From: [ric k j] at [rice.edu] (Rick Jones) Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.info Subject: Mr Jones Goes To San Diego pt 2 (Fri-Sat) Date: Sun, 21 Jul 96 03:13:51 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. FRIDAY: Death of the Rogues Gallery Revenge Squad With my two slug-a-bed roommates asleep, I zipped off for another nummy cinnamon roll, and made it to the con with a spring in my step and a song in my heart. This was when the sleep deprivation started to make me just a little giddy. Days later, I become a zombie. WORKSHOP: KURT BUSIEK I forget whatever I did early in the morning, but just before lunch, it was time for the Kurt Busiek Workshop. It wasn't really a workshop, just Kurt sitting amongst his fans (he got off the podium and sat amongst the fanboys), and talking about Untold Tales of Spider-Man and Astro City. I didn't take notes, since it was just an informal chat more than anything else. Most of us just sat there and soaked up the stories from a guy who's 7 hours away from winning an Eisner. My one question was "is the rest of the Astro City-verse as populated with supers as Astro City?" and he said somewhat. Astro City has a slightly higher population, but that there are supers everywhere. However, the most interesting and the best ones live in Astro City, since it's not Kurt Busiek's Hong Kong. Since he asked us, I'll pass on the question. Kurt wasn't enamored with the title "Untold Tales Of Spider-Man". He prefered "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man," but Marvel rejected it (I presume because a "friendly" hero doesn't sell - maybe the should have called it "Blood of Spider-Man"). He wanted to know if 1> we thought they should change the title to something else and 2> if they should renumber with a title change. Personally, with the retailers as grumpy as they are, I don't want to mess with greatness. There are a lot of people (at least at the panel) who only read Untold. P'raps because there's no smeggin' clones in it. DC UNIVERSE PANEL PARTS 1 AND 2 [I'm going to dump everything into one big DC lump. Part 2 was Saturday after Babylon 5] (Panel-1: Chris Claremont, Brian Augustyn, Mark Waid, Kevin Dooley, Ron Marz, Kelly Jones, Mike Carlin, Marv Wolfman, Dan Thorsland, Kevin Dooley) (Panel-2: Mark Millar, Grant Morrison, Dan Raspler, and some other folks - I was dead tired) As I said, beware spoilers. Heavy duty spoilers are shuffled off to the end. General: There will be no Showcase '97. They're thinking of doing a DC Universe Adventures, in the same style as Batman or Superman Adventures. CJ Cherryth is going to write a (hardcover?) Lois and Clark Novel. Batman: The Long Halloween is a 13 part mini-series done by the folks who did those specials the past few Halloweens (Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, I believe). Dark Shadows of the DC Universe - With Vertigo wayyy off in a corner by themselves, there hasn't been a lot of supernatural activity in the main DC Universe (except Spectre, natch). They're going to change that with 4 new titles: Night Force (Marv Wolfman/rotating artists - first arc is Brent Anderson) - Baron Winters is at it again, gathering his Occult IMF to stop evil. Wolfman is doing a lot of reseach into "real world occult" stuff to fuel the book. Challengers of the Unknown (Steven Grant /John Paul Leon) - Rocky from the original Challengers and 4 new people survive what should have been a fatal accident. And they decide to investigate the unknown - which is a lot scarier these days. They're going to treat the former Challengers repectfully (no idea of the Jeph Loeb story will be canonical or not) but go off in their own direction. It will start out with a lot of single issue stories with continuing subplots. Book of Fate (Keith Giffen/???) Giffen's writing the adventures of Jared Stevens, who's something of a supernatural troubleshooter, and will get into strange and whacky adventures. I heard something at the DC booth about Earth's warranty expiring. Scare Tactics (Kaminski/????) "What if the Groovy Ghoulies were real?" Four teenage monsters (a vampire, a werewolf, and two icky folks) are trying to surivive in the DC Universe. Their "cover" is a rock-n-roll band, since people expect rock musicians to be wierd. Later on, we shall see a semi-crossover (designed for maximum accessiblity) where they tweak how the paranormal works in the DC Universe. Later, I asked Dan Thorsland (who's very friendly and liked to talk to the fans) about how Tim Hunter would fit in, and he said it's not exactly about how magic works, but if they could work it out with the Vertigo people, they'd like Tim involved. The Brave and the Bold: DC's getting into a bunch of crossover titles. Batman will have a bunch of guest stars, but they're going to stick to the single issue stories. (Superman, however, will continue the direct crossovers.) PLUS: This winter, there will be a bunch of "Hero Plus" books, starring some guy who's got his or her own book with a guest star. Flash Plus (or Nightwing Plus, I'm not sure) will be Wally West and Dick Grayson on a road trip ("are we *there* yet?"). Wonder Woman Plus will be Diana plus Jesse Quick and Liberty Belle. Green Lantern guest stars the Ray. Soverign Seven Plus is Network and Saturn Girl. Robin and Superboy will be the stars of a World's Finest:The Next Generation (not the official title) miniseries, by Kesel and Grummett. John Byrne is writing a Batman/Captain America Elseworlds crossover set in the '40s. I saw a preview copy of it and it looks grrreat. Lobo/Mask - Done with Dark Horse. Azrael/Ash - done by Joe Quesada (who created both characters). Marvel/DC: All Access. Access shows up again, and we'll get an expanded crossover between the two universe, not just 2 page fight scenes or strange 1 panel teamups. #1 is Spider-Man and Superman vs Venom. #2 is Robin and Jubilee vs Two-Face. #3 is Batman and Dr Strange. #4 is the JLA (Morrison's) vs the X-men. Batman/Aliens (By Marz and Bernie Wrightson) Batman goes to some Mayan Ruins where a bunch of those lovely Facehugging Aliens are loose. 