TORONTO 06: DC BIG GUNS

[MattBrady]

by Vaneta Rogers

The biggest news at the "DC Big Guns" panel on Sunday at the Toronto Comic Book Expo was Geoff Johns' announcement of his All Star Batgirl comic with artist J.G. Jones, which will begin at the end of next year.

But Johns also announced he would be doing something with Ethan Van Sciver in 2007 that would be a "big Green Lantern-related project that's going to hit around April." Johns joked that he "stole" Van Sciver back for the project, which he said will set up the stories for the next year in the regular Green Lantern series that he writes.

"We've got some more candy for Green Lantern fans," said Van Sciver, who was also on the panel. "We kind of want to do the next level of Rebirth, so that's what we're going to do," Johns said.

Joining Johns and Van Sciver on the panel were Jim Lee and Terry Dodson. The rest of the panel was guided by questions from the audience.

- Dodson said he is committed to the bi-monthly Wonder Woman ongoing series for five issues, "but hopefully longer. It's a matter of deciding if I'm enjoying it enough to stay on, which I am right now. The best part of working on it is working with Allan Heinberg, who's a huge fan of Wonder Woman and a huge fan of comics. It's been a real kick."

- One audience member asked about monthly comics that sometimes don't come out every month. Johns said that while they're committed to something like 52 coming out on a tight schedule, it's hard to always do that with a monthly book. "Sometimes it just takes longer to do it," Johns said. "It's really hard to get that sometimes. And sometimes the companies don't give you the leeway. Like with Green Lantern: Rebirth, when we launched the monthly, I kept asking if we could launch it in June. But they said, 'No, you have to launch it in May.' So we were always working a month behind... It's not like we don't try. We're all working as hard as we can."

- Asked what they most recently drew or wrote, each panelist answered:

Johns: "I just finished Teen Titans #42. It's like a Blue Devil/Kid Devil issue that nobody's been asking for, but I did it anyway. And so it reveals how Kid Devil got the way he is and why, and it ties into a lot of stuff we're doing in 52."

Van Sciver: "Superman/Batman #30, which is my last issue on that title before I hop over to working on the Green Lantern project with Geoff. It's Superman, Kilowog, a lot of new Plastic Man stuff. A brand new redesign of Plastic Man. And a super secret thing with Superman."

Dodson: "The last thing I drew and am still drawing while I'm here is the origin of Hercules in the issue of Wonder Woman I'm doing right now."

Lee: "I finished a page Friday in the hotel, and it's Spartan and Voodoo from WildCATS and they're getting it on. I had to send it to the inker for Saturday, and I was real concerned it would be held at customs," Lee laughed. "There wasn't anything too bad, but the editors said, 'You know, this is an all-ages book.' But I said we'll just blur everything out. So when you see it, it might look digitally stretched or blurry, but the original looks really hot.

“I was very lonely that night."

- A member of the audience wanted to know the process that Johns goes through when working with director Richard Donner on the upcoming Action Comics stories the two are writing beginning in October. "We have dinner, we talk, we work out the story beats, we figure out what goes on each page. Then I'll write the scripts, send it to him and get his feedback," Johns said. "And then he says 'good job, kid.'"

- What do they think of exclusives at DC and Marvel? "I think it's good from the standpoint that you can count on someone to be there hopefully for the rest of their run on the book," Lee said. "So if you're trying to make editorial plans and you think the guy could be poached in two or three months, you could lose a lot of sleep over that."

- If you could steal one character from Marvel, who would it be?

Johns: The Hulk. "We don't have a good Hulk in the DCU."

Dodson: "Do you have a good Spider-Man in the DCU? I think we need a good Spider-Man."

Van Sciver: "I'd bring Jean Grey over ‘cause I really like Phoenix."

Lee: "More redheads? I'm down with that."

- Johns described the story for the Justice Society of America comic he's doing with Alex Ross and Dale Eaglesham, which will launch in December with a new #1 issue: "Alan and Jay and Ted really want to expand the Justice Society into a real society," he said. "So they're doing a big recruitment drive. They're trying to bring in as many legacy characters as they can. They trace all these bloodlines of old heroes. So while they're trying to bring them in, someone else is trying to eliminate them. That's kind of the first arc."

