SDCC: DC NATION PANEL

July 24, 2008 on 9:06 pm | In Comics, San Diego Comic Con | 1 Comment

Dan Didio started the panel by bringing the panelists onto the stage: Judd Winick, Keith Giffen, Geoff Johns, Ethan Van Sciver, editor Mike Carlin, Bob Wayne, Jann Jones, James Robinson, Greg Rucka, Ian Sattler, Peter Tomasi and Bill Willingham.

The first major announcement came with the introduction of Johns and Van Sciver, who Didio announced will serve as the creative team on Flash: Rebirth!
“If you liked what we did with Green Lantern: Rebirth you should check out Flash,” said Johns.

Johns also mentioned Legion of 3 Worlds, which features George Perez drawing every Legionnaire in existence and “Superboy Prime saying hello to all of them.”

Didio then talked about Batman: R.I.P, announcing that in November Kevin Smith will be doing a three-issue Batman miniseries titled Batman: Cacophony, “which will start five years from now and finish six years from now,” joked Smith who joined the stage to massive applause from the audience. The mini also features such characters as Deadshot, Joker, and Onomatopoeia last seen in Smith’s Green Arrow. Walt Flanagan will be drawing the mini.
“It’s fun to be back in DC playing in the sand box again,” said Smith before leaving.

Questions then opened to the audience.

A fan asked Robinson whether or not he would use Jack Knight again. Robinson said that we felt he ended that series well and didn’t want to return to it after such a good end.

A fan asked about the Indigo Lanterns and Johns said they would be appearing directly before Blackest Night around April 2009.

A fan asked about the status of Catwoman. Didio said that Catwoman will be playing a very prominent role in Detective Comics.
“She’s very important to what happens in RIP and post-RIP,” said Didio.

A fan asked “what went wrong with Countdown?” Didio asked the audience what they didn’t like.
“We don’t want everyone to come up here and tell us how wonderful we are,” said Didio. “We want to hear the things that concern you because then we can fix them.”

A fan dressed as Batman asked about when Batwoman would appear more. Rucka said that more on that will be coming in about three weeks.

A fan asked if Ryan Sook—who has been doing numerous DC covers—would be doing any interior art, and Rucka said that in October Sook would be doing interiors on Final Crisis: Resist.

A fan asked about whether a new Legion book would be possible staring the original Legion. Johns said that more with the Legion would be spawning from Legion of 3 Worlds. Giffen asked the audience what they would think if he and Paul Levitz returned to the team. This received thunderous applause from the audience, although Giffen said he was just curious.

When a fan asked about Zatanna, Didio announced that a Zatanna series written by Paul Dini will be out next year.