From: [ric k j] at [rice.edu] (Rick Jones) Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.info Subject: Mr Jones Goes To San Deigo Pt 3 (Sun-Mon) Date: Sun, 21 Jul 96 03:14:09 GMT Mister Jones Goes To San Diego SPOILER WARNINGS: There are going to be spoilers in here. I'm not going to blurt out everything I learned reading preview copies, but I am going to report on the general stuff that was revealed in panels. Deal with it, fanboys. If folks are curious about what I saw in preview copies of DC stuff, send me email. SUNDAY: Quietly Making Noise The JLA panel was moved to later that day, so I went to.... PANEL: Unfinished Business (Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee, Jeph Loeb, and some Marvel guy whose name I never caught) First off, these guys, even on a Sunday morning, when everyone else was a zombie, did the second best job of being on a panel (the first was JMS, who is great). They were energetic *and* they repeated the questions for the benefit of the folks in the cheap seats (something that drove me crazy during some of the other panels). Here's the deal: In Onslaught, the Avengers and Fantasic Four will appear to die in the final battle. This will lead to a "World Without Heroes" storyline in the Marvel Universe. It's not good to be in the Marvel Universe when the greatest heroes are apparantly dead. The X-Men will get blamed for this (naturally), and they're going to be stuck taking the heat for all this, driving them even farther into the shadows. Doctor Strange and Cable (not together, I believe) are going to go searching for the missing heroes, and will eventually find them on Earth-2 (my term for it), which will lead into some sort of Event that will threaten the two Universes. (The outcome of which, I presume, hinges on how popular the Heroes Reborn titles are.) The Marvel guy said that Banner was going to be removed from the Hulk, leading to the Marvel Hulk becoming more savage. I talked to PAD about this later, and he clairified it. Hulk is going to become more like he was during the Joe Fixit days. His new modus operandi will be, as PAD quoted Sean Connery in the Untouchables "he pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He puts one of yours in the hospital, you put one of his in the Morgue. *That's* the Chicago way." Sounds to me like the Banner and Savage hulk personalities will be removed from Hulk, leaving the Marvel Universe with the Joe Fixit Personality. Anyway, Rob talked more that Jim. Rob is very enthusiastic about this, and I must say, if he pulls off all the ideas he has for Cap, it *might* be good. *However*, Rob is a master of not getting it down on paper, and later on, someone who saw the Cap ashcan said it was pure crap. Rob did say that all the flack he's taking for this is just pushing him even harder to do a good job and show the critics that they're wrong about him. Both Jim and Rob are very enthusiastic about this, and love the idea of working on their childhood heroes. All I can say is, I hope they actually succeed. It would be good for the Marvel Characters to regain prominance in comics. I've always thought that, character-wise, the Marvel Universe had the DC Universe beat. The idea for Cap is to contrast an All-American Hero set against world we live in today. Militia groups blowing up buildings. Neo-Nazis and racial tensions. And to fight it all is a symbol of what America is supposed to be about. The Avengers are founded because of Loki (and it's our Loki who shows up and realizes something's strange). Other members are Cap, the Vision, Scarlet Witch, Thor, Iron Man and the Swordsman. The Swordsman has a new costume because, well, Rob thought the old one looked "like a Fruit Loop." Iron Man and the Hulk are going to create each other. While they didn't say exactly the mechanism, I presume that Tony will be responcible for Bruce becoming the Hulk and will build the Iron Man armor to stop the Hulk. The Fantastic Four is going to be pretty much the same, except updated for a more modern era (so it's not going to be a moon lauch). He's not touching Dr Doom, Silver Surfer or Galactus' outfits, though the FF are going to get new costumes. One of the things they're doing is having Bruce Banner, Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Victor von Doom and Hank Pym being, if not friends, folks who knew each other in college/grad school. And their internal flaws stemmed from their pasts. Bruce had all this bottled up anger that will spill out into the Hulk. Reed's the brilliant researcher who doesn't always see the consequences of his actions. Tony is suave and the "builder" - who can take an idea then build and market it , but he gets wrapped up in his own importance. Doom is, well, Doom. And they didn't mention Pym. Additionally, they're going to have the stories depend on each other more. Galactus is coming in #12 of FF and his arrival will affect all the other books. Similarly, the rampaging of the Hulk will spill over. Rob and Jim mentioned they wanted to interweave the stories and foreshadow all the cool stuff Stan and Jack pulled out of a hat. While that may be true, Stan and Jack took a lot longer to use all the characters that Jim will be using in the first 12 issues. Also, I think that the Heroes Reborn Panel Wins the Squiddy Award for "Overuse of the Word 'Organic' in a Panel Presentation." I now am of the opinion that when