SDCC’11: DC – The New 52 (Thursday)

DC is hosting a New 52 panel each and every day of the show.  I half expect each session to be much of the same, but because of room size, and the fact that nearly everyone is talking about it, there might be a few nuggets of new information each day.  We’ve scoured the Intardwebz, and here’s what we know so far…

On the Panel

Dan Didio
Eddie Berganza, crisis master
Bob Harras
JT Krul
Freddie Williams
Cliff Chiang
Paul Levitz
Paul Cornell
Dan Jurgens
Scott Lobdell

• Paul Levitz is really excited about upcoming Legion of Super-Heroes stuff. “Legion #1 for the third time. They’ll keep making me do it until I do it right.”
• Dan Didio “Our goal is to continue to grow this business and make it bigger and better than ever before. We will win you over at these panels in the next 4 days.”
• The JLI are an officially sponsored UN team, with Booster Gold as the leader. The team also includes Lady Godiva, Vixen, Rocket Red, Fire, and Ice.
• Many of you have already seen the cover to the New DCU free sampler that has Wonder Woman back in her trunks. Looks like they will stick around, or at least the company is giving the Amazonian a chance to change it up every once in a while.
• In order to make Captain Atom stand out from the rest of the characters, the backgrounds in the Captain Atom book will be rendered in ink, with Cap rendered in a graywash. Freddie Williams III is doing the artwork if you didn’t already know.
• Characters in Teen Titans are getting a massive change up so the book “feels like this is ground zero of a brand new book.”
• Green Arrow will be using trick arrows again.
• Demon Knights. We already know about Etrigan, but what about Vandal Savage holding Excalibur with Camelot burning around him!? The art will be done in a Prince Valiant European style and will span DC’s entire medieval universe.
• Apollo and Midnighter are still gay in Stormwatch – at least DC knows not to mess with those character histories. But interestingly, it was said that Stormwatch has always been in the DCU. There will be nine (9) members that make up the Stormwatch team.
• The Marvel family is on the way. Dan Didio guarantees it.
• Prices will hold at $2.99. It sounds like the company is really trying to stick with their Ship On Time promise, as the company won’t announce new books until they can ship on time.
• Booster Gold series ends between Falshpoint #4 and #5, and will address Booster’s knowledge of the universe/time change.
• As we’ve already learned, Action Comics takes place in the past – or at least the first six issues of the arc, that take place 5-6 years ago, which follows the time slip with the Justice League book.
• Interestingly, during the Flashpoint panel, panelists told attendees to get to the New 52 panel to find out what is going on with Wally West. DiDio said, “Right now there are no plans for Wally West in the new Flash series.” Interesting… One fan got pretty intense, but DiDio stood his ground saying the company will stick with Barry Allen for a while.
• Widening Gyre #2 will come out when Kevin Smith’s schedule clears up.  Considering Smith seems to be totally focused on his last movie, and his podcast empire, I don’t think we’ll see it anytime soon.
• Nick Spencer is still writing Thunder Agents. New issue in November.

And that is what we know so far… Use the comment section below to share your thoughts, and keep checking the site, as we will continue to cover the show from our bunker 10,000 feet below sea level.

via Various