I came in late to the DC Team Books panel but here are a few things I did learn.

• Damian Wayne will be showing up in the Teen Titans and there will be some interesting dynamics/scenes between him and Ravager.
• Issue 88 of Teen Titans hits the ground running and will be a good starting point for new readers.
• The Teen Titans will not only be getting a new villain but also a new member, who is also completely new to the DC universe.
• The big seven of the Justice League will be out of the picture for a while.

Here are a few items learned from the DC Nation Panel. There is one semi-major spoiler at the end just to warn you.

• The Blue Beetle live action test footage looks cool.
• Wonder Woman is getting some new villains based on Greek mythology.
• Wonder Woman’s adventures in the alternate timeline bubble won’t deal with other Wonder Girls/Women.
• Kathy Kane and Bruce Wayne will be teaming up in an issue of Batman, Inc.
• They couldn’t go into detail but more Flash stuff is coming next year, including a new title. Flash: Speed Force will be a Wally West and Bart Allen centric book.
• There are also plans for most if not all of the existing speedsters, as well as possibly some new ones, in the DC universe.
• Young Justice material being reprinted in October.
• Grant Morrison & Geoff Johns are working together on a big project coming out next year.
• Cassandra Cain will be showing up in something Geoff Johns is working on outside of comics.
• More Batman Beyond stuff being planned due to the success of the current mini-series. Both in and out of comics.
• Some upcoming Brave and the Bold team-ups will be:
• Lois Lane and Adam Strange
• Jor-El and Pa Kent
• Phantom Stranger and Supergirl
• TheChallengers of the Unknown and the Metal Men
• DC is looking to keep the majority of their books at the $2.99 price point.

Click to see the semi-major spoiler. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are some informational tidbits I got from the Superman: Man of Tomorrow Panel.

• They’ve done lots of big intergalactic stories in Superman lately so they felt it was time to bring Superman more down to Earth. Literally. They wanted to do more personal character driven stories. Superman will come across a myriad of real life problems including (but not limited to) suicide, poverty, casual cruelty, self-destruction, child abuse and immigration.
• Superman 702 is shift from 701. Even though they share the same main story of Superman walking he won’t be encountering the same things every issue.
• Superman 702 also contains a conversation between Lois and Clark.
• Superman 703 guest stars Batman who shows up to talk with Superman. Batman thinks Superman might be having an emotional breakdown.
• Story line after Grounded is the one J. Michael Straczynski always wanted to do.
• When asked what the difference between writing for Thor vs writing for Superman is J. Michael Straczynski said that Thor is writing from the outside in. Starting with the Norse mythology and going from there. Superman is writing from the inside out. Starting with the character.
• Action comics will be Lex Luthor vs. DC Universe. 10 – 12 villains (one a month).
  Some of which will be Mr. Mind, Deathstroke, Gorilla Grodd, (Neil Gaiman’s) Death and the Secret Six.
• David Finch’s cover art for the issue featuring Death was instrumental in getting Neil Gaiman’s permission to use her.
• Lex will be staying out of jail for the time being.
• Lex will be changed by his journey and won’t be the same man when it is over.
• Paul Cornell will be writing Superman in Action Comics after Lex Luthor story arc is over.
• Smallville and its community are the center of the Superboy book.
• Superboy will be fighting Parasite in issue one and Poison Ivy in issue two.
• Superboy will also be getting some new villains.
• Phantom Stranger will be an important guest and will reveal secrets about Smallville.
• Phantom Stranger’s appearance in Superboy will tie back to 1960′s Phantom Stranger stories.
• Big clue in issue two of Superboy of another supernatural character appearing.
• Issue three is a Superboy/Kid Flash race which will be covered by Lois Lane.
• Supergirl will be having a bizarre time. Bizarro Supergirl. Bizarro Metropolis. Bizarro World.
• Supergirl will also be getting some new villains. As well as an old one that will be dusted off for the annual.
• There wil be a Supergirl/Legion of Super-Heroes story referencing pre-crisis Kara Zor-El
• Superman related titles will reflect each other but there are no plans for crossing over in the near future.
• A prestige hard cover novel will be coming out. It doesn’t take place in the main DC universe.
• It focuses on Clark before he is Superman and will show him revealing his powers to the world for the first time.

Next up on my write ups from San Diego Comic Con 2010 is info from the Batman: The Return panel.

