I'm off on holiday for two weeks tomorrow, so there will be some minor disruption to the blog. Thanks to Apple and the fantastic iPhone however I will be taking cyberspace with me.
There will be fewer embedded videos, pictures and lengthy articles, but Normal Nerds will still bring you links and snippets of nerd-news as we always do.
The best way to follow over the next two weeks will be via twitter, but keep stopping by the site as I'll post as often as is convenient.
Cheers,
Chris
Friday, July 22, 2011
Revan novel gets a cover
The cover to the Star Wars: The Old Republic tie-in novel featuring the ex-Darth Revan has been revealed.
You can pre-order on amazon:
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Batman: Arkham City - Penguin Trailer and Talia Al Ghul
Follow the link if you need some background on Solomon Grundy or Talia Al Ghul.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Marvel's 'Season One' graphic novel series reintroduces their heroes
Well done Marvel. I may actually buy some of your stuff for the first time since Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men finished! X-Men and Daredevil have caught my eye, but I've read so many interpretations of Spider-man's origin, that I don't think I could manage it.
For those who don't want to read their granddaddy's old comics, Marvel is launching a Season One line of original graphic novels — the publisher's first — next year to honor the company's 50th anniversary. The hardcover books star a new, young generation of today's comic creators bringing a modern voice and sensibility to tales of classic Marvel heroes and teams.
The first wave of four graphic novels will include:
•Spider-Man: Season One by Cullen Bunn (Fear Itself: The Deep, Sixth Gun) and Neil Edwards (Fantastic Four), arriving in May.
Source: USA Today
Marvel are releasing a series of original graphic novels, similar to DC Comics' Earth One series, but it looks as if they are much more organised about it. So far DC have only released Superman: Earth One.
For those who don't want to read their granddaddy's old comics, Marvel is launching a Season One line of original graphic novels — the publisher's first — next year to honor the company's 50th anniversary. The hardcover books star a new, young generation of today's comic creators bringing a modern voice and sensibility to tales of classic Marvel heroes and teams.
"We're hoping to introduce folks who have never read any of these characters to these characters in this format, and also provide an interesting and illuminating story for people who have read a lot of Fantastic Four and Daredevil," says Brevoort, Marvel's senior vice president and executive editor.
"If you want to dip your toe in the water and find out the essence of what Marvel is all about, here is a nice place for you to start in big, sizable, meaty chunks."
The first wave of four graphic novels will include:
•Fantastic Four: Season One by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Stephen King's The Stand, Glee) and David Marquez (Secret Warriors), due out in February;
•X-Men: Season One by Dennis Hopeless (Legion Of Monsters) and Jamie McKelvie (Phonogram), on sale in March;
•Spider-Man: Season One by Cullen Bunn (Fear Itself: The Deep, Sixth Gun) and Neil Edwards (Fantastic Four), arriving in May.
Brevoort says a second wave will debut soon afterward "that will get deeper into other characters, as well."
In teaming creators, Marvel looked at people such as Aguirre-Sacasa, who did a significant run on Fantastic Four a few years ago and also helped overhaul Broadway's Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. "He's not someone who makes his daily bread on doing monthly comics. That gives his work a little more pop here," Brevoort says.
"We tended to gravitate toward newer, younger writers in the field. They have not been so far around the block that they're stuck down either by their own tropes or by the tropes of the medium."
Some might think this is a similar initiative as the Ultimate Universe, but the Ultimate comics that began in 2000 were overhauls of Marvel characters. Season One isn't the beginning of an entirely new universe, however.
"Everything you know about them, everything that's existed for the last 50 years still exists and is still there," Brevoort says. "These are individually new stories, even though they've got bits and pieces of old and formative origin stuff in and around them, as well."
They're not simple retellings of the origin stories, either. While you'll get a sense of that — such as the Fantastic Four shooting off into space and Peter Parker getting bit by a radioactive spider — the Season One graphic novels will focus on tales that define the characters and their relationships with each other.
"We know a lot more now obviously about what Spider-Man would grow into than anybody had any idea in 1962, and the same with Daredevil and same with the X-Men," Brevoort says. "We're able to act with a little more forethought and foreknowledge as to how these characters will grow and evolve during that period."
The Marvel books of 1961 — when the Fantastic Four first burst onto the scene thanks to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby— were the cutting edge of storytelling for the time, giving quirks and differing personalities to superheroes.
But comics are more sophisticated and cinematic in 2011, Brevoort says, and the nuance and subtlety of a more modern era will be reflected in the new line — along with certain touches of today such as cellphones.
The marketplace for the hefty graphic-novel format and increasing acceptance of it has also grown to the point where "there are plenty of more ordinary people who maybe don't feel so comfortable reading an average comic book on the train, but who don't think anything about reading something in a trade paperback or graphic-novel format. These are perfect outreaches to that kind of audience," Brevoort says.
"A contemporary will find more to their liking hopefully and more to their speed than simply going back and re-reading the early Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. Although we welcome you to do that, as well."
Source: USA Today
LEGO DC UNIVERSE!!!
Soon we could have LEGO Green Lantern, Flash and Wonder Woman to join the LEGO Batman team. Oh, I wish I was 8 again....As a little preview here is some DC Universe/LEGO art that I found on DeviantArt. Story after the break.
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Source: VarietyWarner Bros. has expanded its relationship with Lego, granting the toymaker access to DC Entertainment's complete library of comicbook characters and stories to launch DC Universe "Super Heroes" as figures and playsets.
The multi-year licensing deal, made through Warner Bros. Consumer Products, will start rolling out the new line in January, starting with 13 characters, including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and villains the Joker, Bane, Harley Quinn and Lex Luthor.
The first toys will be shown off at the Lego booth at Comic-Con Intl. in San Diego, where 3,000 exclusive Batman and Green Lantern minifigures will be distributed to launch a promo that runs August-December, enabling fans to create and submit videos, photos or illustrations of the characters to win trips to Legoland and Warner Bros. Studios.
