Thanks to Newsarama, we have the following highlights from the DC Comics "New 52" panel at Fan Expo Canada. I've included a few of the most interesting points, but be sure to click on the link below to head on over to the site in order to read much, much more about the companies plans. While there's plenty of interesting tidbits here, the first paragraph should make fans of the JSA very happy indeed...
"Should we tease?" asked O.M.A.C. co-writer and DC co-publisher DiDio. The rest agreed, and James Robinson confirmed that he is working on a new Justice Society project with artist Nicola Scott, and that the parallel world Earth-2 will make a return. The crowd erupted into thunderous applause. "We don't want them to just be cameos and then forgotten," DiDio said. "We've waited on JSA because we really wanted to get the details right. We were hammering out the characters as late as yesterday."
The panel started by going through a rundown of some the DC reboot's premier titles, starting with Justice League. Berganza said that the title would take place roughly five years before the majority of the new 52 titles, and covers the emergence of heroes new to the world, a world that, for reason untold, has not known super-humans for a very long time. It will also deal with Cyborg's new origin story.
Brian Azzarello spoke with gusto about Wonder Woman #1, written by him with art by Cliff Chiang. He reiterated the horror focus of the story. "This is not the Wonder Woman that you'll recognize from before besides the costume," he said. "I've said this is a horror book and I'm sticking to that." Brooding panels by Chiang were shown to the crowd, including a nighttime shot of Wonder Woman fending off, presumably, an intruder in her bedroom, reinforced the statement.
Manapul gave some of this thoughts on the new Flash, sheepishly calling the stories "fun and fast." The first arcs will tackle what kinds of situations can possibly stop the fastest man alive. Manapul said that he came up with some incredible death traps for him to overcome, with more than just his speed, and that the internal struggle within Barry Allen will be as important as his crime-fighting.
Daniel also commented on the new Detective Comics, and emphasized short story arcs with a small cast of main characters. "There's Commissioner Gordon, Alfred, and Batman. And...that's pretty much it." He did mention a new love interest for Bruce, "that is not Catwoman." The plan for the book runs in Daniel's mind for at least two to three years, with a major storyline ("I don't want to call it an event") coming up sometime in 2012.
DiDio spoke about Grant Morrison's Action Comics, and how Morrison always wanted his own take on Superman's early years. "So much of the DCU is built around Superman," explains DiDio. "If Justice League is Year One, Action Comics is almost Year Zero." Clark Kent starts of very much alone, after the death of his adopted parents and his move to a big new city. It will also cover how this incarnation of Clark gets his costume, and why it matters so much to him.
One fan asked about how confusing and intimidating 52 brand-new titles can seem to his friends who want to start reading now. DiDio took the concern very seriously. “If we scare someone off it means we didn't do our job properly,” he says, expanding on that by saying that their roll-out of characters and storylines has been meticulously planned out to not overwhelm readers, and not make any single title look cheap – hence the JSA announcement not being made until today.