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. (more…)

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.

I picked up the new hardcover deluxe edition of the Batman story The Killing Joke this weekend. I have to say I was disappointed by it. For one thing every time I heard or read about the story it was usually getting lots of praise. I’m not saying it was bad, but I was expecting more with the way everyone talked about it. Just didn’t live up to the hype.

Warning: The rest of this post contains spoilers. Proceed at your own risk.
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