WB and Lego had already been producing toys and videogames around the Batman franchise, and will launch a new set of playthings around next summer's "The Dark Knight Rises" through the Lego Batman collection. The "Lego Batman: The Videogame," published by WB Bros. Interactive Entertainment, has sold more than 12 million units since 2008."This partnership gives builders a chance to recreate the characters, vehicles and worlds of some of the most iconic super heroes, so they can relive the action and even customize it, a proven and winning formula in Lego construction," said Jill Wilfert, VP, licensing and entertainment for the Lego Group.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Uncharted at Comic-Con!
Drake's Deception is heading to Comic-Con with some statues, a new book and a comic book tie-in from DC Comics.
Source: PS Blog
What better place than Comic-Con to talk about a comic book that takes place in the UNCHARTED universe? That’s right, we’ve been working with DC Comics to develop a comic book series featuring Nathan Drake.
UNCHARTED #1 launches Nathan Drake on a journey to the center of the earth on a quest to see the legendary “Amber Room.” As enemies from Sir Francis Drake’s past come for revenge on his descendant, Drake must use all the skills at his disposal to stay one step ahead of the game. UNCHARTED #1 is written by Joshua Williamson (SUPERMAN/BATMAN), with fantastic art by Francesco Francavilla (DETECTIVE COMICS) and featuring covers by the legendary Adam Hughes. The comic series is scheduled to debut just in time for the release of UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception in stores. Stay tuned for more details soon!
It wouldn’t be Comic-Con if we couldn’t get you something exclusive from one of the artists working on the UNCHARTED comic book series – the one and only ADAM HUGHES will be signing a limited-edition UNCHARTED cover art poster on Friday and Sunday during SDCC 2011.
Announced nearly a year ago, the UNCHARTED team, Random House, and author Chris Golden have been working together to create an original novel set in the universe of the UNCHARTED games. The description of UNCHARTED: THE FOURTH LABYRINTH is below, along with a little info on author Chris Golden.
In UNCHARTED: THE FOURTH LABYRINTH, Nathan Drake will embark on an all-new, original, action-packed adventure. When Nathan’s partner, Sully, asks for his help in finding a friend’s murderer, Nathan begins to unravel a mystery that will uncover some even bigger secrets. Sully’s friend was close to discovering an ancient process of turning lead into gold – a secret that a shadowy international corporation would do anything to steal, and now Nathan and Sully may be their next targets! This thrilling adventure will take Nathan from the ruins of Crete to a secret crypt deep in the heart of China–and into a mysterious labyrinth that may be hiding the greatest secret of all!Christopher Golden is the award-winning, bestselling author of such novels as The Ferryman, Strangewood, The Gathering Dark, and The Body of Evidence series of teen thrillers. Working with actress/writer/director Amber Benson, he co-created and co-wrote Ghosts of Albion, an animated supernatural drama for BBC online. Golden has also written or co-written a great many books and comic books related to the TV series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel,” as well as the scripts for two Buffy video games. His recent comic book work includes the creator-owned Nevermore and DC Comics’ Doctor Fate: The Curse. There are more than eight million copies of his books in print.
Source: PS Blog
Star Wars: The Old Republic pre-order and boxart leaked?
A Polish game site may have leaked that a lightsaber crystal will be the preorder bonus for Star Wars: The Old republic.
Oh, and the box art as well... I'd imagine that the actually box art is fairly similar (minus mentions of preorder).
Source: Massively JoyStiq
Oh, and the box art as well... I'd imagine that the actually box art is fairly similar (minus mentions of preorder).
Source: Massively JoyStiq
Dan DiDio and Jim Lee explain the changes to DC Comics and the DCU
Newsarama talked to senior members of DC Comics, Dan DiDio and Jim Lee, about the changes that are coming to the DC Universe in September.It is quite a lengthy interview, so please click on the post title to read the whole thing.
Check out my earlier post on why Ithink the DCnU relaunch may be a missed oportunity.
Superman
Newsarama: Dan and Jim, the news just broke about what's coming for Superman, and there are a lot of changes to his status. We've already been told there are few if any changes to Batman. So why change Superman so much?
Dan DiDio: It's one of the things we were looking at, how the storylines and characters were working. We saw a number of things we wanted to change with Superman because we've gone down so many roads with the character, in regards to the "Grounded" storyline, we've looked at things that took place with the "War of Krypton." We've looked over the last few years at what we've been doing and the changes we've been making with Superman.
But we also wanted to get back to some of the grass roots of the character. And some of the best ways to do that is to really go back to the early days of the character, where you see him in his formative years, learning his powers, and learning how people react to him, as we'll be examining in Action Comics. But also, we want to re-examine his relationships, because we think there's a lot of fertile ground about him and the people he deals with."
Nrama: But Dan, these changes are huge. There must have been something you felt was just not working with the way Superman was going. Was it too complicated? Did he feel too old? Was it that people couldn't relate to him? Or what?
DiDio: I think in some cases, he felt a little old. We've made Superman such an iconic figure over the years that we've lost some of the character and the ability to tell stories with that character. There's so much continuity that's been built on this character. We really wanted to get a Superman that is more accessible to the audience.
And one of the reasons we did it with Superman is it was done once before, and very successfully. We're hoping for the same luck here.
Dawn of Superheroes
Nrama: There are some mixed signals out there with this language you're using by labeling five years ago as the "dawn of the age of superheroes," which is the time period when the new Justice League and Action Comics take place. We've been told that Stormwatch has a long secret history, and Demon Knights takes place hundreds of years ago. And there's a lot of history you're keeping with Green Lantern. Was it really only five years ago that superheroes "dawned" in the DCU?
Jim Lee: It's really about re-introducing the concept of superheroes in the DC Universe, and doing it in a more contemporary, timely way. Even though you have books like Demon Knights or even All-Star Western, it's not about public recognition or understanding that there are beings amongst us with extraordinary powers.
We wanted a situation in Action and in Justice League where we show the first public emergence of these so-called super-beings and how they impact society, politics, the world. In many ways, it starts out in a way that one would imagine in today's day and age with fear and caution, and people literally freaking out about this. It's through the introduction of a character like Superman and the Justice League that the public starts understanding and accepting these characters for who they are and sees them as heroes for the very first time, coining the word "superhero."
