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All the news and views from the first day of the Heroes Convention.
By Wade Gum |
Posted June 16, 2007 10:50 AM |
This year’s Heroes Convention kicked off with DC Executive Editor Dan DiDio’s “state of the union” for the DC Nation, taking questions and comments from the fans in attendance. Joining him were 52 editor Michael Siglain, coordinating editor Jann Jones, Nightwing artist Jamal Igle, Johan Hex artist Phil Noto and Green Lantern artist Ethan Van Sciver.
The central topic was Countdown and the continuing fallout from 52. DiDio was concerned that people might be confused about the new state of the DC universe and reiterated that the new multiverse is a different animal than the pre-Crisis multiverse, with all new classifications and characters. The only alternate Earths that DiDio was willing to specify were Earth 26 (the Captain Carrot Earth) and the Wildstorm Universe. DiDio stressed that the multiverse is still being mapped out and many answers will be revealed throughout the year.
Fans will get a chance to see these new alternate Earths with an upcoming Challengers of the Beyond series, in which a team of heroes will journey from Earth to Earth. The series stars Donna Troy, Jason Todd and Kyle Rayner.
One fan asked about the current status of Dr. Fate following 52. Readers will find out in a forthcoming Countdown to Mystery miniseries. Dr. Fate will be the lead story while the back-up story focuses on Eclipso. This miniseries is a follow-up to the Countdown to Adventure miniseries that features Starfire, Animal Man and Adam Strange.
Other dangling plot lines from 52 that were referenced included the concept of time being broken and how Black Adam regained his powers. Siglain said that time is in fact still broken and it will be fixed soon. As for Black Adam, the reasons behind his return to power will be explored in his forthcoming mini-series.
The biggest news was the announcement of the new writer for The Flash, which was revealed when Bob Wayne called in from Philly. The book will end its current series at issue #13 and re-launch using the old numbering system with issue #231 penned by Mark Waid.
Van Sciver was on hand to hype the upcoming Sinestro Corps, which will answer many questions about the state of the Green Lanterns and other cosmic heroes. The final fate of Kyle Rayner will be addressed as well as Oa’s knowledge of the 52 and what they intend to do about it.
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 DiDio ended the panel with a lightning round of questions from the fans and scored the biggest laugh of the session after a fan asked about continuity issues involving Jason Todd. DiDio succinctly answered all the tricky questions about Todd by saying he was, in fact, a skrull.
Following the DC Nation panel, fans and artists came together to give tribute to Michael Golden. Even actress Rosario Dawson was in the crowd to see the legendary artist speak about his fantastic career.
For a man so beloved in the medium, Golden himself wasn’t a fan of comics growing up. He never read them as a child and didn’t even consider working in the industry. Only after becoming successful doing commercial graphics work in Florida was he introduced into the industry by a close friend. He left his job as an electrician behind and on the first day he flew to New York he landed work at both DC and Marvel.
Since he didn’t read comics growing up, Golden wasn’t artistically influenced by any other artists in the field, allowing him to bring a fresh style that was all his own. While everyone else was churning out generic imitations of work by famous artists like Neal Adams and Jack Kirby, Golden was defying conventions and invigorating characters with new life and excitement. Unfortunately, Golden often had to compromise to the conventions of the genre in order to get steady work. Golden recounted how he was continually encouraged to ape Jack Kirby while drawing Micronauts and finally became so exhausted by it that he broke down and did so.
The guests on the panel appreciated all of Golden’s work, even the ones in which he was forced to adopt the style of another artist. Golden was even likened to “the Miles Davis of the comic book world” because when Golden adopts a style, he helps turn other people on to that artist’s work and still brings a fresh angle to the illustrations.
The day ended with a panel focused on Ghost Rider, whose popularity is at an all-time high thanks to a hit feature film and comic series written by Daniel Way. The panel was attended by the Ghost Rider creative team of Daniel Way, Mark Texeira and Javier Saltares.
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 The recent “Ghost Rider” feature film was the first topic of discussion, which led Way to reveal that most comic writers have no input when it comes to the movie properties and aren’t influenced by them. Way admitted that the Ghost Rider series had to hold back on their “super story” due to the movie’s impending release, but that story will finally be told after the conclusion of the Ghost Rider’s “World War Hulk” tie-in.
The story is titled “Revelations” and is a six-part storyline that will see Ghost Rider and Satan finally facing off in battle for all the marbles. According to Way, the storyline will feature possessed football coaches, angels, demons and the return of Dixie the truck driver.
On the subject of Ghost Rider tie-ins with Civil War and World War Hulk, Way was quick to point out that he never does tie-ins just to spike the sales numbers of the book. The entire creative team remarked that they feel Ghost Rider and most of the supernatural elements of the Marvel Universe are often overlooked. Tying the book into larger events allows Ghost Rider to become a much bigger force in the Marvel Universe and get some well-deserved attention.
The panelists lamented the niche nature of Ghost Rider but praised its fan community as being one of the most dedicated and passionate. Texeira remarked that Marvel has difficulty in pushing the idea of the Ghost Rider character because he isn’t your typical superhero.
During a question-and-answer portion with fans in attendance, Way was asked about the possibility of old Midnight Sons characters such as Blade and Morbius making appearances in Ghost Rider. Way remarked that he was definitely interested in bringing those characters in and making the supernatural sect of the Marvel Universe just as important as the cosmic and traditional superhero sects.
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