- Each panelist was asked, "What is your favorite villain and to which villains would you like to add depth?"

Van Sciver: "Sinestro and Sinestro."

Johns: "Yeah, Sinestro and Sinestro."

Dodson: "Green Goblin and Darkseid. I'd love to have Wonder Woman punch out Darkseid. It would be a kick in the pants."

Lee: "Joker, and the Penguin is a character I'd love to give more depth. I just drew him in one panel is all I've ever done, but he would be a character I'd love to draw again."

- Johns mentioned that Van Sciver had sketched a redesign of Sinestro on the paper tablecloth at dinner the night before. "I've got it in my back pocket," he said.

- One fan said he had read in a recent interview that the Guardians in Green Lantern aren't quite as benevolent as they seem, and he wanted to know their intentions. "That's something that Ethan and I are going to develop and explore in the project we're doing," Johns said.

- Are we ever going to see the android Hourman again? "Probably. We don't have plans for him in the Justice Society, but I'll be on that book for awhile, so ..." Johns said.

- Will Manhunter be in JSA? "No plans for her."

- A fan said that by now Batman is so old that he should have a walker, and wondered when the company would let older characters age. "As soon as you want to read Batman with a walker, we'll do it," Johns said.

- Who does each panelist think is the most underrated hero in the DCU?

Johns: "Booster Gold."

Ethan: "Plastic Man."

Dodson: "Wonder Woman."

Lee: "Matter-Eater Lad. The guy can eat anything. What a great power that is. Nobody fully appreciates the ability to eat anything. Think about it."

- After the response about Booster Gold being underrated, Johns was asked by a fan, "Would you consider doing an ongoing Booster Gold story?" to which he responded, "Well he's dead, so... oops!"

The fan countered, "So was Hal Jordan." Johns looked at Van Sciver and joked, "Booster Gold: Rebirth!"

- Will Resurrection Man come back somewhere? "That's an ironic question," Lee said. "It's a pretty lame power if you're not coming back." Johns added: "I don't know of anything."

- Van Sciver said he's doing a cover for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre comic from Wildstorm. "It should be fun. It's great. It's a guy wearing somebody else's skin," he said.

- Johns was asked, will the Teen Titans roster change? "There will be three new members joining the team in Issue #41. Raven's one of those," Johns said.

Many questions that were directed toward Johns concentrated on 52, including:

- Will the Time Masters be in 52? "Yes," he said, adding, "You'll see lots of Rip Hunter in 52."

- Since there are so many issues of 52, do the creators guide the story based on how fans are reacting or what sells well? "No, we really can't. We work so far ahead on 52, we're like, 'hopefully they like it,'" he said.

- What is the process of working with three other writers when everyone lives so far away from each other? "We get on the telephone all the time. And we've had a couple week-long summits where we just talk and talk and talk, until we want to kill Steve Wacker," Johns joked.

- One fan pointed out that in 52, Alan Scott said when he returned from space that his one eye was not his own, and simultaneously, Adam Strange is missing both eyes. Johns was asked, does Alan Scott have Adam Strange's eye? "Congratulations for asking the weirdest question ever," Johns said to a lot of laughter from the crowd, but then answered simply, "yes."

- Are there more projects after 52 coming for the creators who are working on the series or for the characters who are spotlighted in it? "Everybody's talking about their next projects after 52 right now, and some of them involve the characters that are coming out of 52. I can't say who because some of them won't be making it out of 52, and some of them change. A lot of us have already talked about what characters we'd like to tackle," Johns said.

- Johns said that in 52 Week 21, the new Infinity Inc. will fight the new Teen Titans from the missing year, "but they're terrible. It's like Beast Boy and bunch of D-list teenagers that really can't cut it."

- Is Osiris related to Isis? "You'll see in an upcoming 52 issue," Johns said, but then he pointed out, "in real mythology, he is her brother."

- Each was asked what characters at the big two they were interested in doing:

Lee: The Legion of Superheroes. "Starring Matter-Eater Lad!"

Dodson: "At this point I've drawn the characters that I find most interesting. So for me it depends on who the writer is, what the project is," he said.