So I think it's a re-examination of how superheroes are perceived in culture, and doing it through the lens of the modern era versus looking back at the history of superheroes through five or six decades of actual time.
Isolated Alien
Nrama: Both Superman and Supergirl are playing up their status as this "brooding alien" who feels isolated on Earth. Is this something you feel is relevant now? Something people can identify with — feeling like an alien?
DiDio: A little bit of that is the sense of separation or isolation that people might face when they don't feel like they truly belong or they just really don't know what their full place in society is. And Superman is someone who presents a very public image and he needs to be accepted by everyone, because there might be fear that's generated by who he is, at the start, but there's also a high level of acceptance of who he is.
Understanding his alien nature of where he comes from, and where his roots are, are essential as he makes choices about who he is.
That's one of the things we're trying to explore much more. We've told so many great stories over the years where Superman has embraced his human side and built stories around that side of the characterization. Now we're flipping it around a little bit and really embracing his alien side, so we can understand what it's like to be a man from another world, living amongst men, but not feeling like you're a part of it, but belonging to them all. Yet everyone turns to you for leadership.
Lee: I think the issue of self-identity and knowing who you are is something that's universal, and obviously, it's a very powerful theme. I'll tell you that, on a personal level, as an immigrant that was born in South Korea and moved to the United States, I can very much identify with being part of society, but also feeling like you're an outsider at the same time.
I think characters, not just Superman but other superhero characters, have a very public face and also a private, personal identity. I think it's that exploration between the two that's going to make part of the September relaunch very interesting on a story level.
Nrama: I read a survey recently where people are more connected through the internet now, but they actually feel more lonely and isolated. I guess it's comparable to having that "public" face be different from the private one, and feeling like nobody knows the real person behind the mask, or in this case, the computer screen.
Lee: Sure! Yeah, I read that too! There are a lot of interesting, even oxymoronic things happening in our society right now.
I think that even plays into what I think is one of the most interesting discussions in comics, where, "Is Batman actually Bruce Wayne? Or is Bruce Wayne actually Batman? Which one is the real character and which one's the mask?" I think the exploration of those things is what makes comic so interesting.
Lois and Clark
Nrama: For us married folks, it feels like there's this implication that marriage isn't interesting enough for superhero stories, but is that what influenced your decision to get Clark out of the marriage to Lois? The lack of drama that marriage offers?
DiDio: It's not that marriage isn't interesting. It's just that we want to make the subplots and soap opera aspects of comic book storytelling open and accessible to us. Naturally, as we get older, our lives move on. But we move our characters too quickly, and what we do is limit our stories and story potential by doing so.
Also, we wanted to have that sense of isolation that might come with being an alien among men. The two choices that were made, with both his parents being dead and not being married, isolated Clark a little bit more, so that he really had to do more exploration about mankind. There wasn't that one strong human tether that he was bonding with and learning through.
He's had so much learning and understanding from the days with his parents, but the rest of the discovery is on his own. If we had him married to Lois right now, he would always have a strong base to work from. We wanted to explore much bigger and wider stories with him. It's really the learning and growing of this character that is going to be the basis for so much of what Grant and George are going to be doing with their series and with Superman.
Lee: I'm also married, and I love it! So I don't think this is a knock against marriage. That said, marriage brings about a certain degree of comfort and security in one's life. If you have a life partner, you always have someone to rely on. So from a story conflict point of view, it makes for a less dramatic story. I think a lot of writers can agree that one of the most dynamic periods of Superman's history was that period where there was a love triangle between Clark Kent, Superman and Lois Lane. There's a lot of tension and interest you create in the characters by having that kind of dynamic.
We're not doing exactly that love triangle. We're introducing other elements into it. Through that, we're really updating who the character is and making Superman a character that you think you know, but maybe not. We have some surprises up our sleeves. And I think Grant has some incredible ideas about not only what he wants to do with Superman but Clark Kent, and really updating the whole mythology so that people can relate to it on a more personal level.
DiDio: When we sat down the writers, we were all pretty much in agreement that this was the best place to go, because it gave us more potential for the stories at the starting point. We needed a really strong starting point here, and we felt this was a great way to do it.
Man of Steel
Nrama: When DC Entertainment was first formed, one of the ideas behind it was to align what you're doing in comics with other media. Was this move to reboot Superman in comics informed or influenced by the fact that the movie universe is rebooting Superman with the Man of Steel film?
DiDio: Not at all. That said, I doubt they would ever start a series or anything where Superman was married at the beginning. You go back to when Superman got married, that was a stunt tied to a television show at that particular moment in time, and when that show ended, the marriage continued. But every other interpretation of Superman that followed did not have them married.
So it just shows you that we do operate at our own rate and in our own rules, and that's the way we operate now.
Lee: I'm very honored and excited to be part of an initiative with a character that is originating in print. This is really about making sure that the source material, which is the comics, remains as contemporary and fresh and exciting as possible.
It's not a situation where the comics are licensed from games, or movies, or TV shows, or animation, where these characters are frozen in time to reflect something that might be a bigger business part of Warner Bros. It's in fact the reverse. It's comics.
Comics are the drivers and the creative content. Comics are where we can take the creative risks and creative chances with the characters. It's our responsibility to keep them exciting and fresh. The overall mission of DC Entertainment is to allow other gifted filmmakers or people who work in games or animation the opportunity to go through and find things in the DC library that interest them and that they think have potential in other media. That's part of the ecosystem we're trying to build.
So it's not about one lining up with the other. It's about keeping what we're doing on the publishing side as relevant and exciting as possible.
Decision to Relaunch the DCU
Nrama: Let's back up to when the decision for the relaunch took place. When Marvel announced their Civil War storyline, they admitted there was a division among people in the room about whether they should do it. I think Tom Brevoort even said on the record that he hated the idea at first. Yet the language from DC feels more like everyone singing the party line. Surely you guys considered challenges to this and had some in-house, didn't you?
Lee: If there was anything, we had questions about whether we're being bold enough, not just in terms of Superman, but across the whole 52 line. We wanted to do a line-wide initiative and really make some dramatic changes that really refocused attention on the characters.
There's always a tendency, with these characters, to play it safe, to hedge your bets, because you know these characters are so well loved that there will be controversy and outcries and all this kind of stuff.
