The Week In Geek: Post Wonder Con Comics Report

Seeing as this is the post Wonder Con Week In Geek, I thought I would use this opportunity to talk about actual COMICS news, even though the actual amount of comic book related announcements was rather small. Remember when the big comic book conventions were used to make all the big announcements about actual comic books? I remember when the Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale Marvel “Color” collaborations like Spider-Man: Blue and Daredevil: Yellow were announced, as well as things like Grant Morrison on Final Crisis, and seemingly a million others. It seems these past couple of years, first with San Diego Comic Con and now with its sister show Wonder Con, all the big hype has gone to the movie and television industry. People really shouldn’t complain that the comic book companies have let Hollywood steal all their thunder, it seems they have been content to roll over and allow it. Still, SOME announcments were made comics wise, and I’ll be touching on some of the big ones here, starting with DC Comics.

DC Comics: Retro Active

I attended two DC Comics Panels at Wonder Con this year, DC Nation with DC EIC Dan Didio moderating, and the Green Lantern panel that followed. While both panels were fun and entertaining, they were mostly comprised of a lot of industry pros going up on a podium and telling everyone what they couldn’t talk about. Then Dan Didio would start asking the crowd questions, like “are you enjoying book X, yay or nay?” Shit like that. Yeah, it is kind of fun to get into the whole carny atmosphere of the thing,  but the joy of attending these panels is getting to be in the room with a bunch of other fans as they unveil their plans for the coming year. Next to no big announcements were made

Still, the DC panels were able to spill the beans on at least one cool sounding project, DC Retro Active. It is safe to say that almost everyone currently reading comics started reading them in another era, presumably the 90’s, 80’s, or the 70’s. Starting in July/August, DC will begin rolling out a series of one shots done in the particular style of that period featuring their A List of titles (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash and JLA) At the panel, Didio only announced the writers for each title, saving the artist announcements for a future date. But what better date is there than a major convention?? *sigh* Anyway, here is what they gave us:

Retro Active: The 70’s

Superman:  Written by comics veteran Martin Pasko (Pasko wrote Superman on and off from 1973-1982. Now semi retired, he is a perfect choice)

Wonder Woman:  Written by Dennis O’Neil (Denny O’Neil was responsible for the “mod” Diana Prince era, which lasted well into the 70’s, so probably expect that time period reflected here, even if only to be made fun of)

The Flash: Cary Bates (who wrote the Barry Allen version of the Flash sporadically from 1968-1985, when the character was killed off. He has been semi retired from comics for nearly eighteen years)

Justice League of America: (Cary Bates once again.)

Green Lantern: Another one from Dennis O’Neil (considering O’Neil wrote the famous Green Lantern/Green Arrow run of the early 70’s, expect Ollie Queen to be in this one. Can we hope for art from Neal Adams as well??)

Batman: Len Wein, who briefly wrote the Bat in the 70’s.  (Wein doesn’t get nearly the credit he deserves amongst comic book fanboys; for Batman he created the character of Lucius Fox, later played by Morgan Freeman, of course, created Swamp Thing, co-created Wolverine, Storm, Colossus and Nightcrawler, and was Alan Moore’s editor on Watchmen.)

Retro-Active: The 80’s

Superman: Marv Wolfman (who aside from Crisis on Infinite Earths, wrote his fair share of Kal-El. He was also the guy who came up with the modern evil Donald Trump version of Lex Luthor for DC)

Wonder Woman: Roy Thomas (more of a legend at Marvel than DC, but he did write Wonder Woman’s run briefly in the early 80’s. His most notable contribution to the character being the changing of her emblem from an eagle to the double W that we all know now.)

The Flash: William Messner-Loebs (Loebs wrote the Wally West version of the Flash from 1988-1992)

Justice League of America: Gerry Conway

(Conway wrote the JLA for eight years, but when it comes to the JLA, he is probably most infamous for creating the “Justice League Detroit” version of the team in 1984. Back in the early 80’s the two biggest selling books were X-Men and The New Teen Titans, teams that were a mix of old characters with newer creations.  DC was hoping to replicate that success with the JLA.

In addition to JLA stalwarts like Aquaman, Martian Manhunter and Elongated Man, new characters were added to the line-up; Gypsy, who dressed kinda like Cyndi Lauper, Vixen, who had this whole Tina Turner “What’s Love Got To Do With It” thing going, and Vibe, a latino break-dancer. Finally, there was Steel, a cyborg type who was clad in red, white and blue..just in time for the Los Angeles hosted Summer Olympics! By the next year, this whole line up was dated, and by 1986 most of them were called off and the JLA was re-booted again, this time to more success. But I really hope Conway visits this particular train wreck of his. It has been long enough now, right? We can all look back and laugh. Umm..right?