a comic team uses the word organic to describe how the story process was built, it means that a bunch of conflicting ideas were shoved together in the same story, and somehow something (much like fungus) grew out of it. PANEL: The New Justice League of America (Grant Morrison, Mike Carlin) Semi-Spoilers, read at your own risk. Basically, Morrison wanted to do a "bright" title. He was tired of doing dark and depressing stuff, because that's all people thought he could do. So he sent in proposals for JLA, Teen Titans and Mister Miracle [btw, I'd have LOVED to see Morrison on Mister Miracle.] Grant's proposal showed up at a time when DC was looking to revitalize the group, and Grant was willing to put up with all the crap that writing the JLA, when practically every character comes under a different editor. The JLA is going to be the "Big Guns" of the DC Universe, banding together to solve problems that no one else can. Morrison's take on the JLA is that they're the mythology of the DC Universe, and people tell JLA stories to their kids as bedtime stories. The team itself is rather like the UN. They're out there as a peacekeeping force, but they don't all get along. GM likes the new personalities of the heroes, in that it gives him a better dynamic to play with. (Opposed to the, IMHO, interchangeable Silver Age personalities.) They're going to set up shop on the Moon, in a place called "The Watchtower" (playing with the 'gods' aspect - they live in the heavens), and they'll get up there via the old reliable teleport tubes. The first arc will answer the question "Why doesn't the JLA fix the world?" An alien group of "superheroes" come to Earth and start fixing things (and killing a few nameless supervillains while they're at it). Naturally, the "superheroes" have a hidden agenda, and Batman's going to figure it out. After that, there'll be a membership drive, adding a few more members. Then a "Quest For The Philospher's Stone" (formerly used by Mr Element / Dr Alchemy) - which is rather like a quest for the Grail. Somewhere in there, GM's going to re-do the old JLA villain The Key, and give him a counterpart - The Lock. T.O. Morrow and Professor Ivo will be popping in and then Darkseid will round out the first year. The Team: Superman - The team looks to him as a leader, something he feels a little uncomfortable with. Everyone looks at him and he's wondering "what are you guys all looking at?" But he is the leader because, well, he's Superman. Morrison is looking to use more of the SUPER and less of the MAN in the Superman. This is Superman with his peers, so he shows another side than he would with Lois and Jimmy, for instance. (GM's also, in general, going to keep everyone in costume - this League won't really socialize much in their off hours.) Batman - Batman is rather uncomfortable with the whole idea of a team. He considers it rather like running around with 7 Robins to look out for. If you're the Flash, and you can outrace bullets, it's okay to be in a bright red costume. But you don't want to be standing next to the Flash when the shooting starts. He only *really* trusts Superman, and even they have disagreements. Morrison's also going to play up the more science fictional elements of Batman, making him something more of a gadgeteer. He's also the brains of the team. Flash - Flash is "the fluid medium that holds them all together." Flash has been a superhero since he was a kid. He has more experience than most of the League, and he's fast enough to handle most problems. Superman is going to look to Flash as something of his Lieutenant - keeping an eye on the other Leaguers and handling conflicts before they become aggrivated. Green Lantern - Kyle feels rather like a guy with a few guitar lessons being asked to play with the Beatles. He and Flash work well together, but they don't like each other. They have to put aside their personal disagreements and deal with the fact that they're really the best team in the League. Kyle's also going to try to get Green Arrow into the League as well, since they're sort of friends. J'onn J'onzz - J'onn is sort of a noble warrior. He's in the League because it's his only home. He's also a little alien in the way he thinks, so he won't always do what the others expect. Oh, and he has altered his metabolism so that he's no longer an Oreo junkie. :> Wonder Woman - Wonder Woman is (for now) the only woman in the team. Morrison likened her to Maid Marian to the Merry Men (and Mary Magdelaine to the Apostles, which caused Carlin to groan). However, she is not just the team's secretary. She is a warrior, and has a very active role in the team. He does intend to play with the concept of an Amazon surrounded by men. Aquaman - Aquaman also doesn't think being in the League is a great idea. Wonder Woman recruits him because she feels the League needs him. The two of them get off to a rocky start (she tells him to stop waving that hook in her face if he wants to keep it), but the two of them get along well after that - both of them being royalty and from mythic cultures. Later on, we get at least 3 new members: Plastic Man: In the "pantheon" of heroes, Plas is the Trickster archetype. He had a reason as to why Plas and not Elongated Man, but I didn't quite catch what he said. Plas is also going to be pretty nuts - a Jim Carrey kind of guy. Green Arrow: Connor is recruited by Kyle, who wants someone his own age and with his own level of experience. At some point in the recruitment drive, something goes wrong, and Connor is trapped in the trophy room without his bow and arrows. But, Oliver Queen's bow and trick arrows are there, and Connor has to figure out how to use them. Aztek: In a feat of blatant neoptism, Aztek gets to join. Sigh. He did say that in Aztek, we're going to see some kind of quasi-Masonic ritual for Aztek's initiation. He'd like to do some kind of Hawkman, perhaps a new character. (Presumably because the current one is so screwed up.) He'd also like to take another swing at Animal Man. No plans for Zatanna. The former Leaguers (i.e. Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, etc) are not going to be in the new League (and are a little peaved that they're not going to be included), and DC is not going to put them in a book (JLA or otherwise) for a while, to give the New League some time to develop. Something happens to some of the current League (see my review of JLA #1 for more spoilers) to keep them out of the new JLofA. GM discussed that there's a round table in the meeting room with 12 permanant chairs around it, with each full members' chair having their symbol on it. There will be room for associate members, (like the Phantom Stranger used to be) but only the "big 12" get chairs. When someone asked if there would be a card table in the kitchen for kids like Robin, Superboy and Impulse, GM said that he wasn't too far off from one of his ideas. In addition to having the Big Heroes, they were going to face the Big Villains, including some sort of new Injustice League (perhaps not under that name). After that, like a clock with a loose spring, things ran down. I went down to the Dealers Room and made a few final purchases. I finally was able to track down Peter David in the Claypool booth and get my copy of Q-Squared signed, and ask him about what was going to happen in Hulk. He was very friendly with the fans and chatted with them while we got stuff signed. While he was signing, Paul Dini came by to show off his newest purchase - the orignal art for splash page to the infamous Lois Lane comic: "I am Curious.... Black." PAD said what we all thought, "you're sick, man." Finally, the raccers (and compu$ervers) met at a Cal-Mex place close to the convention center, and ate a final meal together. Hugs and backrubs were exchanged over really mediocre Cal-Mex (with wimpy salsa and really wimpy 'ritas), and we split to go our seperate ways. The few left standing zoomed back to Horton Plaza to see Independance Day, which I LOVED, but Greg nitpicked. After that, Michael, Greg and I went back to the hotel room and collapsed. MONDAY: Oy, My Achin' Legs Greg and Michael had a much earlier flight, which meant they woke me up at 6:30 so they could catch their plane. I read comics in the hotel room until Horton Plaza opened so I could get one last cinnamon roll and buy a hologram at the Hologram store. The flight back home was the complete opposite of my flight up. It was a total screw up, from begining to end, though I did eventually make it home, along with suitcase, now bulding with new comics. CLOSING COMMENTS & THE SIDEKICK AWARDS: The creators I talked to were all quietly enthusiastic about what they were doing. There's something of a backlash against, well, the Image Style of comics. The creators and fans (at least ones like me) are getting tired of grim and gritty puncheminnafaceanshooteminnaguts comics, and want to write about *heroes.* Folks from Chris Claremont to Grant Morrison were all interested in doing well written comics about the good guys. Everyone (even Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld) seemed to sense that the readers weren't going to take crap and buy five copies of it - they're all busting their butts to do the best comics they can do. Which is a good thing. And now, the Sidekick Awards: The Jason Todd/Robin "He Was A Good Soldier" Award to Jeph Loeb - for being the third writer pulled in to dialogue Rob Leifeld's pencils on Captain America - *and* managing to sound enthused about it. The Wonder Girl Award for Duty Above and Beyond the Call of a Fangirl to Sidne Ward - for organizing the Legion Dinners and most of the raccer dinners while we were there. (Honorable Mention to Elayne for her room party and the Friends of Lulu party which I missed.) The Kid Flash Award For Having to Sign a Zillion Copies of the Same Book is a tie, going to Mark Waid and Alex Ross - for having the patience to sign every single copy of Kingdom Come floating around the con. The Bucky Award for Willingness to Take It On The Chin to Rob Liefeld - for the amazing enthusiasm he has for Heroes Reborn, even knowing that many people are going to hate him. Say what you want, he's doing something he loves, and he's busting his keister over it. The Fabulous Frog-Boy Award for Bouncyness to Fabian Nicieza - this guy was bouncing off the walls with an infectious glee about Valiant/Acclaim. And Lastly, the Coveted Rick "Is this guy *everywhere*, or what?" Jones Award to Kurt Busiek - for being omnipresent at panels, Eisners, trivia contests, and randomly wandering the halls. -- Rick Jones "You want to tell me who to shoot?" [r--k] at [blkbox.com] "Christ, I don't know. Everybody but me, I think." [M--r--k] at [aol.com] --Hawk & Spenser, Valediction http://www-ece.rice.edu/~rickj/