CCI 2010 Discussion

[Koete]

Since there are going to be a ton of announcements, I figured they might as well get their own thread.

[Koete]

DC Nation Kickoff

Lee arrived and the panel moved onto the Batman franchise where Didio confirmed that writer Grant Morrison is staying on the Bat-books in the future, however Wayne wouldn't let him say what title the superstar would be on.

A fan asked after the fate of the Johnny DC line, saying that without "Super Friends" his daughter didn't have an age appropriate comic featuring Wonder Woman. Didio teased that a "Young Justice" comic would be on the way along with the new TV series, also saying that "There are [kids] books in the works....they're really not cancelled. A bunch of stuff is coming your way."

A fan asked after the fate of material from recent DC co-features like "Blue Beetle" in "Booster Gold" and whether they'd be traded eventually. Wayne said they were looking at ways to make the new co-feature material stand on its own more, while Didio said the upcoming "DC Comics Presents" books in the $7.99 price range would be like mini trades and would get material that hadn't been collected back into print, including the possibility of "Blue Beetle."

A reader inquired after Starman Jack Knight, and Robinson said of the character's return "never say never" but for now he was focusing on Mikaal Tomas. When the fan followed up on whether the blue-skinned Starman would meet Solomon Grundy coming up, Robinson said yes.

A young fan asked towards the panel's end if DC's new "Batman Beyond" series would continue past its initial run, and Didio said that yes, sales were better than expected and more tales of the future of Gotham would be on tap.

There's some bits about Rise of Arsenal in there too that made me shake my head.

[Koete]

Geoff Johns' DC Focus

"Green Lantern: Secret Origin II" is on tap for the future, of which Johns said "It'll be about Sinestro. Ivan Reis is going to draw it. I don't know when it'll come out but sometime next year."

Work has begun on a "Suicide Squad" video game which Johns said would be "hardcore violent."

Green Lantern Kilowog is in the upcoming GL movie and according to Johns "He looks amazing. He looks just like Kilowog."

Another young fan asked after any more origin tales being done like was done with Dex-Star, and Johns said that the big red head Red Lantern would be done next. William "Black" Hand will be the focus of the next issue of "Green Lantern" where the Indigo Tribe's origins and motives would be under the microscope.

Asked after the future of the "Batman Earth-One" project, Johns said he just got new pages in from artist Gary Frank, and of his take on the character, the writer said, "Everyone knows Batman's the best at what he does...this Batman is the worst at everything he's done." In the book, the character's gadgets, methods and Batmobile would all backfire on him, but not necessarily in a comedic way. Berganza added that the reinvention of Alfred was even more of a twist, with Johns saying "Alfred is probably the coolest character in the Earth-One universe." Berganza added, "He could kick your ass with his one leg."

Johns will work on the upcoming November 2011 "Green Lantern" animated series, of which he said "It's CGI and it's the whole Corps and a lot of other familiar faces."

There may be plans outside of comics for Cassandra "Batgirl" Cain, said Johns. A Flash movie is also in development.

A series is planned to follow up on "Blackest Night" and "Brightest Day" which Johns already has a name for, however Berganza again was very strict about him revealing the info. Johns did say it would be slightly different than the previous two stories had been.

The writer has a creator-owned book that he'll be working on next year.

[Koete]

Mondo Marvel

Cebulski began the panel by announcing several series: "Loki" for October by Roberto Sacasa; "Captain Americaand the Korvac Saga" by Ben McCool; "Captain America: Hail Hydra" in January; "Captain America: Fighting Avengers/ongoing," an all ages series retelling his origin and new series; and Mark Waid returning to Captain America with "Captain America: Man Out of Time."

Then, two new Ultimate series came up, lead by "Ultimate Thor" in October by Jonathan Hickman and Carlos Pacheco. "It's patented Hickman madness," Paniccia said.

"Ultimate Doom" launches in December, by Brian Michael Bendis, completing his "Ultimate Enemy" trilogy.

Next up was "Strange Tales II" for next year, and Abnett and Landing on "Iron Man/Thor," launching in November. "It's a great opportunity to pair up characters who are the epitome of mystical legendry and the character who is the epitome of technology," Abnett said.

"Who is the new Man without Fear?" Apparently, it's Nova, as the teaser image and panelists made no attempt to hide.

