Tuesday, July 28, 2009

San Diego Comic Con Rundown


I have done my best to read all the news that has poured out of the SDCC, especially where it concerns Supergirl. I find that listening to podcasts of panels is better than reading a stream or review so I have linked those here as well.

As always, I advise going to the link and reading the full reports. Here are the key blurbs.
The Superman Panel was early in the con, Thursday morning. The podcast on the DC website is worth listening to. Here are the links:

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/090723-sdcc09-superman-panel.html
http://www.dccomics.com/sites/events/ (podcast)

As expected, there was some direct Supergirl information relayed here.

The Thara/Kara relationship, including their brewing animosity, is set up in a Secret Files story coming up in the next months.

Gates and Rucka are co-writing the story arc talked about the upcoming Action Comics/Supergirl crossover 'Hunt for Reactron'. They are co-writing the issues rather than each writing the part in their individual titles. It sounds like a crazy wild high-octane arc with a lot of action. The storyline is a direct result of some event from 'Codename:Patriot'.

World of New Krypton will guest star not only Thanagarians but a new take on Jemm, Son of Saturn where he apparently is tough. I haven't seen Jemm since the 'Rock of Ages' storyline in Morrison's JLA.

James Robinson discussed all the "fragmented pieces" in Superman (my biggest complaint about the book) and how they are building to something . He also talked about a big arc in the book called 'Mon-El, Man of Valor' that will include a new costume for Mon. Of course, Valor was the codename Mon-El used for a while.

Gates discussed the new World's Finest mini-series he's writing, where each issue will team-up a character from the new Batman cast and the new Superman cast. World's Finest #3 stars Supergirl and the new Batgirl. The last issue stars Dick Grayson Batman and Commander El. I can't wait to read the Supergirl/Batgirl issue. I wonder if we know who Batgirl is by that time (December).

Rucka recognized the lack of a single artist on Action Comics (I guess Julian Lopez only does one issue) and said he was hopeful that Pere PĂ©rez will stick with the book for a while. Rucka also said that Nightwing and Flamebird are destined to 'hook up' but then hinted at some tragedy happening right after.

At the end of the panel, a fan thanked Gates for the new interpretation of Supergirl and the crowd applauded loudly. I thought this was nice to hear and had not been mentioned in the written summaries of the panel.

Overall some exciting news and leaks. I especially like that the World's Finest mini has different guests each issue.



On Friday there was a Wednesday Comics panel ( http://www.newsarama.com/comics/090724-sdcc09-wednesdaycomics.html ). A couple of things came out of that I found noteworthy.

For page five of his Wonder Woman story, Ben Caldwell uses 65 panels !! I have found the Wonder Woman strip to be difficult to muddle through. I wonder just what this page will be like. 65 panels seems daunting.

Amanda Conner said of her Supergirl art that she wanted "to make it as absolutely, vomitously adorable" as she could. So far I would say she is succeeding.

Jimmy Palmiotti said read the comedic newspaper strips growing up thus Supergirl leans to the funnier side. I definitely like that given the angst of the Teen Titans strip and the violence in the Batman strip. Diversity in a project like Wednesday Comics is part of the appeal.

Not necessarily part of the SDCC, Newsarama posted a number of video interviews with Dan Didio. In this one on Wednesday Comics ( http://www.newsarama.com/common/media/video/player.php?section_id=16#playerTop ) he confirms that Aquaman is the waterbased guest in Supergirl strip.




The DC Editorial Panel ( http://www.newsarama.com/comics/090725-sdcc09-dcu-editorial.html ) also revealed some cool news.

James Robinson's JLA roster was partially unveiled with the above image. Mon-El, Dick Grayson Batman, Donna Troy and Hal Jordan will be the headliners. There are some shadowy mystery members (one Robinson revealed was Congorilla) as well. Looks like a flame based character (Fire?) and a quiver wearing character (has to be Ollie with Cry For Justice finishing). I don't really care for the new Mon-El costume.

And a Sterling Gates written Kid Flash comic was announced here as well. Bart fans are probably rejoicing.

And there was some toy news as well. Here is the link to Fwoosh which talks about some cool DCU Mattel toys:

The JLU Supergirl (second season) will be released as one figure in a six-pack. I don't know if I need the other 5 figures.


Here is a close up of the figure. I have seen pics of this figure before (tip of the hat to blog friend Gene who sent me a pic of this a while back). The face seems a little off here like Supergirl got a dose of Joker venom. As such, unless it is sold seperately, I don't think I'll spend the money for a 6-pack of figures. I think I read somewhere that these will be sold at Target.

