The DC Universe panel opened up with Metallica’s “…And Justice For All” playing in the background. Senior Story Editor Ian Sattler moderated the panel and introduced our guests Joe Michael Straczynski, Paul Levitz, James Robinson, J.T. Krul, Shane Davis, Gail Simone, Peter Tomasi, Tony Bedard, and Kevin Maguire.

JMS kicked things off by discussing something that will be added to the Grounded story line. In the wake of the events of New Krypton and the War of the Superman a New type of Kryptonite has appeared on earth and it’s a mix of kryptonite and Brainiac material. This kryptonite will not effect Superman but it will effect humans. A woman will be effected and will begin stalking Superman.

Regarding Wonder Woman JMS says that a big clue was revealed in the recent issue where Wonder Woman had been able to pass Cerberus unharmed when it had been established that only Ares could do that.

Peter Tomasi said that the emotional beats of Brightest day are beginning to hit now and that issue 12 will focus on John Jones and his battle.

The upcoming issues of Scott Snyder and Jock’s Detective Comics will live up to the titles name.

An image of Batman (Bruce Wayne) standing over a tombstone with Oracles’ name on it was shown which drew some gasps. The tombstone had a line that said “she saw into our souls”. Gail Simone say this would be a real game changer and her death would have ramifications throughout the DC Universe.

Ian reminded everyone that dead was dead post Blackest Night.

Death of Oracle will be the next arc in the Birds of Prey and would be followed up by a crossover with Gotham Sirens. She said her favorite Huntress moment is coming up. Catman and Huntress will meet up again and “the fur will fly” according to Simone.

Art by Jim Lee was shown for Batman Europa but no one on the panel was attached to it so no one could discuss it.

Ian shown some upcoming art for more First Wave stuff but there was no real reaction from the crowd. Ian said look forward to some great covers from J.G. Jones. New characters will be introduced in the final issue and we will see more form First Wave by Brian Azzarello.

Legion of Superheroes was addressed and Paul Levitz said fans will soon be voting for a new leader. He said we should also look forward to Legion Academy in a back up illustrated by Phil Jimenez. Paul Levitz was extremely thankful for all of the fans who have supported the Legion.

An image of Supergirl was shown flanked by stock images of Batgirl(Stephanie Brown), Robin (Damian Wayne) Blue Beetle, Static and Miss Martian. Nick Spencer was introduced from the aisle as the new writer with art by Bernard Chang. He stated we could expect about double that many teenaged guest stars and a brand new villain in the first story arc.

JT spoke about Green Arrow and said that we will get some resolution the The Queen. We will find out who the Black Arrow is. He said that it was important that Ollie have an arch nemesis along the lines of Batman’s Joker or Superman’s Lex Luthor. Someone joked what about Sportmaster?!?!.
Stories involving the forest will continue.

James Robinson discussed Justice League of America saying that issue #50 will be a double sized issue which will not have the normal fluff you see in such issues it’ll be a full sized story. We will be seeing the Crime Syndicate taking on the current roster which is interesting in that it’ll be counterparts to the original Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman taking on a team comprised of people standing in for them like Dick Grayson and Donna Troy and Supergirl.

A story line called Shadow War is coming which will see Obsidian become the hero he should be.Eclypso will murder The Spectre and that apparently shocked some people based on the reaction. Robinson said he’s working on a Shade 12 part min-series and said he will use different artists for different arcs.

Ian tried to get Robinson to discuss a project he’s working on and Robinson began saying that his favorite character is Hawkman. Ian cut him off and it was made to seem like this was a slip.

James Robinson after some ribbing said he’s working on a Congorilla One Shot that will have Starman in it.

An Image of Superboy was shown and it was said that the book will kick butt. Ian said fans will be stoked.

Another image of John Stewart and Vril Dox of the REBELS in a standoff with blaster and power ring ready to fire upon one another was shown. We will see more of Starro. Expect some interesting pairings including Starfire and Captain Comet.

Artist Tyler Kirkham will be working on Green Lantern Corps. A new villain will be coming and he’s the Weaponer from Quark who forged Sinestro first yellow ring. The Weaponer thought he’d done the greatest thing but is now hated for his actions and this has made him very bitter with Sinestro and he wants revenge. It was teased that an upcoming slugfest between Kyle Rayner & Sinestro will be the best fight we’ve seen since Batman knocked out Guy Gardner.

Wonder Woman was shown in a Da Vinci Vitruvian Man type image and she was sporting the new costume. It got literally no reaction. Nobody likes that costume. Shane discussed Earth 1 Superman and his joy of writing with JMS. They said this is a younger Superman who has not made some of the decisions we might expect at this point. He was said to be 21 years old. We may find that Krypton’s destruction was not an environmental issue but a Hit job that was part of a bigger story.

JMS said that he wanted to do something different with Jimmy Olsen and said that from all his years as a reporter he knew a number of photojournalist and they were all “Batshit” and that’s how he imagine Olsen. Shane says he loves the chemistry of Olsen and Kent in this book.

Maguire discussed Weird Worlds and said he plans to create a new character named Tonga who he hopes really takes off because he’d enjoy writing this character for the rest of his comics Career. He described the character as having the power of Silver Surfer with the personality of Sarah Silverman.

JT discussed Teen Titans says that the team is pretty much what he wanted it to be now. Damian was the new blood that was needed but that we will be getting one more new member in about 4 issues. Said that the 100th issue is a crazy, whacked out story line.

The next big story is Flashpoint.

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