• Grant Morrison is working on a new Batman team book called Batman, Inc.
• The book will consist mainly of 1 or 2 issue story arcs, with occasionally 3 at most.
• Catwoman will be appearing in the first issue.
• Detective Comics will be getting a Commissioner Gordon back-up feature that will tie into the main story.
• Paul Dini is working on House of Hush which is a continuation of Heart of Hush. This story arc will go back further in time than previous stories.
• The identity of the White Canary will be revealed in Birds of Prey.
• Batgirl will be getting her own original rogue’s gallery.
• Stephanie Brown’s first year as Batgirl was her telling others “I’m Batgirl, deal with it.” Her sophomore year will be her saying to herself “I’m Batgirl… now what?” and proving herself to not only the greater DC universe but to herself.
• A Knight and Squire mini-series is coming, with Wildcat appearing in the first issue.
• In response to a question on if Black Canary and Zatanna would be teaming up anytime soon Gail Simone and Paul Dini said they were in discussion on something but wouldn’t go into details.
• Cassandra Cain could possibly show up somewhere in November.
• Batman will be getting a costume redesign.

I think the best way to sum it all up is with a quote from the panel.

One of the best Bat years ever.”
-Gail Simone

Went to the Batman: The Brave and the Bold panel at San Diego Comic Con 2010. Along with the panel they also screened a premiere of an upcoming episode of the show.

Present at the panel were

• James Tucker
• Diedrich Bader
• Sam Register
• Michael Jelenic
• Andrea Romano
• John DiMaggio

The episode that was screened was “Emperor Joker!” and some of the highlights of the episode include

• Musical number sung by the Joker
• Bat-Mite returns!
• “Joker mite”!
• Harley Quinn appears!

Some of the other information given during the panel were

• Due to the popularity of the “Mayhem of the Music Meister!” episode they’ve added more songs to episodes
• There are only 13 more episodes of the episode left.
• There was a hint that “a masculine and a feminine character people have been waiting for” would be appearing.

Before the panel was over Greg Weisman came in and they gave some info on the upcoming Young Justice show that will be premiering on the Cartoon Network. I’ll admit I’d seen character design sketches and I wasn’t impressed but they also showed a trailer for the show and I have to say they look great animated.

Went to the City of Heroes: Going Rogue panel at San Diego Comic Con on Thursday. Most of this stuff is probably already on the internet but just in case you haven’t seen it yet here are some highlights.

• The Cathedral of Pain is returning in Issue 18.
• New mission features including:
• If you kill/defeat a contact in a mission you won’t get any more missions from that contact.
• Sabotage & subterfuge missions where once you’re in a mission you can call another contact to get a different objective to do while inside.
• Tip missions where choices you make inside will either take you morally closer to good or to evil.
• The tip missions are used when choosing whether or not your Praetorian will end up as a hero or a villain, or for when your hero or villain wants to either make the switch to the other side.
• Of course you can also keep on the side you are already on and those who do will get rewarded. At least one of these rewards is access to special purple Invention Origin Enhancements.
• Two new mission map sets, The Underground and Praetoria Tech sets that will eventually also be available to use in Architect.
• Seven new costume sets including:
• Overguard
• Resistance
• PPD
• Clockwork
• Alpha
• Omega
• and one other that I can’t recall at the moment
• All auras will now have the option to be combat auras.
• New zones in Praetoria including
• Nova Praetoria
• Imperial City
• Neutropolis
• and The Underground, which like the sewers in Paragon City will have corresponding areas underneath each of the top levels.
• There are also no War Walls in Praetoria so you can see from one zone to the next, I am however not sure if there are still loading screens or not.
• Protests is going to be a new zone event in Praetoria where you have the option to either help the cops stop the rioters or help the rioters.
• They didn’t say what it was but they did say they are working on more Super Boosters.
• New factions including:
• Loyalists: They are loyal to Emperor Cole and have two sub-factions:
• Powers: These loyalists crave more power.
• Responsibility: They want security and peace.
• Resistance: They see Cole as a tyrant and also have two sub-factions:
• Wardens: They want a normal uncontrolled life.
• Crusaders: They want freedom, no matter what it costs.

I had a great time meeting and talking with Matt “Positron” Miller, Melissa “War Witch” Bianco and David “Noble Savage” Nakayama who are all extremely nice people.