But I really do feel that if you have the best creative team on the characters, you have sound ideas, and you have a great direction that you want to explore, then you should go in that direction.
I remember the last time there was interest in Superman was, like Dan said, the last time, when John Byrne rebooted the franchise. He really took the origin that we knew and updated it and added new subtleties and nuances. For me, that was my heyday of collecting Superman comic books. It really felt like this was my version of Superman. I know it really created a lot of excitement for that character, not just among die-hard DC fans, but across all comic book readers in general.
DiDio: We actually had, last year, a very large writers meeting about the general direction and tone of the DC Universe, and one of the conversations that was the biggest conversation in the room was about the marriage of Lois and Clark, and it was a much discussed topic.
Most people saw the benefits of making this change, because they saw what the story potential was and how much they could open up their ability to examine the character in a bigger way, once we decided to move in this direction.
Oracle to Batgirl
Nrama: Let's talk about the decision to change Barbara Gordon's status from Oracle to Batgirl. Was there any consideration about how this would affect diversity in the DCU, since you're basically eliminating one of your most beloved disabled heroes?
DiDio: I think we have a really strong line that features a wider range of diversity throughout it. And in this particular case, we were looking specifically back at the Barbara Gordon character. And when you talk about Batgirl, whether it's with a casual fan or even to somebody who just knew the Batman character, Barbara Gordon is always the one people default to as "who Batgirl is."
Believe it or not, this was the more difficult choice to make for us, because we saw what the benefits of the Oracle character were, we saw what the challenges of making this change were going to be.
A couple things helped make our decision on this. One is that we felt like Barbara Gordon was always going to be the strongest Batgirl. And we had chances to tell new stories with her too. And also, the role of Oracle as a character in the DCU has changed greatly. When Oracle was first created, there was a sense of an emerging internet, and an emerging world of data out there. A lot of that has changed, and the role of Oracle has changed over the years.
What we needed to do was to continue to make Barbara Gordon one of the strongest characters possible, in or out of the wheelchair. And we felt that this was a strong direction for us.
But also, we're not discounting anything that character has gone through. And we want to make her change and her challenges a part of her story. And [writer] Gail [Simone] is doing a wonderful job with it.
Nrama: We've heard that she will go through physical therapy. Are you confirming that her past disability will continue to be part of her story going forward?
DiDio: Yes!
Lee: Absolutely. And I really think because of her past as Oracle, Batgirl will become — no, not become — she will remain one of the most interesting characters in the DC Universe. What Gail has been writing has been tremendously inspirational and exciting at the same time.
"Soft" Reboot and New Readers
Nrama: You're trying to reach new readers, and you're making Superman more "accessible" by dropping his convoluted history. And yet at the same time, you have this "soft" reboot where you've got Barbara dealing with her lengthy past, you've got a Green Lantern #1 comic that doesn't star Hal Jordan because of a recent storyline, and you've got a Batman with a son from a past storyline. Isn't this making continuity more convoluted? Why did you make the decision to keep this type of continuity when you're dropping others to attract new readers? Was it only about what books were already selling well?
Lee: I would say it was all creatively decided, but obviously if you have really strong content and really great creative direction, it's going to affect sales.
On an editorial level, we instinctively knew what was working and what wasn't working. We knew what needed a fresh coat of paint or even a complete overall. I'll use Teen Titans as an example of a concept where we changed it a lot. In that case, we felt that the book should be doing better, and creatively, we felt it was one that needed a shock to the system.
That's what you're seeing. Sometimes we realized we had to take a pretty strong stand and do something dramatically different.
Fill-In Artists and Timeliness
Nrama: Timeliness seems to be a big part of your communication to DC artists and writers leading up to September, and we've heard there's an intent to use fill-in artists whenever needed. We saw some indications that's happening in October, because there are some new names that have shown up to help out. What's the thinking behind how you're approaching book timeliness now, and why is it more hard-line than in the past?
DiDio: It's more hard-line than in the past for several reasons, and one is that it's the largest concern we've heard from retailers on a continual basis. They've been concerned in the past about our inability to put out books on a consistent basis, especially the books that people are looking for.
The reality is that we're in a periodical business. Periodical means that we have to be out every month. We've made a contract with the retailers, and a contract with the fans, to deliver our product to them on a consistent basis, and we should do so.
Over time, we've gotten a little lax in our delivery, and people were willing to wait for books because those books mattered to them. But as it spread throughout the business, people became less patient and sales suffered for it.
We have to rebuild the retailer confidence, we have to rebuild the fan confidence in our ability to deliver, which means we have to hold a hard line and be there.
And a lot of people are just not monthly people anymore, so we have to be smarter about how we schedule our books, how we plan our books, and how we plan who's going to be on them. I think what matters more than anything else is our ability to be there month-in and month-out.
We want to build that fan loyalty again. We want to build that consistency. We want people who walk into a store expecting a comic to be able to find that comic. There's nothing more frustrating for me or any of the fans, I'm sure, to be excited about something then not be really sure when it's coming out.
It's something I feel extraordinarily passionate about, and we're going to great lengths to make sure we hold that schedule.
Some people say to me, how can you guarantee 100 percent delivery? And the answer comes back: "It's our job to do that." We will make sure we will do that, and we'll make sure we don't sacrifice quality or story along the way. We want to make sure that everybody working on the books deserves to be on those books and we're putting out our best products.
Digital Market
Nrama: Jim, I heard a retailer talk about some analogies he'd heard you use where you'd said that if the digital market is like a hair, then the print market is like an 8"x10" piece of paper, which implies the digital market is very small compared to print. What analogy would you use for what you hope to see after this initiative? Will they be more comparable? Will print shrink to expand digital, as many retailers think?
Lee: The ideal state would be for the digital slice to grow, but the overall size of the whole pie to grow as well. We hope and expect the influx of digital readers to be an additive layer of business on top of our existing print business.
That's not to say you're not going to have some conversion of print-to-digital customer. But we've found that the huge majority of print customers prefer comics in print, and they are going to stick with print.
