WonderCon 2016: DC Rebirth Event
Michael Moccio ’16 / Emertainment Monthly Contributor
Official Description: DC Entertainment Co-Publishers Dan DiDio & Jim Lee and DCE Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns will reveal a host of details about DC UNIVERSE: REBIRTH at a special press event on Saturday, March 26. For the first time, attendees will be introduced to the REBIRTH artists and writers, many of whom will be at the event. This lineup of talent has been kept highly secret so fans would be the first to know who will be writing and drawing their favorite (and new?) characters! Fans and journalists will also be treated to the very first look at new covers, character renders and other REBIRTH artwork, including Geoff Johns’ 80-page DC UNIVERSE: REBIRTH Special which kicks off this all-new universe of stories on May 25th.
The panel kicked off with an intro video showing the history of DC Comics—from Superman’s first appearance, to the reboot of the Flash, to the major points throughout their history. Whoever was in charge of the music behind this video should truly get a promotion—the awe is perfectly captured in the tone of the video in how great these characters are, how impactful and inspirational they can be. An energy immediately charged the air throughout the room while the video played.
Dan Didio came onto the stage with Jim Lee to thunderous applause from the audience. Lee welcomed fans to the first livestream event—commenting that he hopes it isn’t the last. “I’ve been in the business for 30 years, and I never thought we’d be able to do something like this to reach everyone around the world,” he said. “It’s very very cool that we have this opportunity.” He took a moment to thank all the technical and behind-the-scenes people in putting on this event.
“We realize we’re in a day and age where there’s so much excitement for the shows and movies that have our characters, but Dan and I live and breathe the comics,” said Lee. “The comics truly are the inspiration and we have to keep that stuff vibrant and exciting. That’s what Rebirth is about.”
“Why Rebirth and why now?” asked Didio. “When I watch that video, I remember the first time I started reading comics. It reminds me why I love comics so much. But there’s another moment, where I see when I started working at DC Comics 14 years ago and I swell with pride. It’s a commitment we have to you to make those books as exciting as possible for you.”
“The whole purpose of Rebirth is to show our recommitment to you, the fans, and our characters,” said Didio, commenting how sometimes comics can lose their way. “To show that we care about the characters. Something was missing in the New 52. After a while, we started to feel it too.” From there, Didio brought out Geoff Johns to the stage.
“I was skeptical and defensive,” said Johns about when Rebirth discussions started. “It’s not a reboot! The New 52 is just a chapter in the ongoing saga. The next chapter is Rebirth. Rebirth means something special to me. Some people think it’s just about bringing the character back. But the point is, with Green Lantern: Rebirth, it wasn’t just about bringing Hal Jordan back. It was looking at the core essence of Green Lantern and the mythology. I think people misinterpret what Rebirth is. It’s about taking everything wonderful past and present and bringing it to build towards the future.”
Johns showed the cover art to the first One-Shot that kicks Rebirth off. “This is going to return a lot of characters—there might be a death of a character. The biggest secret in the DC Universe ever, maybe.” Johns then started showing some of the concept work of the costumes, Supergirl, Black Canary, and Green Arrow getting major applause from the audience.
“We’re doubling down and going twice monthly on our key titles,” said Johns. “Some people come to us and say we’re a little concerned about the price. We’re bringing the price of our books down. We want to make sure you can afford the comics, so we’re bringing it down to $2.99! Again, we’re putting our money where our mouth is. This isn’t about selling less books to less people—we want to sell more books to more people and have the biggest fan base in comics.”
From there, they ran a video with comments from fans and pros about the most important moments in DC Comics to the line and to them personally.
From there, Johns brought up the Batfamily, including: Tom King, James Tynion IV, Tim Seeley, Hope Larson, Julie and Shauna Benson. It’s great to see an equality of male to female writers, but it’s hard not to note that only women are writing other women and not getting a crack at the main man himself. Moreover, the racial diversity in the Batman family of writers is essentially nonexistent. It is nice to see Tynion continuing his role, considering how LGBT-friendly some of his other works have been.
“I used to be in the CIA and do counter terrorism,” said King. “It was my job to get as close as possible to craziness, and that’s what I want to do with Batman. He’s us! What makes him? What’s his core? He’s out there with his wit, his skills, his family, and his obsession. I want to show how he gets close to the madness and how he comes back from that every day.”
“It’s absolutely incredible to be coming onto Detective Comics with the classic lineage,” said Tynion. “What’s always embodied this book is a willingness to try new things. This is Gotham Bootcamp run by Batman and Batwoman. This is the book I’ve been waiting for my entire life. We’re got Spoiler, Tim Drake, and Cassandra Cain. We also have Clayface—we can’t reveal about what he’s doing on the team, but he’s there front and center. Batman and Batwoman will be running this team together front and center.”
Tim Seeley talked briefly about Nightwing—back to black and blue, with the title of the story as ‘Better than Batman.’ Hope Larson talked briefly about Batgirl, how she’ll be going on a trip to Asia to “level up” as a superhero.
Julie Benson and Shawna Benson come from The Hundred. “Someone’s going around pretending to be Oracle. We have her joining forces with Black Canary. They hit a snag with Huntress, but she comes on board to help figure out the mystery of who is Oracle. They’re also going to be dealing with a new Mafia boss, hiring metahumans as hitmen.”
Scott Snyder and John Romita Jr. came onto the stage, doing All Star Batman. “I’ve had such a blast on Batman,” said Snyder. “When Greg decided to take a short break, I found out I still have a lot to tell about the villains. We have a lot of the favorites—Mr. Freeze, Two Face, Catomwna. What if I did the book a little differently? What if I invited the best and some up and comers to do big and crazy stories about these villains in continuity.”
