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All the news and views from the second day of the Heroes Convention.
By Wade Gum |
Posted June 17, 2007 11:10 AM |
The second day of Heroes Con began much like the first, with DC Executive Editor Dan Didio letting a room full of fans in on DC’s plans for the future.
The panel kicked off with Countdown and a mention of Jason Todd was met with a chorus of boos by the fans in attendance. Didio asked one of the fans why he felt so negatively towards Todd, to which he replied he voted to kill the former Robin the first time. Didio replied that the fan must want his 50 cents for the phone call back. Didio stressed that they consider Jason Todd an important part of the DC Universe and was included in Countdown for that very reason. Didio feels that Todd provides an excellent contrast to other heroes and finds the dynamic between Todd and Donna Troy to be very interesting.
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 Ethan Van Sciver showed up at the panel to talk about the upcoming Sinestro Corps special. In addition to seeing how Sinestro assembled his army of 7,200 evil villains, readers will also learn the fates of Kyle Rayner and Superboy Prime. The storyline will continue in the pages of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps in addition to several tie-in one-shots focusing on specific characters involved in the conflict.
Didio shifted gears to Superman and promised fans that Action Comics will be getting back on track. The 3-D issue set in the Negative Zone is set for release in July. After that, Superman will venture into the Bizarro World in an arc illustrated by Eric Powell. Powell was on hand to talk about the arc and his excitement for getting involved with such a mainstream hero as Superman.
Steve Niles and Scott Hamilton attended the panel to discuss their forthcoming series Simon Dark. The series is loosely based on Frankenstein and follows a man in Gotham City with a mysterious past. Simon can’t remember anything about himself or his past, but figures out that he’s made up of different people after he survives an attempt on his life. Didio said DC wants to create more mystic characters like Simon Dark since most of the other supernatural properties have migrated over to the Vertigo imprint.
DC has some special projects lined up to celebrate the wedding between Green Arrow and Black Canary. A special wedding planner one-shot will be released in addition to the special centering on the wedding itself. The bachelor party for Ollie will take place in the pages of JLA while Canary’s bachelorette party will be in the pages of Countdown. After the wedding, a new Green Arrow/Black Canary series will be launched with writer Judd Winick.
Other projects coming this fall include a second volume of Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters with Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Renato Arlem in addition to a Wonder Girl mini-series by J. Torres. Justice League of America will receive a new writer when Dwayne McDuffie takes over for Brad Meltzer. There will be one issue with a filler artist as the title transitions between authors, but Ed Benes is still scheduled as the series’ sole illustrator.
Later, Didio and DC Editor Michael Siglain recapped all the 52 spin-off series in the pipeline for DC. They include Infinity Inc, Black Adam, Booster Gold, 52 Aftermath: Four Horsemen and Crime Bible. Four Horsemen pits the big three of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman against the resurrected villains while Crime Bible sees The Question try to discover the secrets of the crime bible that members of Intergang worship so dearly.
After the DC panel, comics legend Jerry Robinson answered questions from fans and shared several stories from his long and fascinating career. Robinson spoke about the events that lead to his creation of The Joker and his time working on the original Batman comics with Bob Kane and Bill Finger. Robinson felt that the majority of Batman’s villains were inadequate and never deviated from the Prohibition Era gangster mold. Since every great hero has a great antagonist to match him, Robinson set out to create a villain who could match wits with the dark knight the same way Moriarty menaced Sherlock Holmes.
Robinson thought that a villain with a sense of humor would be unique and quickly came up with the idea for The Joker, whose physical appearance was highly influenced by the depictions of jokers on playing cards. Much to Robinson’s amazement, his original sketch of The Joker created in a hotel room still exists and has been put on display. Although he helped create The Joker, Robinson never had the opportunity to write a story starring him, letting that honor go to Bill Finger.
Robinson wasn’t shocked by the success of The Joker, but he certainly didn’t expect the character to have such longevity. According to Robinson, even though The Joker was killed off by Batman in their first encounter, everyone knew he would be brought back for sequels. Robinson joked that he just didn’t expect the character to come back for 60 years worth of sequels.
After leaving the comic book world, Robinson enjoyed a lengthy career as a successful political cartoonist. He shared stories about getting to meet presidents throughout the years who often requested original pieces of his artwork. President Nixon in particular had an affinity for Robinson’s work. That is, until Robinson became critical of his policies. After that Robinson never received any more correspondence with Nixon.
To end the panel, Robinson shared one of his greatest failures – working as an artist on twelve issues of a Lassie comic book series. Robinson grew to hate drawing the dog so much that he would find excuses not to, such as having Lassie run through fields of wheat so only her tail could be seen. Tired of working on stories about Lassie putting out fires or alerting the fire department about another barn burning down, Robinson’s idea for the final issue of his run was to have Lassie be revealed as the arsonist responsible for all the fires in the first place. Unfortunately, the publisher didn’t see the brilliance in such a concept.
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 The day ended with a Marvel Comics panel featuring writers Matt Fraction, Peter David, Daniel Way, Christos Cage and Jeff Parker. The panel began with Peter David announcing that he will take over as the writer on She-Hulk when current writer Dan Slott leaves the title. David will take over with issue 22 and will introduce an all new status quo for Jennifer Walters, taking place three months after Slott’s final issue and featuring a different supporting cast.
The writers then discussed the upcoming X-universe event entitled “Messiah CompleX.” It is a 12-part, three-month-long event that David described as “an old-school crossover.” With the mutant race near extinction after House of M, a small ray of hope comes with the birth of a new mutant child. The X-Men, the Purifiers and the Maurauders are all out to get their hands on the so-called mutant messiah, whose existence could be key to saving the mutants from extinction. David hinted at big changes in X-Factor as a result of the crossover, saying that the team may both lose and gain cast members during the conflict.
Matt Fraction talked about his upcoming title The Order which focuses on the fifty state initiative’s California team. Fraction likened the group to a baseball team, in which heroes compete to get on the roster and are replaced quickly should they be injured.
Christos Cage talked about his upcoming House of M: Avengers series. The title will explore the history of Luke Cage’s Avengers in the House of M universe and spans over 20 years of history, showing how the mutants took control of the world. The title will feature appearance by many Marvel characters, including The Punisher, who serves as the token human on a mutant strike team.
Daniel Way spoke about upcoming developments in Wolverine: Origins. The next arc will go back in time to show the history between Wolverine and Captain America. Readers will see exactly what both characters were up to during the tail end of World War II. Readers can also count on appearances by Bucky, Hydra, S.H.I.E.L.D. and Baron Von Strucker.
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