We really feel the digital format going day-and-date, making this accessible to everyone with a portable media device, will allow a lot of lapsed fans and new fans to check out what we're doing in the DC Universe come September, and that level of interest will convert some of those new readers and lapsed readers back into regular readers. And that will benefit the entire comic book business.
So we want the digital slice to be larger, and we want the overall size of the pie to get larger along with it.
Pants and Reaction to Change
Nrama: Jim, you just put Wonder Woman in the pants a year ago. Why the change back to the bathing suit/bloomers look so soon?
Lee: I don't think anything has been officially announced in that regard. I think there have been a couple of interesting images online, but it's something that we'll discuss at San Diego Comic Con.
Nrama: The cover for Wonder Woman #1 used to feature her wearing the pants, but now it's been changed back to being the bathing suit look. Your spokespeople confirmed that was the new cover.
Lee: Yeah, here's the thing... the internet is like everyone looking at tealeaves for direction. There's so much interest in what's going on in September that everyone's looking at every little image and trying to interpret it.
It's exciting to see that level of passion for what we're doing in September.
I'll just say, as far as Wonder Woman, it's something we'll discuss at San Diego Comic Con.
The funny thing about what I've seen, in regards to whether she should have the bloomers or the long pants, is that there are probably just as many people who hate the concept of the shorts versus the long pants. There are just as many people who say, "What? No pants? What's going on?"
It's interesting to see how quickly the look for a character can take hold with the readership.
I think that's an important thing to note in all this. It feels like there's a lot of discussion and hoopla about the changes that are coming in September. A year from now, if we do our jobs right, there will be as many people who love what we've done as there may be now who are fearing the changes.
What we accept as the "status quo" for these characters now were big changes at some point. We have to invite change as we go forward in time, because if we don't, they become the pulp heroes of yesteryear. Part of the driving force behind the September initiative is not to rest on our laurels, to really step up and examine every bit of their mythology and look for exciting opportunities to really take these characters in new directions.
Nrama: Is that a goal? To change minds in a year?
Lee: I think it will be a lot quicker than in a year. What I'm saying is that the level of adoption and acceptance by fandom is much more elastic than people think.
Yes, people are surprised by change. People question it. But the truth is, a lot of people will check this material out, and given the line-up of creators, I would not bet against the DC Universe.
I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised by the storylines and new directions, the new looks, and you're going to have some really die-hard DC September relaunch fans come September 2012. I think that's just part of the history of comics, and part of the history of fandom.
Overall Goals
Nrama: Dan, how would you describe the overall goals of the September initiative, and how will you measure whether or not this worked?
DiDio: You know, naturally, increased sales is always a great measure for us. It's probably our strongest measure to gauge any level of success.
But realistically, I'm most excited about our ability to galvanize the industry and get people excited about it again, and about what we're doing.
I always say that apathy is the worst thing for comics, because the last thing we want to do is wake up one morning and find out that all the fans have left us. But our goal right now is to find a way to re-energize the business, re-energize our company and our characters.
How do I gauge that? I gauge it by the level of excitement, the level of conversation, and the level of sales we achieve.
We're in a position ourselves for a changing market, but we want to make sure everything we do is in the best interest of telling the best stories as possible. At the end of the day, it always comes down to, what are the stories? Whether we're putting it in print form or digital form. If the stories are there, if the stories are good, people will find them.
We need to be the best we can be right now, because if we look around us, we see a market that is shrinking. We feel like we're in the position right now that we have the ability to really start rebuilding ourselves and rebuilding the brand and rebuilding our characters for the future.
Check out my earlier post on why Ithink the DCnU relaunch may be a missed oportunity.
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Newsarama: Dan and Jim, the news just broke about what's coming for Superman, and there are a lot of changes to his status. We've already been told there are few if any changes to Batman. So why change Superman so much?
Dan DiDio: It's one of the things we were looking at, how the storylines and characters were working. We saw a number of things we wanted to change with Superman because we've gone down so many roads with the character, in regards to the "Grounded" storyline, we've looked at things that took place with the "War of Krypton." We've looked over the last few years at what we've been doing and the changes we've been making with Superman.
But we also wanted to get back to some of the grass roots of the character. And some of the best ways to do that is to really go back to the early days of the character, where you see him in his formative years, learning his powers, and learning how people react to him, as we'll be examining in Action Comics. But also, we want to re-examine his relationships, because we think there's a lot of fertile ground about him and the people he deals with."
Nrama: But Dan, these changes are huge. There must have been something you felt was just not working with the way Superman was going. Was it too complicated? Did he feel too old? Was it that people couldn't relate to him? Or what?
DiDio: I think in some cases, he felt a little old. We've made Superman such an iconic figure over the years that we've lost some of the character and the ability to tell stories with that character. There's so much continuity that's been built on this character. We really wanted to get a Superman that is more accessible to the audience.
And one of the reasons we did it with Superman is it was done once before, and very successfully. We're hoping for the same luck here.
Dawn of Superheroes
Nrama: There are some mixed signals out there with this language you're using by labeling five years ago as the "dawn of the age of superheroes," which is the time period when the new Justice League and Action Comics take place. We've been told that Stormwatch has a long secret history, and Demon Knights takes place hundreds of years ago. And there's a lot of history you're keeping with Green Lantern. Was it really only five years ago that superheroes "dawned" in the DCU?
Jim Lee: It's really about re-introducing the concept of superheroes in the DC Universe, and doing it in a more contemporary, timely way. Even though you have books like Demon Knights or even All-Star Western, it's not about public recognition or understanding that there are beings amongst us with extraordinary powers.
We wanted a situation in Action and in Justice League where we show the first public emergence of these so-called super-beings and how they impact society, politics, the world. In many ways, it starts out in a way that one would imagine in today's day and age with fear and caution, and people literally freaking out about this. It's through the introduction of a character like Superman and the Justice League that the public starts understanding and accepting these characters for who they are and sees them as heroes for the very first time, coining the word "superhero."
So I think it's a re-examination of how superheroes are perceived in culture, and doing it through the lens of the modern era versus looking back at the history of superheroes through five or six decades of actual time.
Isolated Alien
Nrama: Both Superman and Supergirl are playing up their status as this "brooding alien" who feels isolated on Earth. Is this something you feel is relevant now? Something people can identify with — feeling like an alien?
