coverage between DC and Marvel. They had their usual booth, I just think they didn't have anything to tout at this moment, so they had no announcements.

[Kevin T. Brown]

Originally Posted by Ken B.

Wait, was this it for DC? They really don't care for Wizard World these days.

It's Philly......

The big 2 usually save their biggest news/panels for San Diego and Chicago.

[EMeadow]

Yeah with San Diego a month away they're gonna play close to the vest for now.

[ZAXILLA2]

Hopefully by the time Chicago and SD roll around, DC will announce that they've decided to throw in the towel with Jason Todd and tell everyone to forget that train wreck ever happened.

[Michael D.]

As usual, Comic Book Recources has much much better coverage of these convention panels so I would suggest those of you wanting more info to head over to that site. That's where all the cool kids are going.

[Julius Brown]

If is DC is aware of the current lack of an Aquaman title, I wonder if they are as aware of why. It doesn't sell. Keep rebooting, keep reformatting, keep adjusting, it's not going to sell and then will get cancelled again. Just like always. Maybe giving another character a book and putting some effort into it might yield better results.

[Corpulent1]

I think Aquaman's failure is a vicious cycle. People perceive Aquaman as lame because of the Super-Friends and oversimplified ideas about his powers, so they don't even give his book a chance, and then DC mandates major direction changes every ten issues or so to boost sales, so no writer can effectively build any sort of ongoing story for him, and fans feel batted around by all the changes so they drop it, and sales tank even further, and then it's canceled.

Personally, I think the way to bring Aquaman back should be in the JLA. Maybe he can't support his own ongoing right now, but he's still regarded as one of the JLA's premiere members. How about actually putting him on the JLA again and showing people he's not the moron from Super-Friends anymore?