SDCC Panel Roundup: Star Trek: The Next Generation, DC All Access, & Batman’s Biggest Secret

Some people love coming to the San Diego Comic Con for the cosplay, the shopping, and just the sideshow carnival aspect of it all. While I love all of those things too, I’m really a panel whore here. I love getting to sit and hear behind the scenes stuff on comics and movies and television shows more than anything else at the con. So here’s my run down on all the best panels, or at least the best panels I actually made it into, starting with Thursday, Day One.

Before and After: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Journey into High Definition

The first panel I hit on Day One was Before and After: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Journey into High Definition. I am a pretty big Trek geek here, but I am the biggest Trek geek mostly for Star Trek: The Next Generation, or just TNG from now on for brevity’s sake. TNG premiered right when I turned thirteen years old, and went off the air right when I was about to turn twenty, so my entire formative teenage years were spent with Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D. While the original series got a brilliant high definition upgrade a few years back, the common thinking was that TNG would never receive a similar upgrade. The reason being for this is that like most shows from the 80’s and 90’s, TNG was shot on 35mm film, but was edited on low grade video tape. That is why when you watch TNG on DVD or Netflix, it kind of looks like ass today. It just doesn’t hold up at all to modern standards.

Well, that is all about to change. CBS Home Video has done an unprecedented (and very costly and expensive) thing here, and is re-editing all seven seasons from the original camera negatives, and recompositing the effects using all the original elements they can find. CGI is being used only very sparingly, and only when an original element is lost. As shown at this before and after presentation, the results are jaw dropping. Watching some of the before and after videos shown at the panel really made you realize the time and care that the production design team put in when creating the original sets and costumes back in the day, as they bothered to put in small details that no one could ever have noticed when this was all in crappy standard definition.

Spearheading this whole restoration are Mike and Denise Okuda, who have been involved with the Star Trek franchise since TNG premiered twenty five years ago (all the digital displays on TNG, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise are referred to as “Okudagrams”) As they were there from the beginning, no one is better suited for this task that the Okudas, and from what they showed, what they’ve done is nothing short of amazing. The restoration project’s film transfer technician, Wade Felker, went through endless cans of film negative to make sure that what was re-assembled matched what was aired over two decades ago. The episodes are all finished at a resolution of 1080i now. And no, the framing for this project is still old school 4×3, not 16×9. So get used to those black bars on the sides kids, because that is how the show was shot, and the intent here is to preserve that look.

Aside from the upgrade, the series is getting a host of all new special features, including a cast reunion moderated by Free Enterprise director Robert Meyer Burnett (who moderated the panel as well) He’s gone out of his way to get new interviews with all the key players, and judging from what was shown, this was more candid and fun than most of the fluffy EPK stuff found on the old DVD sets from around a decade or so back. Burnett even got an interview with the man who turned down the role of Jean Luc Picard. Possibly the most fun is the discovery of the original camera tests for the wardrobe etc, like the one for Geordi LaForge below. Someone let their Soul Glo for sure.

Star Trek: The Next Generation arrives on Blu Ray on July 24th, and this panel served to whet my appetite even more. Job well done.

DC Entertainment-All Access: DC NOW!

The next panel was DC Entertainment-All Access: DC NOW! While the panel hosted several creators from DC’s New 52 initiative, the clear stars of the show were DC CCO Geoff Johns and Batman and Swamp Thing writer Scott Snyder. Both of them talked very passionately about their forthcoming books, and they were clearly the fan favorites judging from the applause they received. Geoff Johns has three of the best selling DC books right now (Justice League, Green Lantern and Aquaman, believe it nor not) and he spoke briefly about what’s coming up for each title. With Justice League, Johns says says there are a lot of surprises coming up in issue #12, which features Aquaman calling the rest of the lineup out and telling them they have to behave a lot more like a team, and less like a group of loosely affiliated individuals. In year two the JL will be getting several new members, including Shazam, who until now has been featured only in back up stories in the main JL title. Johns is also re-introducing classic Wonder Woman villain the Cheetah in issue #13, which will lead into next summer’s Trinity War event.