I also got a chance to try out Going Rogue on one of their demo computers and I have to say the graphics look awesome! I reallllly need to upgrade my gaming setup…

Had to leave the ship today Since the people we were travelling with are now Carnival V.I.P.s we got to leave the ship earlier, but since we didn’t know that at the time we were booking flight home we booked a later flight so we spent about 3 hours waiting to check-in and then after we checked-in we waited about another 4 hours or so on the other side of security.

The flight home was one of, if not the worst, flight I’ve ever been on. The overhead bins were full when I finally got on board so had to put my carry on in seat in front of me. I wear about a size 13-15 (depends on shoe) so not having any where to put my feet was not fun. If that wasn’t bad enough the woman in front of me had her seat reclined the entire flight. Even during take-off and landing when they tell you to make sure it is in an upright position. What’s worse is that after both announcements the flight attendants did a walk through to make sure things were in order and never said anything to her about putting the seat upright.

Last full day of the cruise and I’m sad. Played a few trivias today and won another medallion for Crazy Cartoon Trivia. Also went to dinner late to watch the Liar’s Club. Didn’t miss much in the way of dinner either, I figured by the time I got there everyone else would be on or near dessert. Seems it was going slow that night tho, I was about 45 minutes late and they were still on the appetizers.

After dinner went to the Carnival Legends show, which is where some of the guests perform on stage as certain musical entertainers, including but not limited too James Brown, Elvis, Aretha Franklin, Garth Brooks and Frank Sinatra. Have to say the person who played Frank Sinatra did an amazing job this year.

Today on board the ship they had the On Deck for the Cure walk to help support breast cancer research. Was enjoyable, however since I bought my shirt just before it started I didn’t have time to change so put it on over the shirt I had on, let’s just say it wasn’t a good day to be wearing layers.

The after dinner show tonight was Ticket to Ride which is a tribute/music revue of the Beatles. I’m not really a Beatles fan, plus I’ve seen it before so I decided to pass on the show. I’ll admit it’s a nice production, but not really liking the Beatles I didn’t feel the need to see it again.

Went to St. Kitts today and took the Scenic Rail Tour which I thought was the best excursion of the cruise. Although considering the only other one I did was the Whale and Dolphin Watch sans whales and dolphins, that wasn’t hard. But even with that it was still a great tour. The first part of the excursion was a van ride to the train station. Our driver was very knowledgeable and nice. The train ride was nice as well, the cars had a lower portion was enclosed and air conditioned and there was also an open air area up top. The group I was with sat downstairs at first and we were the only ones there so it was also quiet. Although the view down there wasn’t the best since along many parts of the rail the vegetation grew up taller than the windows. So after I had my complimentary banana slushee I decided to go upstairs to get a better view. The view up top was absolutely beautiful and amazing. Sadly, I didn’t think to check my extra batteries before the tour so I wasn’t able to take too many photos. Saw lots of animals including goats, sheep, donkeys, chickens, pigs and monkeys. Part way along the rail there was a bit of a snafu with one of the cars so we had to stop and move people from the last two cars and leave the cars behind. This made it a bit more crowded in the other cars which made it a bit more crowded. Some of the people were complaining about this but I figure considering we stopped just before going over a bridge it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Before dinner I went to play Last Man Standing Trivia which unlike normal trivia the people playing stood on stage and the questions were multiple choice and each corner of the stage was a different letter, so you could tell what you answer was depending on where you stood. Those in the wrong corners got off the stage and went back to sit down.

The after dinner show was going to be a comedian but due to flight complications he wasn’t able to make it so they did an impromptu show. The two production singers got to sing some songs of their choice, which they liked since normally all they get to sing is the songs in the production shows which are obviously picked out for them. The second part of the show was a Silent Film Skit where the cruise director picked people from the audience and had them do silly stuff on stage a la a Charlie Chaplin film.

Arrived in St. Lucia today. Unlike St. Maarten we did an excursion here, Dolphin and Whale Watch Safari. Sadly, while the boat ride was nice, and we got some nice views of the island, seeing any dolphins or whales wasn’t guaranteed and we didn’t spot any.

Played trivia today (“World’s Most Simple Trivia”), which is anything but simple. But, I won, and was told by the trivia host that my score (17 out of 20) was the highest he’s ever seen for that category. So, I want to thank all the various trivia podcast I listen to that helped me learn/memorize many of the answers

The show after dinner was a hypnotist, which was ok, but wasn’t my favorite show on the cruise.