Van Sciver: "I want to do Ghost Rider at Marvel. I'd love to do Ghost Rider at Marvel."

Johns: "Can I write it for you?"

Van Sciver: "Sure! ... At DC, I've drawn almost everybody. But I'd like to spend more time with the Flash," he said, then turned to Johns and added, "if you would write it."

Johns: "OK, I'll do it. .. Ghost Rider actually, all kidding aside, and Hulk. I'd like to do those at Marvel. At DC, I like all DC characters. Batman," Johns said, then turned to Van Sciver and asked, "want to do Batman?"

Van Sciver: "Yeah, I'll do Batman too."

- The panelists asked for one last question. A fan said he heard Johns hint online that he wanted to do a Sinestro Corps one-shot, and he wondered if it would happen. Johns laughed and said, "I don't know." Then he looked at Van Sciver, who said, "We like Sinestro a lot."

[Bugaboo-X]

Interesting. Conspicuously moist.

[Hobowatcher]

Booster is not dead.

[Scorned1]

So many freaking conventions. The folks at DC & Marvel must be tired as hell from all these.

[nietoperz]

Jim Lee and I share a favourite LSH member! That can only be a good thing.

[Comiccub]

Booster is totally not dead!

That is probably one of the coolest picks of Blue Devil i have ever seen.

[unmovedmover]

Did Van Sciver ever draw Flash when Johns was on it? That would be a hell of a creative team for that book. I'm still bummed that Johns left The Flash at what I would call a high point for the character and the book.

[md62]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

The biggest news at the "DC Big Guns" panel on Sunday at the Toronto Comic Book Expo was Geoff Johns' announcement of his All Star Batgirl comic with artist J.G. Jones.

Johns also announced he would be doing something with Ethan Van Sciver in 2007 that would be a "big Green Lantern-related project that's going to hit around April." Johns joked that he "stole" Van Sciver back for the project.

Van Sciver: "Superman/Batman #30, which is my last issue on that title before I hop over to working on the Green Lantern project with Geoff.

- If you could steal one character from Marvel, who would it be?

Thoughts: Love the idea of All Star Batgirl because we get to see Babs as Batgirl again if only for six issues.

Hate the idea that EVS was "pulled" from the arc on S/B to ANOTHER GL project. C'mon we have 3 GL books right now. What's going on with DC? Pulling artists off books before the arc is finished? Bad move.

I always thought DC could use a Captain America. The obvious choice would be Simon & Kirby's Fighting American - but I will start another thread dealing with this.

[The Mirrorball Man]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

- Is Osiris related to Isis? "You'll see in an upcoming 52 issue," Johns said, but then he pointed out, "in real mythology, he is her brother."

And her husband.

[md62]

Originally Posted by unmovedmover

Did Van Sciver ever draw Flash when Johns was on it? That would be a hell of a creative team for that book. I'm still bummed that Johns left The Flash at what I would call a high point for the character and the book.

Did a prestige format book called Iron Heights which revamped alot of the Rogues. Great book!

[IronWolf]

That was a great panel!

[ThatNickGuy]

Originally Posted by md62

Hate the idea that EVS was "pulled" from the arc on S/B to ANOTHER GL project. C'mon we have 3 GL books right now. What's going on with DC? Pulling artists off books before the arc is finished? Bad move.

Well, keep in mind that in the article, it was stated that this project would take place in one of the Green Lantern books, I'm assuming the main one with Hal. And I'll bet you a monkey right now that it has to do with some kind of return of the Parallax entity.

[Punchy]

Nice Blue Devil/Kid Devil cover.

[md62]

Originally Posted by ThatNickGuy

Well, keep in mind that in the article, it was stated that this project would take place in one of the Green Lantern books, I'm assuming the main one with Hal. And I'll bet you a monkey right now that it has to do with some kind of return of the Parallax entity.

OK but I still think DC should let artists finish one project before "pulling" them for a different one.

[Ben543250]

Cool! Sounds like Booster Gold is coming back in a Rebirth miniseries! That is AWESOME! Thank you, DC! I take back everything bad I said!

[Aaron]

Dodson: "The last thing I drew and am still drawing while I'm here is the origin of Hercules in the issue of Wonder Woman I'm doing right now."