Jim Lee also announced the Synder has been signed on with DC in an exclusive contract.
The Super family came out, with Dan Jurges, Gene Yang, Steve Orlando, and Liam Sharp on stage. Again, male heavy, Gene Yang has done a lot with diversity in young adult literature and Steve Orlando is the LGBT representation in the group. While these aren’t the only talent on these books, it’s sad that there isn’t more gender diversity with respect to, at the very least, the Supergirl and Wonder Woman series.
“Our first storyline is called ‘Path of Doom’,” said Jurgens. “Not only do we have Doomsday showing up in Metropolis, but we also have a mysterious character Clark Kent show up. We have a separate Clark Kent and Superman together and Lex is trying to figure it all out.”
“Superman, as a character, is not just a character,” said Yang. “He crosses cultures. What I’m really excited about is taking that ideal and putting it in the context of Chinese culture. Our main character is Kenji Kong, a 17 year-old from another city of tomorrow.”
“With Supergirl, it’s an honor to take on the character,” said Orlando. “It’s all about the things that make classic comics: large ideas and large scale heroics. We’re talking about what makes Supergirl a little different from Superman. Her experience as an outsider makes her unique. She has to figure out how she fits into the world. We see the return of Cyborg Superman, and it’s big when Kara discovers Cyborg Superman is actually her father.”
Greg Rucka came on stage after being announced as the returning writer for Wonder Woman, wearing a Hamilton sweatshirt. “How do you say no to Diana?” asked Rucka. “I think we’re going to tell some really wonderful Wonder Woman stories. We’re going to be telling two stories running simultaneously. The odd numbered issues are Liam’s and contemporary—the story arc is called ‘Wonder Woman: the Lies’; the even numbered issues are ‘Wonder Woman: Year One” drawn by Nicola Scott.”
From there, the Justice League team came onto the stage.
Tony Daniel talked about the Justice League art, commiserating with Lee about how difficult it is to capture these iconic heroes. “We have two rookie Green Lanters. One is Jessica Cruz and the other is Simon Baaz. They’ll be a lot of fun for Bryan Hitch to write and for me to draw,” said Daniel. “Some of these pages take me three days to draw!”
“A Speed Force storm starts forming over Central City and Barry has to train them,” said Josh Williamson, the writer. “Some don’t want to be speedsters and some become criminals. There’s one who becomes a killer, Godspeed.”
Sam Humphries is writing the Green Lanters book with Jessica and Simon. “These are rookie Green Lanters, but it’s like their partners. It’s like Lethal Weapon with Alien technology. They still haven’t figured it out yet; despite that, they still have to patrol the most treacherous sector in all of space. This book is about courage over fear. We’re going to put these characters through the ringer. The Red Lanterns are the villains in this book, storyline titled ‘Red Dawn.’”
John Semper, coming from animation, is writing the Cyborg series. “There’s a whole concept that, at some point, we’re going to become so attached to technology that it’s going to be hard to distinguish between one or the other. In the case of Cyborg, he’s living the singularity. Where does the soul of the machine end and the soul of man start? It’s going to become a real issue for him to determine if he’s more machine than man or more man than machine. It’s going to be a challenge for him, relating to his father. I come from the world of animation and I’ve done this before with characters like Spider-man and Static Shock. Plus, I’m going to comic book school!”
“He’s a black man living in Detroit,” said Semper. “And that brings its own set of challenges, which we’re going to explore.”
Sam Humphries is writing the Green Lanters book with Jessica and Simon. “These are rookie Green Lanters, but it’s like their partners. It’s like Lethal Weapon with Alien technology. They still haven’t figured it out yet; despite that, they still have to patrol the most treacherous sector in all of space. This book is about courage over fear. We’re going to put these characters through the ringer. The Red Lanterns are the villains in this book, storyline titled ‘Red Dawn.’”
John Semper, coming from animation, is writing the Cyborg series. “There’s a whole concept that, at some point, we’re going to become so attached to technology that it’s going to be hard to distinguish between one or the other. In the case of Cyborg, he’s living the singularity. Where does the soul of the machine end and the soul of man start? It’s going to become a real issue for him to determine if he’s more machine than man or more man than machine. It’s going to be a challenge for him, relating to his father. I come from the world of animation and I’ve done this before with characters like Spider-man and Static Shock. Plus, I’m going to comic book school!”
“He’s a black man living in Detroit,” said Semper. “And that brings its own set of challenges, which we’re going to explore.”
Dan Abnett is on both Aquaman and Titans. “We’ve got Nightwing, Donna Troy. These are the legacy characters, trained by classic characters now heroes in their own right. They’re friends. This is a book about friendship. As for what actually happens… I can’t say anything!”
From there, the Harley Quinn team came out, Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Connor, as well as the artist for Suicide Squad, Philip Tan.
“For us every month,” said Palmiotti, “is how much we can get away with. It’s great that we can sneak in some craziness in the book.”
“It’s Killer Croc, Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Katana, Boomerang,” said Tan. “We’re going to really blow you away with this book. Killer Croc and Harley Quinn make a fun pairing. He’s all power and doesn’t really have any brains.”
“Harley’s power is that she doesn’t know she can’t do everything,” joked Connor. Didio then revealed Connor is exclusive to DC Comics now. “This is really fun for me,” she said about it. “I’m contractually obligated to draw at least three books for you. There’s going to be a lot more Batcharacters anda lot more non-Batcharacters.”
From there, Johns described the remaining titles in a speed round. Some highlights: new Teen Titans book with Damian Wayne, a new Super Sons books with the sons of Batman and Superman. (Can you tell we love Damian Wayne?).
To lose out, the cast of Batman v Superman talked about their excitement for DC Universe: Rebirth. They showed a final video essentially recapping the books as everyone got on stage together.