Understanding his alien nature of where he comes from, and where his roots are, are essential as he makes choices about who he is.
That's one of the things we're trying to explore much more. We've told so many great stories over the years where Superman has embraced his human side and built stories around that side of the characterization. Now we're flipping it around a little bit and really embracing his alien side, so we can understand what it's like to be a man from another world, living amongst men, but not feeling like you're a part of it, but belonging to them all. Yet everyone turns to you for leadership.
Lee: I think the issue of self-identity and knowing who you are is something that's universal, and obviously, it's a very powerful theme. I'll tell you that, on a personal level, as an immigrant that was born in South Korea and moved to the United States, I can very much identify with being part of society, but also feeling like you're an outsider at the same time.
I think characters, not just Superman but other superhero characters, have a very public face and also a private, personal identity. I think it's that exploration between the two that's going to make part of the September relaunch very interesting on a story level.
Nrama: I read a survey recently where people are more connected through the internet now, but they actually feel more lonely and isolated. I guess it's comparable to having that "public" face be different from the private one, and feeling like nobody knows the real person behind the mask, or in this case, the computer screen.
Lee: Sure! Yeah, I read that too! There are a lot of interesting, even oxymoronic things happening in our society right now.
I think that even plays into what I think is one of the most interesting discussions in comics, where, "Is Batman actually Bruce Wayne? Or is Bruce Wayne actually Batman? Which one is the real character and which one's the mask?" I think the exploration of those things is what makes comic so interesting.Lois and Clark
Nrama: For us married folks, it feels like there's this implication that marriage isn't interesting enough for superhero stories, but is that what influenced your decision to get Clark out of the marriage to Lois? The lack of drama that marriage offers?
DiDio: It's not that marriage isn't interesting. It's just that we want to make the subplots and soap opera aspects of comic book storytelling open and accessible to us. Naturally, as we get older, our lives move on. But we move our characters too quickly, and what we do is limit our stories and story potential by doing so.
Also, we wanted to have that sense of isolation that might come with being an alien among men. The two choices that were made, with both his parents being dead and not being married, isolated Clark a little bit more, so that he really had to do more exploration about mankind. There wasn't that one strong human tether that he was bonding with and learning through.
He's had so much learning and understanding from the days with his parents, but the rest of the discovery is on his own. If we had him married to Lois right now, he would always have a strong base to work from. We wanted to explore much bigger and wider stories with him. It's really the learning and growing of this character that is going to be the basis for so much of what Grant and George are going to be doing with their series and with Superman.
Lee: I'm also married, and I love it! So I don't think this is a knock against marriage. That said, marriage brings about a certain degree of comfort and security in one's life. If you have a life partner, you always have someone to rely on. So from a story conflict point of view, it makes for a less dramatic story. I think a lot of writers can agree that one of the most dynamic periods of Superman's history was that period where there was a love triangle between Clark Kent, Superman and Lois Lane. There's a lot of tension and interest you create in the characters by having that kind of dynamic.
We're not doing exactly that love triangle. We're introducing other elements into it. Through that, we're really updating who the character is and making Superman a character that you think you know, but maybe not. We have some surprises up our sleeves. And I think Grant has some incredible ideas about not only what he wants to do with Superman but Clark Kent, and really updating the whole mythology so that people can relate to it on a more personal level.
DiDio: When we sat down the writers, we were all pretty much in agreement that this was the best place to go, because it gave us more potential for the stories at the starting point. We needed a really strong starting point here, and we felt this was a great way to do it.
Man of Steel
Nrama: When DC Entertainment was first formed, one of the ideas behind it was to align what you're doing in comics with other media. Was this move to reboot Superman in comics informed or influenced by the fact that the movie universe is rebooting Superman with the Man of Steel film?
DiDio: Not at all. That said, I doubt they would ever start a series or anything where Superman was married at the beginning. You go back to when Superman got married, that was a stunt tied to a television show at that particular moment in time, and when that show ended, the marriage continued. But every other interpretation of Superman that followed did not have them married.
So it just shows you that we do operate at our own rate and in our own rules, and that's the way we operate now.
Lee: I'm very honored and excited to be part of an initiative with a character that is originating in print. This is really about making sure that the source material, which is the comics, remains as contemporary and fresh and exciting as possible.
It's not a situation where the comics are licensed from games, or movies, or TV shows, or animation, where these characters are frozen in time to reflect something that might be a bigger business part of Warner Bros. It's in fact the reverse. It's comics.
Comics are the drivers and the creative content. Comics are where we can take the creative risks and creative chances with the characters. It's our responsibility to keep them exciting and fresh. The overall mission of DC Entertainment is to allow other gifted filmmakers or people who work in games or animation the opportunity to go through and find things in the DC library that interest them and that they think have potential in other media. That's part of the ecosystem we're trying to build.
So it's not about one lining up with the other. It's about keeping what we're doing on the publishing side as relevant and exciting as possible.
Decision to Relaunch the DCU
Nrama: Let's back up to when the decision for the relaunch took place. When Marvel announced their Civil War storyline, they admitted there was a division among people in the room about whether they should do it. I think Tom Brevoort even said on the record that he hated the idea at first. Yet the language from DC feels more like everyone singing the party line. Surely you guys considered challenges to this and had some in-house, didn't you?Lee: If there was anything, we had questions about whether we're being bold enough, not just in terms of Superman, but across the whole 52 line. We wanted to do a line-wide initiative and really make some dramatic changes that really refocused attention on the characters.
There's always a tendency, with these characters, to play it safe, to hedge your bets, because you know these characters are so well loved that there will be controversy and outcries and all this kind of stuff.
But I really do feel that if you have the best creative team on the characters, you have sound ideas, and you have a great direction that you want to explore, then you should go in that direction.
I remember the last time there was interest in Superman was, like Dan said, the last time, when John Byrne rebooted the franchise. He really took the origin that we knew and updated it and added new subtleties and nuances. For me, that was my heyday of collecting Superman comic books. It really felt like this was my version of Superman. I know it really created a lot of excitement for that character, not just among die-hard DC fans, but across all comic book readers in general.