One of the things that SERIOUSLY irritates me about the people who write Wonder Woman (with the exception of George Perez) is that they tend to forget that she's empowered by the GREEK gods, not the ROMAN gods. Now, I get that this is a "whole new Wonder Woman" but if we're back to mixing up her patrons' names because nobody wants to do even a LITTLE research, I'll be SO disappointed.

I suppose it's POSSIBLE she'll be meeting up with the ROMAN demigod Hercules for some reason instead of her longtime foe/sometime ally, the GREEK demigod Heracles. But I'm not holding my breath.

Aaron

[Aaron]

Johns said. "It's really hard to get that sometimes. And sometimes the companies don't give you the leeway. Like with Green Lantern: Rebirth, when we launched the monthly, I kept asking if we could launch it in June. But they said, 'No, you have to launch it in May.' So we were always working a month behind... It's not like we don't try. We're all working as hard as we can."

Cop out. And he should really only speak for himself. I can think of a few big-name creators who aren't hitting deadlines that most assuredly aren't "working as hard as they can."

[comicbookreader]

I've been generally disappointed with the Superman/Batman title, but I'm excited to hear that Plastic Man will be getting some decent on-air time. Old Plaz needs some lovin.' Although, what does EVS mean by the re-design? Will he dare to change the traditional Jack Cole red unitard???

[Inanimate]

Originally Posted by Aaron

One of the things that SERIOUSLY irritates me about the people who write Wonder Woman (with the exception of George Perez) is that they tend to forget that she's empowered by the GREEK gods, not the ROMAN gods. Now, I get that this is a "whole new Wonder Woman" but if we're back to mixing up her patrons' names because nobody wants to do even a LITTLE research, I'll be SO disappointed.

I suppose it's POSSIBLE she'll be meeting up with the ROMAN demigod Hercules for some reason instead of her longtime foe/sometime ally, the GREEK demigod Heracles. But I'm not holding my breath.

Aaron

Fine she can fight Herackles instead, Greek/Roman their the same gods, demi-gods and Heroes. As long as they use the greek name 90% of time I'm happy, and some characters have similar enough names it makes sense to use the more common one.

[Ethan Van Sciver]

Originally Posted by comicbookreader

I've been generally disappointed with the Superman/Batman title, but I'm excited to hear that Plastic Man will be getting some decent on-air time. Old Plaz needs some lovin.' Although, what does EVS mean by the re-design? Will he dare to change the traditional Jack Cole red unitard???

I would dare, but it would be out of love for Jack. Truly, it's only fair that Jack Cole's design should be updated the same way the original Batman and Superman costumes were updated. Plastic Man has NEVER been altered over 60 years.

[thundercat58]

I don't know about anyone else, but Geoff, if you read this, I've been dying for some back story on Kid Devil! Maybe that was just sarcasm... Anyways, he's been one of my favorite characters since OYL.

[nightwingoracle]

Originally Posted by Inanimate

Fine she can fight Herackles instead, Greek/Roman their the same gods, demi-gods and Heroes. As long as they use the greek name 90% of time I'm happy, and some characters have similar enough names it makes sense to use the more common one.

Actually they're not really the same in modern DCU continuity. Perez established that the Greek gods and the Roman gods were separate beings. Byrne later established that the Greek gods were the originals and that they were tricked by Darkseid into splitting into the Greek and Roman gods. He later re-merged some of them off-panel, but no one knows if Heracles and Hercules were merged or not.

For the most part in modern DCU continuity, Heracles was an ally of Wonder Woman's, having served penance for what he did to the Amazons and even served as Hippolyta's lover for a while. Byrne tried to revert him to a villain in a badly written storyline involving the Champion.

[nightwingoracle]

Originally Posted by thundercat58

I don't know about anyone else, but Geoff, if you read this, I've been dying for some back story on Kid Devil! Maybe that was just sarcasm... Anyways, he's been one of my favorite characters since OYL.

Agreed. I always loved the original BLUE DEVIL book by Mishkin/Cohn/Cullins, and Kid Devil's few appearances were cool. I like his new look and can't wait to learn the back story.

[innocentboy]

wish i was there

[gokujam]

Am I the only one who doesnt like Van Scivers art style??