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| Convention Report by Clay N Ferno |
For those not in attendance or watching the live stream, yesterday’s Batpanel was chock full of Spoilers (see what we did there?), updates, praise for fan enthusiasm and announcements.
John Cunningham (VP Marketing, DC Comics) introduced an all star family of writers including Batman: Eternal showrunner Scott Snyder and the artist Greg Capullo to a room full of eager fans and classic Jokers at the Javitz Center. Introduced were James Tynion IV, Marc Andreyko, Ann Nocenti, John Layman and Peter Tomasi.
Cunningham started off by thanking all for supporting the books but also for supporting the We Can Be Heroes fundraising campaign, raising more that $2 million last year. He also announced a new video podcast from DC, DC All Access, which will show an insider’s view into the DC offices and announce upcoming projects.
First up, Bat-wise was the introduction of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo to talk about current Zero Year issues and what we can expect in the days to come. The 64 page introduction of the New 52 origin hit shelves earlier this week, and Capullo’s redesigned Batman costume debut is an outstanding reference to Detective Comics #27.
Snyder admits that initially he wanted to keep all aspects of Batman: Year One as the origin story for Batman, but later fretted that with the changes of the New 52, Year One doesn’t exactly fit. Both Scott and Greg have had high anxiety about delivering and changing the right Batman origin and are expressed gratitude for the fan’s enthusiasm for what they have done with the book.
Batman: Zero Year deliberately references all things Batman, including the aforementioned Detective Comics cover, Batman: The Animated Series and beats from Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One.
Issue #25 pages were revealed exclusively at the Con as well as the three part over arching chapters of Year Zero, to be spread in total over 11 issues. The three parts of the story are Secret City, Dark City and Wild City.
The Riddler is the major foil in Year Zero as he challenges the city to be as smart as Edward Nigma.
We’re teased that Capullo’s redesigned Batmobile is to be revealed, and that this version does something special that no Tumbler or Batcar has ever done. We’re looking forward to that for sure! Snyder promises a twisted, dark, crazy adventure for his Batman origin and has delivered so far. There is a retooling of an old villain coming our way, also yet to be revealed.
Last week, the weekly series Batman: Eternal was announced with Snyder at the helm, as TV nomenclature bleeds back in to comics, Snyder is the show runner.
Writers on the panel will be joined by Tim Seeley, Tynion, Laymon, Ray Fawkes and more.
The hugest Batman: Eternal news was spawned by an unusual (probably planted) Batgirl in the audience asking a mid-panel question about the return of Stephanie Brown.
The former Batgirl will be returning in this series, as Snyder paces out the story.
For plausible deniability, Snyder defended that the fan favorite Brown was not out of the question for DC to use, they just wanted to reintroduce her at an appropriate time.
What most fans would love to see is Brian Q. Miller return to the book as well, but all in due time I suppose.
From Batman we move to Batman and Two-Face with Peter Tomasi. Issue #24 comes out on October 16.
New Irish leading lady Erin McKillen has a hate-on for Batman and the book will be dealing with the Two-Face origin, Harvey Dent’s duality as well as crafting panels wherein most of the main players faces are half in shadow, showcasing the duality of nature.
Batman: Detective Comics #24 is next, with John Layman promising big action, and writing excuses for Jason Fabok to blow things up and draw complex objects. Detective Comics #25 will be a Zero Year issue focusing on Jim Gordon.
Marc Andreyko takes over from J.H. Williams and Haden Blackman on Batwoman #27. A big fan of their work on the title, he has finished his Zero Year tie-in with a story of Kate returning from West Point.
This week’s Nightwing #24 was introduced by writer Kyle Higgins, as Dick moves away from Gotham to Chicago after the death of Damian Wayne to track down the man who killed his parents. Higgins introduces a New 52 version of The Prankster that is a hacker and likens him to Jigsaw from the Saw movies. An upcoming Nightwing Annual will focus on Dick and Barbara Gordon’s relationship and where it is going. The Zero Year tie-in will be a modern urban fantasy fairy tale featuring Dick going to the movies. Tell him to stay away from Zorro!
Ann Nocenti is clearly having fun with The Joker’s Daughter in Catwoman #24 due in stores October 23. She’s taken the action underground to the substrata of Gotham into tunnels and bunkers with artist Rafa Sandoval. Also, she’s giving New 52 Catwoman an actual cat finally.
James Tynion IV talked Red Hood and the Outlaws, Batman Eternal and Talon.
Jason Todd has now taken over the League of Assassins, and Tynion will explore how Todd lost his memory. Over in Talon, Calvin returns to Gotham and teams up with a reluctant Batman who is none too pleased that someone is hunting down the Court of Owls. We’ll also get to see the history of Gotham Ripper Felix Harmon in the upcoming pages of Talon.
All seems to be ramping up for an exciting 75th anniversary of Batman in 2014. The weekly series is perhaps the most exciting, and a special issue of Detective Comics #27 featuring the likes of Frank Miller and Brad Meltzer.
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