Green Lantern: Len Wein (Wein did a stint on this book back in the early 80’s with a pre-Watchmen Dave Gibbons….can we hope to get him on the art for this one?)

Batman: Mike W. Barr (Mike Barr co-created and wrote Batman and the Outsiders in the 80’s, so I wonder if those guys will show up here too)

Retro Active: The 90’s

Superman: Written by Louise Simonson (she wrote Superman during his very popular run in the early 90’s that resulted in the whole Death/Return of Superman thing)

Wonder Woman: William Messner-Loebs (followed George Perez’ legendary run on the character, and considering his run was less than beloved by fans, one has to wonder if they didn’t ask Perez first and he turned them down)

The Flash: Brian Augustyn (Augustyn co-wrote Flash for a couple of years with Mark Waid, so I can only imagine they went to Waid and he said no. Still, as editor of the Flash for all of Waid’s run, he’s still a solid choice)

Justice League of America: Written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis (their comedic version of the Justice League, which ran from 1987 to 1992, was super popular when they were doing it, and less so when they weren’t. Both writers have said this is their last hurrah for these characters, who are currently starring in Justice League: Generation Lost)

Green Lantern: Ron Marz (the man who wrote Hal Jordan going crazy, killing a bunch of Green Lanterns and changing his name to Parallax. Also creator of Kyle Rayner. Don’t hate on him folks; his lemons were the stuff of which Geoff Johns made delicious, sweet lemonade.)

Batman: Alan Grant (one of the main writers during the whole Knightfall business in the early 90’s)

Marvel Comics’  X-Men: Schism

Like rival DC, Marvel didn’t make too many big announcements either at Wonder Con, with the biggest one being details on Schism, the next big X-Men event. It seems Marvel is taking their Civil War idea to the mutant side of the Marvel Universe, with a major split occuring in the X-Men ranks.

 Back in the day, Charles Xavier and Magneto were close friends, until their friendship fell apart over ideological reasons. For the past five or so years, Cyclops has been the general of the X-men, and therefore the majority of the mutant race. Cyclops has, in effect, replaced Xavier as the mutant figure head. At his side was Wolverine, who was the #1 soldier for “General” Cyclops. Well, in the forthcoming mini series Schism, Cyclops and Wolverine had a massive falling out of their own for ideological reasons, leading them to each form an X-Men team of their own. What exactly leads to the fallout of these two iconic X-Men will be the subject of X-Men: Schism, a five issue mini-series coming out in July written by Jason Aaron, and with each issue drawn by a different fan favorite artist, with Carlos Pacheco on #1, followed by, in order, Frank Cho, Daniel Acuña, Alan Davis and Adam Kubert. While the mini series will be self contained, the aftermath will be felt in the various core X-Men titles in the months to come.

Dark Horse Announces Plans for Buffy Season 9

Dark Horse Comics officially announced at Wonder Con what most fans knew was coming sometime soon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9, debuting in August. Before that though, in July, Dark Horse would be unleashing their Season 9 tie in book, Angel and Faith. Both series are set to run twenty five issues.

MAJOR SPOILERS for the end of Buffy Season 8 here, so if you are reading that series in trade paperback form, then you may wish to avert your eyes from here on out. At the end of that series, Angel (possessed by a being named Twilight) kills Buffy’s father figure and watcher, Rupert Giles, and Buffy destroys the seed of all magic on Earth preventing the calling of any future Slayers. Well, at least for a few hundred years until Joss Whedon’s comic series Fray takes place that is.

Season 9 finds Buffy, now the only true Vampire Slayer left (there are other super powered women out there, but many feel Buffy betrayed them by ending the slayer line, and therefore choose not to call themselves “Slayers” anymore) residing in San Francisco. When last we saw her she was working as waitress and sleeping on the couch at her sister Dawn’s, who is now together with Xander. Willow is a basket case after losing her magicks, and Spike is still smoking and cursing and helping Buffy out whenever possible. And that is where Season 9 will pick up. Returning to his baby will be Joss Whedon, who will be co-writing the book with his former Dollhouse collaborator Andrew Chambliss (who now writes for The Vampire Diaries) Season 9 will be illustrated by returning season 8 artist Georges Jeanty.

Meanwhile, Faith (who inherited Rupert Giles London estate at the end of Season 8) is going to help Angel on his path to redemption, just as Angel once helped her (back on his own tv series) The book will be called Angel & Faith, and while Joss Whedon will serve as “executive producer” on that title, the actual writing will be done by Avengers Academy’s Christos Gage, and drawn by Rebekah Isaacs. The storylines in the two books will be separate but still loosely connected, much as the two tv shows were when they were airing back-to-back on the old WB Network.