2 issues, Prestige Format. JLA/WildCATS (written by Grant Morrison) Batman/Gen13 (done by Image) The DC Universe JLA: Relauched with the Classic DC Big Gun characters. See SUNDAY for more details. Batman: There's going to be a new lady in Bruce Wayne's life, and he has to deal with is double life screwing up a chance for happyness. Flash/Impulse : Nobody dies for a long time, promised Waid. He's going to bring back the Rogues Gallery. And, when the Legion goes back to the 20th century, they're going to look up Impulse to see if he can send them home of the cosmic treadmill. Whackiness ensues. Flash is also going to start "commuting" between 2 cities, when another city asks for his help. Green Lantern: Next is a story in The Slab, where GL has to shutdown a riot. Then he has to ask Dr Light's help with that pesky sun going out. In #81, a double sized issue, most of the DC Universe guest stars, and we get an untold Hal Jordan story, drawn by Gil Kane. #82 is Alan, Kyle, John and Guy just hanging out at Warriors. After that, an alien bounty hunter comes looking for the last GL ring in the universe, and then the Legion guest stars. [Now, that pretty much sounds like Hal Jordan's a goner to me.] Aquaman: Someone important to Orin gets killed, so he declares war on Japan. See Super Spoiler #1 at the bottom for who. Superman: See Super Spoiler #2 Superboy: Marz is going to follow Kesel's lead, though the hijinks may be toned down a shade, to contrast Superboy and the Ravers, which is all hijinks. He said something about Superboy learning he may never grow up, but he was kind of vague. Teen Titans: 4 kids are experimented on by the Psions, and Atom helps them escape. Loren Jupiter (from the 70's series) returns to shepherd the kids along. Later on, the classic Titans will appear to give some continuity to the team. Wildcat: My notes for this bit are very sketchy, but it's Ted Grant, still active, "like Sean Connery in the Rock." Filing out, I went to the "Trailer Park" panel, and saw the actor who plays Rembrandt Brown from Sliders leaving the Sliders presentation. Sometime that day, I also saw the guy who plays Salmonius for Hercules. Oh, and the Universal booth was constantly running a Hercules/Xena blooper reel that was *very* funny. TRAILER PARK PANEL: Trailers for movies. I didn't stay because the AV quality stunk, but while they were waiting to start, the guy who wrote the Men In Black comic (Lowell Conningham) talked for a moment about Men In Black - the movie. Mostly general stuff, but he did add that we're fianlly going to see Zed, and that Jay (Will Smith) and Kay's (Tommy Lee Jones) Black Caddy has some... interesting features. KIDS WB PANEL / SUPERMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES I had heard we'd see clips from Superman, TAS, so I went. It was mostly about the Kids WB shows. The voice actors for Yakko/Pinky and for Freakazoid were there, and did some clowing around. We got to see part of a new Pinky and the Brain short, and bits for a new 'toon whose name I didn't write down, about some super-dogs (not the SCPA), and the new "Little Damon Wayans" 'toon. SUPERMAN:THE ANIMATED SERIES And then we saw a 'toon could fly. We got to see Krypton blow up (and the El's look like they shop at the Jack Kirby Retail Shop), see Superman save Lois from a collapsing building hear some dialogue between Lois, Clark and Luthor, and see production sketchs for Metropolis and the main cast. This looks amazing cool. Voice Actors: Clark/Superman: Tim Daly Lois: Dana Delany Lex Luthor: Clancy Brown Darkseid: Michael Ironside Mr Myxlplitic: Gilbert Godfried Other Characters, whose voices I didn't catch or weren't thrown: Perry White, Lana Lang (who is like the current version, but still single), Jimmy Olsen (who's much younger than in the comics), John Corbin/Metallo, Brainiac (who's now the "Big Brother" supercomputer who ran Krypton and convinced the Science Council that Jor-El was wrong), two Phantom Zone Villains, Dan Turpin (who is drawn to look like Jack Kirby), Maggie Sawyer, Batman, Supergirl, Lobo, The Flash (future episodes will have more guest stars - Superman lends himself to guest stars more than Batman). Superman is less powerful than in the comics. He has to sweat, as they put it. He's also not as up front with the police and the press. He'll fly in, save the day, and fly away. Some people (Lois included) are more than a little worried about some alien coming in and acting like a big, blue boyscout. The show will debut with a 90 minute pilot in September, then get followed up with 13 episodes on Satuday Mornings. Then, it'll be stripped for weekday afternoons with around 65 