Went to St. Maarten today. None of the excursions really interested me, or any of the rest of the group, so we just decided to walk around a bit and check out the shops. Sadly none of the stores were really interesting, mostly jewelery. There was one store that sounded interesting “That Yoda Guy: Planet Paradise” which is owned and operated by someone who worked on Star Wars. But it mainly just some pictures and props and a museum in process that will be done in about 5 years. I’m not a big Star Wars fan, but I would have taken pictures of the Yoda statue but you could only take pictures if you bought something. Also, the museum in progress might have been interesting since it had more than just Star Wars stuff in it, but not for $39. Granted it was technically included if you bought $39 worth of merchandise, but nothing was really worth that to me. Not to mention I had people waiting outside for me.

After getting back to the ship we had lunch and then I went to play trivia, didn’t win, but had fun. Was semi-close to winning tho, winners only had 4 more points than me.

The show after dinner was “Singin’ with the Big Band: A Tribute to Frank and Sammy” Which I really enjoyed since I like that sort of music. Don’t recall all the songs sung, but some were Candy Man, The Lady is a Tramp, World on a String, Bo Jangles and of course, My Way.

Second Fun Day at Sea. Not much trivia, which was disappointing. Only general knowledge in the morning and TV Theme at night. Dinner wasn’t too appealing. Show was a vocal impressionist/singer named Karen Grainger. Thought I wouldn’t like it but decided to go and check it out anyway and was pleasantly surprised. Afterwards decided to check out the 80′s Flashback party in one of the clubs on the ship, didn’t stay too long, but did watch the 3 contests (Air Guitar, Big Hair and Michael Jackson dance impersonation).

First Fun Day at Sea. Lots of trivia, the two entertainment staff I met today were awesome. The after dinner show was called Generations which was a Broadway-esque musical revue. Wasn’t the best show I’ve seen on a a cruise ship but it was enjoyable. They had different types of music from different decades. I think it spanned the 220′s or 30′s all the way to the 80′s, possibly the early 90′s.

Got to the airport and through security without a hitch. Flight was ok I think, slept through most of it. Also since two of the people I’m on vacation with are now “V.I.P.” guests with Carnival we got to go through the express line for security and check-in to get aboard the ship. I’d been up since about 5pm the day before so I didn’t stay up much past eating lunch and thus didn’t see the ship leave port. I did however get up in time for dinner which was good.

Went to Motor City Comic Con and Star Trek: The Exhibition at the Detroit Science Center yesterday. Had an awesome time! At the con I saw a lot of people from tv/movies I enjoy watching. First I went and got in line to see John Schneider since he was the person I wanted to see first due to his work on Smallville. Unfortunately he didn’t have any copies of his movie Collier & Company there so I’ll have to order it from his site. The other people I saw were Catherine Hicks, Erick Avari, Bruce Davison, Brad Kesten, Sean Kenney, Garrett Wang and Dwayne McDuffie. Everyone was extremely nice and personable and I was able to get pictures with all of them except Erick Avari, which was due to the convention having photo ops with certain guests and so had asked those people not to do photos at their tables, Erick Avari being one of them.

I had considered getting an autograph from Carrie Fisher due to the fact she had been on an episode of Smallville, but due to that other thing she did (you know what I’m talking about…) the line to see her was two hours long, so I decided to pass.

After getting the autographs I wanted I looked around the vendor area and bought a few t-shirts. Probably don’t need more t-shirts but what can I say? I’m a sucker for the Flash.

After that we went to the Detroit Science Center to see Star Trek: The Exhibition. It was very fun and interesting. Lots of props and costumes and some ship models. Sadly, they didn’t allow photography in the exhibit due to an agreement with a professional photography service. But they did have replica sets of the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 (“No bloody A, B, C, D OR E” to paraphrase Mr. Scott), the transporter room of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D, someone’s quarters from The Next Generation (the website says it’s Picard’s quarters, but most of the props in it were stuff that would have been in Riker’s quarters, so I’m not sure) and a life-size mock up of the Guardian of Forever. All of those, other than the quarters, you were able to have your picture taken on.

I do want to go back again before the exhibit moves on in September. I definitely want to ride the full motion simulator ride, and wouldn’t mind doing the audio tour and hearing what it has to say about the items.

While photos weren’t allowed in the Star Trek portion they were allowed in the rest of the museum and I got a few pictures before we had to leave.