And we’re back with another live-blogging extravaganza, this time with a look at what’s to come with the lineup of New Justice titles including Justice League, Justice League: Odyssey, and Justice League: Dark.
Scott Snyder has said there will be announcements at this panel and I’m on the edge of my seat! Follow along with me and let’s find out what they are!
Confirmed panelists include Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson, Adam Glass, and Bernard Chang.
– Group editor, and comics maestro, Marie Javins, is the moderator and introduces the panelists.
– some technical difficulties, so no art this time around…or at least immediately
– Javins points out that Snyder has created the architecture for the entire line, and asks if these concepts had been percolating in his head for some time.
– Snyder had just gotten off the plane, and is pretty breathless, and points out his wife in the crowd.
– he says Justice League is the book he’s wanted to write since he was a kid. His big goal is to make the Justice League and make it as inclusive as possible. He wants the fans to be part of that community.
– Snyder says there is a two-year plan and the stories intertwine into something very big in a years time. Elements of Metal and No Justice will return such as Barbatos and The Forge and the Omega Times.
– While he wants all the books to be approachable, he also wants to provide rewards for the more you read of the line.
– He says Justice League is about how the natural world has no justice and the world itself doesn’t reward right and punish wrong. We as humans try to impose our own justice, and Lex Luthor in turn says “no, no, biology is right”…Luthor wants to weaponize the multiversal life-raft that the Justice League wants to harness to fix the dying multiverse.
– Every 4-5 issues of Justice League will be a Legion of Doom spotlight written by Tynion, with the first being an issue drawn by Doug Mahnke
– Snyder says issue #6 focuses on the Joker, and we see a Jorge Jimenez drawn page that features all of Joker’s possible origins.
– Snyder walks us through a scene in that issue of Batman and Lex Luthor inside of Superman’s brain, continuing the inner-space battle that started in recent issues.
– Justice League #10 will be drawn by Francis Manapul, and is a big Aquaman and Wonder Woman story called “Drowned Earth”. Since the Source Wall broke, the villains have been unlocking forces that are the negative energies of those represented by the JL, like the Ultraviolet spectrum. This story centers on the underwater version of that.
– The Batman Who Laughs, written by Snyder and drawn by Jock, is a miniseries that spins out of Justice League. It debuts in November.
– The Batman Who Laughs is coming back and he’s got a big plan, and he’s bringing a new Dark Knight with him – another evil version of Bruce. A version of Batman where Bruce kills Joe Chill with his own gun the night his parents were killed. “A Punisher who isn’t broke”.
– The panel moves over to Tynion who states that the horror angle of DC rarely gets play, and he says JL Dark allows him to tell the scariest story he could possibly imagine.
– Magic is backfiring all around the world, and something is coming from the other side of the veil because the Source Wall was broken. The original owners of magic are coming back to take what was stolen from them.
– Tynion is especially excited about Man-Bat because he wanted a mad scientist on the team. There will be formulas he creates that will allow him to turn into different types of bats.
– In Justice League Dark #2, Doctor Fate will appear; not only Kent Nelson but Khalid Nassour as well.
– Tynion says the lords of fate and order play a very important role in the series.
– The Upside-Down Man is the villain of the book, and will debut in issue 3
– Following that will be Wonder Woman and Justice League Dark’s crossover, “The Witching Hour” and will involve Hecate trying to replace magic with her own version of it.
– Williamson takes the next position to discuss Justice League: Odyssey, which is led off with a discussion for why this book was delayed. Williamson said the scope of the book required more time, so the team could do what they want to do within the space corner within the dcu.
– He says part of his goal with this story is to highlight why Darkseid is the greatest villain of the DC Universe.
– Snyder take point on Titans briefly for the absent Dan Abnett, and highlights how the team handles localized threats caused by the Source Wall collapse, and praises Abnett’s work in building that team and its place within the DC line.
– Javins moves over to Glass and Chang to discuss Teen Titans. Glass describes the book as Damian forming a team that will follow him and “appreciate Damian for the mad genius he is”.
– He points out some of the new team members like Red Arrow, Djinn, Roundhouse, Kid Flash, and Krush – who might be Lobo’s daughter..maybe?
– Brother Blood will be one of the first adversaries they face, and Glass points out how much he loves the Wolfman and Perez run. Who doesn’t?
– Chang designed their new HQ, which is a detention center.
– In response to a question about scope and escalation in his stories, Snyder says that Justice League demands that kind of math. Whereas The Batman Who Laughs will be smaller and mean.
– Snyder says his fellow panelists are like brothers to him. And getting to work with your best friends is hugely rewarding. Tynion concurs, and says it’s like when you were kids talking about these characters with a ton of one-upsmanship. “What if there was a giant space god??”…”What if there were FOUR giant spacegods??”
– Regarding the spotlight of Justice League Dark, Tynion says the beauty of having Wonder Woman on the team is that she’s the one character who hasn’t lived in the deepest darkest corners of the universe – unlike her teammates, and allows the horror of it all to shine through.
– Tynion says John Constantine shows up on page 6 of issue 1, though he’s not enough of a team player to be a member.
– Zatanna is the co-protagonist of the series. He has a Swamp Thing story planned, and issues 5 and 6 are a Detective Chimp story that involved Nightmaster’s death from Metal. Those issues will also feature Blue Devil (!!!!!!!!)
– Snyder says he conversed with Grant Morrison a lot about his plans, and Morrison suggested a possible ending where Superman flies the entire multiverse somewhere and when they finally reach their destination: Marvel is there….”and then you f***ing leave!!” to great laughs from the audience.
– Issue 9 is Justice League will feature the reconstruction of the moon
– Snyder says some of the Dark Batmen will also return.
And that’s a wrap! Thank you again for joining us! I hope you’ll catch me again in just a few hours for our Eisner coverage! See you then!
Tynion’s put thought into his decisions for JL Dark, which makes me hopeful for the book. Snyder’s JL sounds pretty neat and developed. Don’t care about ancillaries much though
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