"Power Man and Iron Fist" launches in January by Fred Van Lente and Wellinton Alves, which will feature the new Power Man in the role.

Cebulski then introduced "Rocket Raccoon and Groot" in January, featuring a cover by Mike Mignola and written by Abnett and Lanning. Lanning said he couldn't say much about the series without revealing details of the "Thanos Imperative," but would say "Groot will refer to himself as Groot, and Rocket will fire some unfeasibly large cannons.

Loeb said there would be a huge announcement Friday at 8:15 pm regarding Marvel and anime, and first scenes from the Iron Man Anime will be shown.

[Koete]

X-Men

Way said that "Wolverine," "Daken," and "X-23" would form something of a "Wolverine Universe." The Logan goes to hell story in Jason Aaron's "Wolverine" would affect the other two books, Alonso added. "It's not a crossover, but they do conect."

"Wolverine: The Best There is" launches in December, written by Charlie Huston with art by Juan Jose Ryp. "It goes directly into Logan's future, without looking at his past," Alonso said, referring to the number of stories already existing dealing with Wolverine's past.

Remender's "Uncanny X-Force" will begin by resurrecting Apocalypse, which "obviously has ramifications to a number of characters, notably Warren [Worthington, Angel/Archangel]."

Singh then showed another "Who is the new Man without Fear?" trailer, this time featuring Gambit.

"Generation Hope" will begin in November, in which Hope will "seize her destiny by the throat." It spins out of "Uncanny" and is written by Kieron Gillen. "There haven't been new mutants in a long time, and it's no longer an easy thing," Gillen said. Next week's "Uncanny" #526 would begin the build-up to the new series, Matt Fraction added.

[Koete]

Batman: The Return

Marts started things off by discussing the recent announcements regarding the Bat-books, including Tony Daniel as writer and artist on Batman, Pete Tomasi and Patrick Gleason on Batman and Robin, Snyder taking over Detective Comics, Cornell as writer on Knight & Squire, Finch as the writer and artist and The Dark Knight. Marts then turned the mic over to Morrison, who announced what's next for him in the Batman Universe—"Batman: The Return" one-shot and a new series, "Batman, Inc."

"All I'm going to tell you up front is basically it's almost a team book," explained Morrison. "I was looking at the Brave and the Bold cartoon which I love and I wanted to do that kind of thing—Batman with other people. We're come up with a structure that let's us do kind of a team book."

"This is why the book was called 'The Return of Bruce Wayne,'" he added. "This is what happens when Bruce is more in the equation and what he does with the Batman idea and turns it into a franchise."

Dini will be writing a sequel to his "Detective" arc, "Heart of Hush" called "House of Hush" in "Streets of Gotham." The arc discusses the Wayne and Elliot families backstory much more than has been seen before. It also involves a prisoner released, one who went to jail long before Bruce's birth, but whwants to kill Bruce Wayne. "It's a long story. It's going to stretch into December, January and is just getting started right now."

Finch is finishing up "The Return." "There's a new costume for Batman that Grant had a lot of input in a lot of specific things that he wanted from just the look of Batman," he said. "I'm starting drawing a lot of big bats, it's a lot of fun. It's a great re-imagining and re-establishing of Bruce as Batman."

Morrison talked up the upcoming issue of "Batman & Robin." "The next issue does have a really good scene with Professor Pig does botox," he said. "There's a reason for it. He's actually already appeared in the issue that's out." In returns to "The Return," the writer said, "Batman the Return opens with five pages of bats. It's like a natural history document. But again, I can't tell you anything because I'm at the end of my story."

Questions then opened to the audience. In regards to the rumor of Quitely returning for the final three issues of "Batman & Robin," Morrison confirmed that he will not. Instead Frazer Irving and Cameron Stewart wrap up the series.

In regards to Batman Beyond's return to the DC Universe, a fan asked if there might be a series written by Paul Dini. "That would be great," teased Marts. "I would pick up that comic."

[Koete]

DC Nation

David Finch has designed a new costume for Bruce Wayne's return in "Batman Inc.," in which "the whole Batman operation is upgraded." Batman will meet the Silver Age Kathy Kane, too, who "has been in a simultaneous affair with Batman and El Gaucho."

Johns said that the Predator entity would be the focus of either issue #57 or #58. He also said that the Parallax entity is in the Green Lantern film.

