Look! Up in the Sky! It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a Superman Panel!
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.