DiDio: We actually had, last year, a very large writers meeting about the general direction and tone of the DC Universe, and one of the conversations that was the biggest conversation in the room was about the marriage of Lois and Clark, and it was a much discussed topic.
Most people saw the benefits of making this change, because they saw what the story potential was and how much they could open up their ability to examine the character in a bigger way, once we decided to move in this direction.
Oracle to Batgirl
Nrama: Let's talk about the decision to change Barbara Gordon's status from Oracle to Batgirl. Was there any consideration about how this would affect diversity in the DCU, since you're basically eliminating one of your most beloved disabled heroes?DiDio: I think we have a really strong line that features a wider range of diversity throughout it. And in this particular case, we were looking specifically back at the Barbara Gordon character. And when you talk about Batgirl, whether it's with a casual fan or even to somebody who just knew the Batman character, Barbara Gordon is always the one people default to as "who Batgirl is."
Believe it or not, this was the more difficult choice to make for us, because we saw what the benefits of the Oracle character were, we saw what the challenges of making this change were going to be.
A couple things helped make our decision on this. One is that we felt like Barbara Gordon was always going to be the strongest Batgirl. And we had chances to tell new stories with her too. And also, the role of Oracle as a character in the DCU has changed greatly. When Oracle was first created, there was a sense of an emerging internet, and an emerging world of data out there. A lot of that has changed, and the role of Oracle has changed over the years.
What we needed to do was to continue to make Barbara Gordon one of the strongest characters possible, in or out of the wheelchair. And we felt that this was a strong direction for us.
But also, we're not discounting anything that character has gone through. And we want to make her change and her challenges a part of her story. And [writer] Gail [Simone] is doing a wonderful job with it.
Nrama: We've heard that she will go through physical therapy. Are you confirming that her past disability will continue to be part of her story going forward?
DiDio: Yes!
Lee: Absolutely. And I really think because of her past as Oracle, Batgirl will become — no, not become — she will remain one of the most interesting characters in the DC Universe. What Gail has been writing has been tremendously inspirational and exciting at the same time.
"Soft" Reboot and New ReadersNrama: You're trying to reach new readers, and you're making Superman more "accessible" by dropping his convoluted history. And yet at the same time, you have this "soft" reboot where you've got Barbara dealing with her lengthy past, you've got a Green Lantern #1 comic that doesn't star Hal Jordan because of a recent storyline, and you've got a Batman with a son from a past storyline. Isn't this making continuity more convoluted? Why did you make the decision to keep this type of continuity when you're dropping others to attract new readers? Was it only about what books were already selling well?
Lee: I would say it was all creatively decided, but obviously if you have really strong content and really great creative direction, it's going to affect sales.
On an editorial level, we instinctively knew what was working and what wasn't working. We knew what needed a fresh coat of paint or even a complete overall. I'll use Teen Titans as an example of a concept where we changed it a lot. In that case, we felt that the book should be doing better, and creatively, we felt it was one that needed a shock to the system.
That's what you're seeing. Sometimes we realized we had to take a pretty strong stand and do something dramatically different.
Fill-In Artists and Timeliness
Nrama: Timeliness seems to be a big part of your communication to DC artists and writers leading up to September, and we've heard there's an intent to use fill-in artists whenever needed. We saw some indications that's happening in October, because there are some new names that have shown up to help out. What's the thinking behind how you're approaching book timeliness now, and why is it more hard-line than in the past?DiDio: It's more hard-line than in the past for several reasons, and one is that it's the largest concern we've heard from retailers on a continual basis. They've been concerned in the past about our inability to put out books on a consistent basis, especially the books that people are looking for.
The reality is that we're in a periodical business. Periodical means that we have to be out every month. We've made a contract with the retailers, and a contract with the fans, to deliver our product to them on a consistent basis, and we should do so.
Over time, we've gotten a little lax in our delivery, and people were willing to wait for books because those books mattered to them. But as it spread throughout the business, people became less patient and sales suffered for it.
We have to rebuild the retailer confidence, we have to rebuild the fan confidence in our ability to deliver, which means we have to hold a hard line and be there.
And a lot of people are just not monthly people anymore, so we have to be smarter about how we schedule our books, how we plan our books, and how we plan who's going to be on them. I think what matters more than anything else is our ability to be there month-in and month-out.
We want to build that fan loyalty again. We want to build that consistency. We want people who walk into a store expecting a comic to be able to find that comic. There's nothing more frustrating for me or any of the fans, I'm sure, to be excited about something then not be really sure when it's coming out.
It's something I feel extraordinarily passionate about, and we're going to great lengths to make sure we hold that schedule.
Some people say to me, how can you guarantee 100 percent delivery? And the answer comes back: "It's our job to do that." We will make sure we will do that, and we'll make sure we don't sacrifice quality or story along the way. We want to make sure that everybody working on the books deserves to be on those books and we're putting out our best products.
Digital Market
Nrama: Jim, I heard a retailer talk about some analogies he'd heard you use where you'd said that if the digital market is like a hair, then the print market is like an 8"x10" piece of paper, which implies the digital market is very small compared to print. What analogy would you use for what you hope to see after this initiative? Will they be more comparable? Will print shrink to expand digital, as many retailers think?
Lee: The ideal state would be for the digital slice to grow, but the overall size of the whole pie to grow as well. We hope and expect the influx of digital readers to be an additive layer of business on top of our existing print business.
That's not to say you're not going to have some conversion of print-to-digital customer. But we've found that the huge majority of print customers prefer comics in print, and they are going to stick with print.
We really feel the digital format going day-and-date, making this accessible to everyone with a portable media device, will allow a lot of lapsed fans and new fans to check out what we're doing in the DC Universe come September, and that level of interest will convert some of those new readers and lapsed readers back into regular readers. And that will benefit the entire comic book business.
So we want the digital slice to be larger, and we want the overall size of the pie to get larger along with it.
Pants and Reaction to Change
Nrama: Jim, you just put Wonder Woman in the pants a year ago. Why the change back to the bathing suit/bloomers look so soon?