DiDio said there would be a new "Who's Who" next year.

"Grant and I are actually going to do a big project together," Johns announced. He wouldn't say more, but it will happen next year.

A fan asked whether Stephanie Brown would be appearing more outside her own title. "She'll be in something I'm working on outside of comics," Johns said.

"We're doing a second Flash book next year called 'Flash: Speed Force," Johns said, featuring Bart Allen, Jesse Quick, XS, and the other speedsters.

[SuaveStar]

Theres something about Batman: Inc, that both makes me not interested, yet want to read it at the same time.

Also, storylines that do connect in other books=Crossover.

[Missy]

Marvel just teased the return of CrossGen in 2011!

The Editor-in-Chief then showed an animated logo teaser showing the original CrossGen Comics "Sigil" logo being burnt up and transformed into a new version of the sigil with "2011" being placed in the corner of the image. Some in the crowd seemed not to take the meaning of the teaser, but Quesada didn't add any other commentary to say for sure whether it meant the classic CrossGen characters would come back to comics.

EDIT: Whether this means reprints or new stories, I called it! In episode 339 of The Show, I speculated that the purchase of Marvel by Disney might mean the return of CrossGen.

Edited July 24, 2010 by The Master

[Koete]

Cup O' Joe

The panel again teased a "new Man Without Fear" adding after Falcon, Nova and Gambit teasers from earlier this month T'Challa the Black Panther or Kraven the Hunter as possibilities of the hero taking Daredevil's role at the end of "Shadowland."

Loeb took the mic next as the panel noted his new role as EVP of Television for Marvel – especially using the EVP title to make him feel important."They like to make fun of me for having a title instead of just being 'Jeph Loeb: Jerk,'" he joked before announcing that due to his new job, he'll be wrapping his "Hulk" run with Ed McGuinness after August's issue #24. "This is the wrap up of what we call 'The Red Hulk Saga'...Ed and I will be moving on will be moving on, but Mark has some news," he explained before kicking it to Paniccia who announced the much speculated news that "Atlas" team Jeff Parker and Gabriel Hardman.

The team's first "Hulk" story hits from issues #25 to 30 and will be called "Scorched Earth" and according to Paniccia follows up on the biological and technological disasters that are set to explode across the Marvel Universe as set up by the Intelligencia who have not been able to enter their fail safe codes and stop them from going off. It will be "a redemptive" arc for the Red Hulk character.

After being prompted by Quesada, Loeb announced that said McGuinness project will be called "Avengers 3" and will feature Captain America, Thor and Iron Man, and "it doesn't take place just in the present."

Quasada announced a new "Ender's Game" series called "The Formic Wars" that's a prequel to the original novel co-written by Orson Scott Card.

Marvel will also be serializing a Disney publishing graphic novel called "Tron: The Betrayal" with exclusive cover work by Salvador Larocca.

Well, it looks like I'll be buying Hulk.

[Koete]

IDW will be doing a four issue Rocketeer anthology.

Among the creators working on it are Mike Allred, Kurt Busiek, John Cassaday, Darwyn Cooke, Michael Golden, Gene Ha, Michael Kaluta, Garry Leach, Bruce Timm, and Bill Willingham.

[Koete]

Spider-Man

Emma Rios and Kelly Sue DeConnick take Norman Osborn to The Raft in OSBORN, 5 issue mini-series starting in November.

Origin of the Species promises to wrap up many long standing Spidey plot threads according to Slott

October 2010 will officially be the end of Brand New Day Spidey.

Slott has revealed that Mac Gargen will be coming back as the Scorpion

Announcement that Dan Slot will be the solo Spidey writer in November 2010

Peter Parker will finally have a career promises Slott

The book will be coming out 2x a month and Slott will be joined by a rotating cast of artists including Stefano Caselli, Marcos Martin, and Humberto Ramos

30 pages of material every issue said Slott

Carnage limited series written by Zeb Wells and drawn by Clayton Crain coming October 2010 got huge applause from audience

Stephen Wacker texted the price will be $3.99

There's also artwork from the panel featuring Spider-Man in an FF costume and another that makes him look like Spider-Lantern (not kidding).

I'll buy anything by Clayton Crain, so that Carnage mini's on my list.

[SuaveStar]

So, they are admitting thrice monthly isn't working, and are instead upping the price and page count per issue. That's good.