Unfortunately not all the parts of the SDCC I was interested in got coverage. None of the Landry Walker panels (the Walker/Jones spotlight panel and an All-Ages panel) got coverage on the web as far as I can find. So I don't have anything to report about on that front.

Also there was no Supergirl news to report from the Smallville panel. It does sound like we might see the costume this season though.

I'd love to hear from anyone who was actually at the convention.

8 comments:

Nikki said...

Past Footage of Supergirl was featured in the smallville trailer. They did a flick through of comic pictures like they do at the start of Marvel movies. For supergirl they showed the Michael Turner Supergirl #1 cover, some interiors from the Teen Titans #50 and a cover from the teen titans/ amazons attack cross over. Then Showing Laura and actually named her as 'Supergirl'.

TalOs said...

Yeah I happened to see that on YouTube the other day too, Nikki (which I thought was pretty frickin sweet of 'em to do), on top of the jaw dropping MASSIVE spoiler of an ending to the Season 9 trailer which I never thought I'd ever see come to frutation for Smallville continuities very own Kal-El/Clark Kent at that! WOW!!! (Hint to Anj and the rest of ya: Kara first sported this world wide famous and iconic 'symbol' first in season 8! ;))

But if a certain very well known evil Kryptonian (who once possessed Lex Luthor) debut is due to 'Tessmercer' having unlocked a portal to Kandor itself (as seen come the ending of Season 8) then why is it that the PTB at Smallville didn't say anything about Kara and what became of her and her search for Kandor in turn? Please don't tell me she's gonna be killed off because that'd be just the biggest smack in the face to her existing fans as well as all new ones through this show at that.

Anyways, as to the comic bits and pieces about Supergirl I was somewhat turned off at how some of the panel members present seemed to be making her out to be this blond bimbo (not to mention that disgusting innuendo joke Rucka made at her expense too) which left me feeling like that's how DC truly envision her as being, a brainless and whiny 17 year old Paris Hilton with Kryptonian superpowers and that feeling really peeved me off until I heard Sterling Gates say that "Supergirl is his universe" and that he'll be doing his best to make her someone on par with Wonder Woman herself in the main DCU as the main plan which thankfully gave me some hope back after hearing.

Question: how does everyone feel about Mon-El supposedly being our all new bearer of the Superman mantle and taking Kal's place on the JLA team instead of it being Supergirl instead? :/

Saranga said...

Talos: I'd rather it be Kara. I like Mon-El, but..well Kara would be better. I like the idea of Kara being in a team up book, and she's that powerful she'd be good fer JLA. Plus, doesn't the S shield kind of make the team??

Gene said...

Honestly the JLU Supergirl looks better than the prototype pictures that I found on Ebay months ago. I have read that some Targets have received and clearanced some of the JLU packs already.

Will Kara return to Smallville this season? I hope that video means yes.

Did ANYONE ask DC at SDCC about future issues of Cosmic Adventures?

Anj said...

For supergirl they showed the Michael Turner Supergirl #1 cover, some interiors from the Teen Titans #50 and a cover from the teen titans/ amazons attack cross over. Then Showing Laura and actually named her as 'Supergirl'.

Thanks for the post.

Glad to see them actually use the term Supergirl. Must have been cool!

Anj said...

Question: how does everyone feel about Mon-El supposedly being our all new bearer of the Superman mantle and taking Kal's place on the JLA team instead of it being Supergirl instead?

Thanks for the post.

That would have been nice but I wonder if they felt that story was told in Cry For Justice. I hope Supergirl ends up on some team.

Interesting to see Donna Troy there.

Anj said...

Did ANYONE ask DC at SDCC about future issues of Cosmic Adventures?

I can only hope.

I hope there was a lot of Cosmic love at the Walker/Jones panel.

Jason said...

That does leave me a TAD bit hopeful of a return of Kara to Smallville since they included her in the trailer. I say TAD hopeful since it was apparently past footage of her. But why include footage of her if it wasn't a hint of something? Then again, since it was past footage, maybe it was just a montage of past seasons. But then again, like Talos said, how can they do this whole plot of Tess opening a portal to/from Kandor and have that be a main part of season 9's storyline without even acknowledging Kara's search for Kandor and resolving that. And if ratings are an important part of determining the course of the storylines, doesn't the fact that Season 8's episode with Kara was the HIGHEST RATED of the season carry any weight in deciding on bringing her back?! *sigh*

I like the idea of the new JLA lineup, but I'm not sure about Mon-El just having a new version of the Superman costume. It does seem kind of a lame way to have the "S" symbol on the team. And I agree with the sentiment that if that was the reasoning, then why not just have Kara who rightfully sports the "S" since she actually is a member of the El-family.

I wonder what the reasoning will be for having Donna on the team. Is Wonder Woman somehow going to be taken out?