The topic then shifted to Green Lantern. Johns says that Earth’s as yet unnamed new Green Lantern carries a gun because he’s skeptical about the concept of rings running only on energy, and that the new “Third Army” is created by the Guardians of the Universe to eradicate free will in the cosmos. In the mind of Geoff Johns, the robotic Manhunters were the Gaurdians’s first attempt at a universal peace keeping force, but their lack of emotion was their downfall. So then they made the Green Lantern Corps, only to eventually find that emotion was as much a liability as a strength. So now they are making a third army, one to eradicate all free will, which they now see as the source of all suffering. In other words, the Gaurdians are now officially villains. Aquaman #0 was briefly talked about as well, and it will flashback to Arthur Curry’s first meeting with his Atlantean people.

Batman writer Scott Snyder was up next, and talked in depth about his upcoming arc Death of the Family, which he calls his definitive Joker story, his version of Arkham Asylum or Killing Joke. Snyder’s run on Batman has been the character’s most well received storyline in years, especially his just wrapped Court of Owls saga. As for the Joke, he was last seen briefly in last year’s Detective Comics #1, getting his face willingly sliced off, and then pretty much vanished. Now he’s coming back with a vengeance. As Snyder put it “Joker sees Batman as the King (of Gotham) and he has all these Knights/Squires. But Joker sees himself as the court jester to the King, it is his job to amuse him and inspire him. And he’s been ignored for a year and he’s not happy.”

This time, the Joker is coming for the whole Bat family, and not just for Bruce Wayne. Says Snyder “He came after Batgirl in The Killing Joke, but he was really going after Commissioner Gordon. So when Batgirl realizes that here, too, it’s almost like the Joker is staring at her saying -I’m coming after you this time. I’ll kill everyone and burn down everything in your life to do what I did to your father, but to you. So in that way, he’s saying that to every member of the Bat-family. To Nightwing and everyone, saying – You’ve never faced me before. I’ve never actually targeted you. I’ve only used you as pawns to get at Batman. So welcome to your worst nightmare.” Death of the Family will run through Batman #13-17, and have sort of crossovers (similar to the recent Night of the Owls) in Nightwing, Batgirl, Batman and Robin, Teen Titans (for Tim Drake) Suicide Squad (for Harley Quinn) and the Jason Todd starring Red Hood and the Outlaws.

It wasn’t all Gotham talk from Snyder at this panel though, as Snyder thanks the fans for reading his Swamp Thing and Jeff Lemire’s Animal Man, which he called a labor of love for both writers. Both Swamp Thing and Animal Man have been the two biggest surprise hits of the new 52, and having been receiving great reviews all across the board. Snyder even briefly talked about his work on Vertigo’s American Vampire series. He talked about American Vampire: Lord of Nightmares, saying that it explores the history of vampire races in the American Vampire world

After the one two punch of two of DC’s biggest names came poor Rob Liefield, who not only is (arguably) the most hated creator in modern  comics, but had the tough act to follow both Johns and Snyder on a panel, who are the comic book equivalent of rock stars. He talked a bit about his three (yes three) DC books, Hawkman, Deathstroke and Grifter. I don’t remember any of it, because it all sounded so yawn inducing. Some guy sitting next to me at the panel said “wouldn’t it be funny if someone just ran up and punched him right now?” To which I agreed…yes, it would be funny. I’ve often wondered just what Liefield has on certain editors at DC and Marvel. Did he do a lot of blow and God knows what else with them in the 90’s, and he’s got it all recorded? How does this man keep getting books? We may never know.

Only slightly less hated in the comics world is writer Scott Lobdell, who DC has given the task of taking over Superman. Lobdell’s writing style is often like the worst part of the 90’s, so I don’t know why DC would entrust their flagship character to him. Although I will admit, unlike Liefield, Lobdell has his moments. He’s not all bad. Unlike Batman, Superman has not found much success in the new 52 (with the exception of Grant Morrisson’s Action Comics) Lobdell will take over the book with issue #13, where he said that readers will see “a lot of Superman and a lot of Clark at the same time. What we’re really going to examine is what it means to be the most powerful person on the whole planet, and yet you can’t actually ever behave in a way that you are that person. You’re hiding out among humanity.” He seemed enthusiastic, so I’m hoping for the best here, because Superman deserves the best.

Also on the panel were Jimmy Palmiotti and wife Amanda Conner, each talking about their respective DC books. Amanda’s art from Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre was shown, and so was art from Palmiotti’s All Star Western. Usually Western books die on the vine, but the connections to 19th century Gotham City have made this one something of an unofficial Batman book and a minor success. And finally. Flash writer Brian Buccellato says Flash #0 will explore who Barry Allen’s origin in the new 52, and how it differs from what we knew before. And according to Buccellato, “there is no Wally in this run at all, I’m sorry.” The crowd booed. Way to end on a down note there DC!