[SuaveStar]

Following earlier reports confirming the casting of Mark Ruffalo and Jeremy Renner in The Avengers, Saturday’s Marvel movie panel may have seemed a little anticlimactic. However, at least one piece of news emerged from the presentation: The Punisher film rights are now controlled Marvel, and studio President Kevin Feige told the crowd in Hall H he hopes to “bring him into the fray soon.”

Whether that means taking a fourth run at a Punisher film or using Frank Castle as a supporting character in another Marvel production is anybody’s guess. It seems unlikely that we will see the character developed by Marvel Television, as its projects are destined for Disney-owned ABC and ABC Family — not exactly the venues for a vigilante who doesn’t mind using a little murder and torture in his war on crime. (Of course, a sanitized version of Castle has appeared in Marvel’s family-friendly animated properties, so it’s certainly not out of the question.)

The two previous Punisher movies — 2004′s The Punisher, starring Thomas Jane, and 2008′s Punisher: War Zone, starring Ray Stevenson — were co-productions with Artisan/Lionsgate. But with the character squarely back in Marvel’s stable, the studio is free to weave him into its shared big-screen universe. Perhaps we’ll see Frank Castle on the trail of Bruce Banner (now played by Mark Ruffalo) in a third Hulk film. It’s now a possibility.

The character’s movie history has been a rocky one, dating back to 1989′s The Punisher (starring Dolph Lundgren), which went straight to video in the United States, and has been widely mocked ever since. Thomas Jane’s turn as Castle in 2004 met with largely negative reviews, but performed well on DVD, encouraging Marvel and Lionsgate to release 2008′s War Zone. It became the lowest-grossing film based on a Marvel comics property.

Source

[Koete]

Awesomeness from the Grant Morrison panel:

The Scottish writer soon took the stage to a roar of applause, to which he replied "I can't express to you how much that means to me, but I'll do it in the form of dance" before breaking into a brief, jerky popping and locking routine for his fans.

Sattler joked that he only had one question for the writer to start the panel: What's your favorite curse word? "I can't say my favorite curse word!" Morrison exclaimed before spitting out a mouthful of gibberish and calling it "a terrible curse word on Mars."

Sattler asked how he felt about his new ideas or reinvigorated characters such as Knight and Squire – who will soon be written by Paul Cornell in their own miniseries – being picked up by other writers, and Morrison explained, "As I've said, these long-running universes were here before any of us and will be here long after we're gone. To add something to that is really special."

Another fan asked how hard it is for him to write the quintessential American characters like Superman or Captain America seeing as he's not American. "In some cases I've noticed is that a lot of the British writers have almost more respect for these characters," the writer responded. "They're more interested in Superman as the best of America. That's what we saw in 'All-Star.' We really saw something beautiful in this country whose heroes up to that point were cowboys and gangsters that Siegel and Shuster created this man who would not kill and could solve all the problems and save us. To me, they created something that America really has to live up to.

"From outside, we kind of see Superman as the very best of what you guys can do, so I think the outsider's perspective helps in a lot of ways. I've thought a lot of American writers are kind of embarrassed by him, and it's an embarrassment or being ashamed of your greatest myth....we find that quite weird as an outsider."

However, perhaps his favorite current DC comic is the Johnny DC adaptation of "Batman: The Brave & The Bold" which he said "is beautifully written and just great."

The final volume in his "Sea Guy" cycle of miniseries for Vertigo – to be called "Sea Guy: Eternal" – will be on its way in the near future. "I've written the first two, and I think this one is the best of them all," he said. "The idea for them came from the world we were living in. The idea being that we're suddenly a part of a big brother society with cameras and surveillance. There's five surveillance cameras for everybody in the country including children and people in prison – five for every living person! If you read Alan Moore's recent interview, he talks about camera being in Northampton where he lives that'll go, 'Hey you! Pick up that cigarette butt!' and actually talk to you. It was that sense that we've all been infantilized – the sense that we're all buying cartoons we watched as a kid and playing little games. We're all sitting in our own little worlds with the internet. I wanted to write about that and mythologize it. And then it became the story of a guy's entire life but sort of strange. It was just responding to the weird feeling of the world these days."

[SuaveStar]

Morrison also admitted at some point, that Batman R.I.P did just mean Rest In Peace. And he was just saying it meant something else to get people wondering what it meant.