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.

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…