Batman’s Biggest Secret: The Bill Finger Story

Sometimes the best panels at SDCC aren’t the ones that get all the attention, they’re the ones that are in some smaller room at the ass end of the convention center, and you don’t ever have to wait in line to get in. Such was the case with the panel for Batman’s Biggest Secret: The Bill Finger Story. Now I imagine most of you reading this are well aware that Batman was created by artist Bob Kane, because it says so on every comic about Batman, as well as every television series and movie for seventy years. But it also has been known now for many years that Batman also had a co-creator, a man named Bill Finger. Based on five years of research for his new book Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, writer Marc Tyler Nobleman layed it all out for those attending this panel. He started by showing two pictures of Bill Finger, and said they were the only two pictures ever published of the man before his death in 1974. They were, in fact, the only two pics of the man I had ever seen, and I’m pretty well schooled in my comic book history.

Bob Kane came up with the name Bat-Man to be sure, and the idea that he had no powers also came from him. But it was struggling writer Bill Finger who came up with the most of the elements that make Batman BATMAN. According to an old interview with Finger “Bob Kane had an idea for a character called ‘Batman’, and he’d like me to see the drawings. I went over to Kane’s, and he had drawn a character who looked very much like Superman with kind of … reddish tights, I believe, with boots … no gloves, no gauntlets … with a small domino mask, swinging on a rope. He had two stiff wings that were sticking out, looking like bat wings. And under it was a big sign … BATMAN.”

But it was Finger who gave Kane the idea of turning the stiff wings into a scalloped cape instead, who suggest the gray/black instead of red, and who changed the domino mask into a cowl. He even named the character Bruce Wayne, and gave him his brutal origin, named Gotham City, created (or at the very least co-created) the Batcave and Batmobile, not to mention characters like the Joker (co-created with Jerry Robinson) Catwoman, The Penguin, The Riddler, and Two-Face. Even Kane admitted in his own autobiography “Batman and Me” that it was Bill Finger who turned Batman into more than just a vigilante, but also a detective in the Sherlock Holmes mold. And yet, mostly due to Kane’s father being a lawyer, Kane receieved sole credit as Batman’s creator, and Finger got nothing.

As Nobleman pointed out in this panel, DC Comics was not the main villain in this story, nor was it entirely Bob Kane either. In many ways, Bill Finger himself was the villain in his own story, as he never fought DC for credit as co-creator of Batman in his lifetime. No one knows why, although it is simply possible he didn’t want to lose his job as a writer. The first time any one publicly brought up the notion that someone other than Kane helped create Batman was in a fan newsletter in the 1960’s during the tv show’s heyday. Kane responded with “early sketches” of a Batman character from 1934, five years before Batman’s debut, to prove his point. Unfortunately, the sketches had Batman with a cape and cowl, which are things that Finger was publicly said to have contributed to the character and Kane even admitted to. Those pictures provided by Kane that were dated in very large letters as 1934 were in fact forgeries. This would not be the only time Bob Kane would do something like this; from the 40’s through the 60’s, Bob Kane has ghost artists on his Batman stories, and in fact when he started to sell paintings of Batman and related characters as “fine art,” even those were made by other artists. So Kane was hardly ever above lying through his teeth to keep his only claim to fame in life all his.

Finger died in anonymity of a heart attack in 1974 at the age of 59, found days later on his couch by a friend. His ashes were spread on a beach by his only son, in the shape of the Bat symbol (you could hear the audience in that room choke up at that point) When his son, who was gay, died of AIDS in 1990, it was thought that he was the end of the family line…but he was’t. Nobleman found that Finger’s son had a daughter, one he discovered on (of all places) MySpace. He knew he had the right person when he saw she had a dog named Bruce Wayne. He has convinced the daughter to fight not for money…but for her grandfather’s rightful place as the credited co-creator of Batman. And so the panel ended on that hopeful note that mabye one day soon the man will finally get his due after all.

And thus ends SDCC Day One…come back tomorrow for Day Two, where I’ll talk the Green Arrow pilot, Joss Whedon and a little bit of Breaking Bad.