episodes. Oh, and Greg later discovered that Evan "Milk and Cheese" Dorkin will be writing a script with Superman vs Titano the Super-Ape. Batman, by the way, is going to get another direct-to-video movie (with Mr Freeze as the villain) right before the live-action Batman and Robin and possibly more episodes for B:TAS. And the show closed with "Yakko Warner" singing the Countries Song, after some fan complimented the Animaniacs people for such a good song. THE EISNERS: After diving into the quarter boxes, I went back to the hotel, changed clothes, and met up with some folks to see the Eisners. As good as it is for folks like Kurt Busiek to win one, Awards Shows are intrinsicly boring for me, especially when the winners get off stage as quickly as possible. Next year, (if I go), I'll probably give the Eisner's a miss. DEATH OF THE ROGUES GALLERY REVENGE SQUAD: And we then left for the Fan/Pro trivia contest. It was a good fight, with Roger Stern being the suprise ringer for the Pros. He knew stuff nobody has any right knowing. It started off like it was going to be another Chicago Style Rout, with extra cheese and anchovies, but the Rogues Gallery Revenge Squad rallied, briefly got in the lead, and then clutched at the end. We lost. Boo hiss. >From there, it was off to the top of the Hyatt, to drink and schmooze and watch the clouds roll in, covering the city with fog. Hotel bars, I'm afraid, just don't carry the booze I like. They have generic beers and hard booze. No hard cider, none of the beers I like. Geez mon. SATURDAY: My People Are Coming I showed up early for the Babylon 5 panel, and caught part of the Image Comics panel. As much as I don't like their work, the Image folks were very enthusiastic. Only Fabian Nicieza had anything close to their energy. PANEL: Babylon 5 (JMS, Jerry Doyle) The Babylon 5 Panel was awesome, and I *really* wish Warner wasn't holding the Final Five until the fall. Dagnabbit, the Brits are going to scoop us again. I'd summarize the panel, but someone already posted an excellent summary to rast.babylon5.info. In a nutshell, JMS showed us a spoiler reel with clips from the final Season 3 episodes set to "Requeim For The Line." As Ivanova would put it, "BOOM!" He answered a few questions, dragged Jerry Doyle (who was at the con for something called "Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys") up on stage, and played the blooper reed. There was an excellent summary posted to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.info. Read it, then come back here. Back already? Okay. Next was the DC Universe Panel Part 2. I already said what was there. PANEL: Kingdom Come (Waid/Ross) Well, it was all Q&A, and I didn't take notes. "Next Question" was the answer to a bunch of the ones that have been bugging us (like which Flash and Green Lantern is it). There's going to be a trading card set which will provide us with a scorecard for the covers (which Ross did for us - though he did it from a poster - and folks in the middle/back like me were just nodding along with it). The best "idea being bounced around but not to be taken as fact" would be a Kingdom Come novel, so that we'd get to find out all of the nifty backstory that Waid and Ross came up with. PANEL: Marvel Vision (Bobby Chase, 2 ladies from Paramount, and some guy from Marvel Vision who was doing is best to pump up the crowd) At least that's what the program said. Turns out it was a panel on Marvel's Paramount Properties. The Marvel Trek Titles are: Star Trek Unlimited (a double sized title with 2 stories, one TOS and one TNG), Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek Academy (featuring Nog and a bunch of cadets in the academy - one of whom is related to Matt and Will Decker from the Doomsday Machine and ST:TMP respectively), Star Trek: The Early Voyages (The adventures of Captain Chris Pike on the original Enterprise). The crowd was very down, and the poor Marvel Vision guy deserves a trophy or something for trying to get a responce out of the crowd. After that, rac folks got together to go to the Horton Plaza food court for food, friendship and frunt. I had just plain nasty California-Mex (when this Texan needed some Tex-Mex somethin' fierce). From there, we wandered over to the US Grant to sit in the lobby and schmooze some more. We got good and settled, spent 5 minutes in the lobby waiting for the bartender to serve us, and started talking comics again. But then, the Miss Teen America Pagent finished, and the winners were brought out to a reception in the lobby. Nobody chased us out (even when we spontaneously cheered for Miss Grand Rapids or somesuch), so we just sat and watched the peepul go by. I have to say that, overall, the pagent bugged me. It was a typical beauty pagent, except for teens. The "interviews" which played on a TV in the lobby throughout the weekend were full of the same insipid feel-good nonsense that Miss America exudes. Not that I'm slamming the girls particularly - the ones we talked to in the elevators and such were all very nice and friendly, but the pagent itself seemed so phony. SUPER SPOILER SECTION #1 - It's Porm, the dolphin who raised Orin. Elayne and I thought Dolphin was a goner, but then I saw a preview copy. #2 - Superman's powers get changed in Final Night, presumably due to the sun's fluctuations. -- 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/