Lee: I don't think anything has been officially announced in that regard. I think there have been a couple of interesting images online, but it's something that we'll discuss at San Diego Comic Con.
Nrama: The cover for Wonder Woman #1 used to feature her wearing the pants, but now it's been changed back to being the bathing suit look. Your spokespeople confirmed that was the new cover.
Lee: Yeah, here's the thing... the internet is like everyone looking at tealeaves for direction. There's so much interest in what's going on in September that everyone's looking at every little image and trying to interpret it.
It's exciting to see that level of passion for what we're doing in September.
I'll just say, as far as Wonder Woman, it's something we'll discuss at San Diego Comic Con.
The funny thing about what I've seen, in regards to whether she should have the bloomers or the long pants, is that there are probably just as many people who hate the concept of the shorts versus the long pants. There are just as many people who say, "What? No pants? What's going on?"
It's interesting to see how quickly the look for a character can take hold with the readership.
I think that's an important thing to note in all this. It feels like there's a lot of discussion and hoopla about the changes that are coming in September. A year from now, if we do our jobs right, there will be as many people who love what we've done as there may be now who are fearing the changes.
What we accept as the "status quo" for these characters now were big changes at some point. We have to invite change as we go forward in time, because if we don't, they become the pulp heroes of yesteryear. Part of the driving force behind the September initiative is not to rest on our laurels, to really step up and examine every bit of their mythology and look for exciting opportunities to really take these characters in new directions.
Nrama: Is that a goal? To change minds in a year?
Lee: I think it will be a lot quicker than in a year. What I'm saying is that the level of adoption and acceptance by fandom is much more elastic than people think.
Yes, people are surprised by change. People question it. But the truth is, a lot of people will check this material out, and given the line-up of creators, I would not bet against the DC Universe.
I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised by the storylines and new directions, the new looks, and you're going to have some really die-hard DC September relaunch fans come September 2012. I think that's just part of the history of comics, and part of the history of fandom.
Overall Goals
Nrama: Dan, how would you describe the overall goals of the September initiative, and how will you measure whether or not this worked?
DiDio: You know, naturally, increased sales is always a great measure for us. It's probably our strongest measure to gauge any level of success.
But realistically, I'm most excited about our ability to galvanize the industry and get people excited about it again, and about what we're doing.
I always say that apathy is the worst thing for comics, because the last thing we want to do is wake up one morning and find out that all the fans have left us. But our goal right now is to find a way to re-energize the business, re-energize our company and our characters.
How do I gauge that? I gauge it by the level of excitement, the level of conversation, and the level of sales we achieve.
We're in a position ourselves for a changing market, but we want to make sure everything we do is in the best interest of telling the best stories as possible. At the end of the day, it always comes down to, what are the stories? Whether we're putting it in print form or digital form. If the stories are there, if the stories are good, people will find them.
We need to be the best we can be right now, because if we look around us, we see a market that is shrinking. We feel like we're in the position right now that we have the ability to really start rebuilding ourselves and rebuilding the brand and rebuilding our characters for the future.
Director Neil Burger on Uncharted: Drake's Fortune movie
Director Neil Burger spoke to Collider about the Uncharted: Drake's Fortune movie. It sounds like he's got a good handle on it to me. I'm very pleased that he's being honest about wanting to keep as many things from the game as possible, but only if they fit into a movie structure. How refreshing.
Source: Collider
“We’re rewriting it, and I’m just jumping in right now to do it. The deal really has just closed, so it’s very, very new. I’m basically writing it from scratch. So, it’s a ways off, but it’s very exciting to have something that could be a franchise. I like it, and I like that it’s a bit different from a lot of the science fiction stuff that’s out there. I like that it’s a classic, great adventure.”
“I think that the game has a really cinematic quality to it, and it has a wild feel to it, and I like the characters. I like the character of Nate. I know guys like him, who are either war correspondents or extreme adventurers – these guys that are living in a very different way and who are slightly hustlers or con-men. I think it’s a great character. All that stuff is there, the trick is to make it into a movie. There’s a lot of moments in the video game that are very cool and very intense. I would use as many of them as I could, if they work into the film’s story.”
“I just think you have to make the best movie you can. Something like Indiana Jones was updating 1930′s B-movies. In the same way, we’re inspired by the video game, but we have to do what a movie does best. What the gamers like is that it looks real and that you can be this person and do these amazing things. In a way, we need to do the same thing, but in the world of movies. We need to make it exhilarating and wild, and make you completely identify with this character and take you along on this ride, where you are this character and you feel it.”
Source: Collider
A summary of The Riddler in Arkham City
Edward Nigma's presence in Arkham Asylum was purely aural. He would set harmless challenges via radio signal. If you were dedicated enough to track down all the Riddler's challenges in Arkham Asylum, then you know how Batman embarrassed him. Locked-up without so much as a confrontation. The Riddler is furious at this lack of acknowledgement and is out for revenge.
The third issue of the Arkham City digital exclusive comics revealed just how Riddler bought help from Poison Ivy and the Broker to escape from prison and set himself up in Arkham City before it's completion. Through the patient interviews in Arkham Asylum we were given hints at a darker side to The Riddler. It's not until we look at Arkham City's Riddler that we begin to see just how twisted his compulsion has made him. The riddles now have the added risk of human life. Nigma has kidnapped innocent aid-workers and Arkham staff in order to bait his Bat-traps. No longer can Batman ignore the Riddler's taunts, he must answer them to save lives.As Batman attempts to save these innocents, the Riddler will taunt him via projected images; building the tension and frustration until the Batman can track him down for a more personal interaction. These deathtraps aren't simple obstacle courses. Batman will have to think quickly to figure out exactly how to traverse the hazards that lie between him and the hostage and how to get them out alive.
Below we look at the Riddler challenges presented in Arkham Asylum and look at how they may have changed for Arkham City.
Secrets map
In Arkham Asylum, each area contained a secrets map that not only counted towards your target of 240 complete riddles, but actually revealed on Batman's map where the riddles were located for that area.The Riddler in Arkham City, however, has done away with these maps. Instead, Batman must locate Riddler's informants within the various gangs and interrogate them to reveal the locations of riddle challenges. Once you have solved enough of these challenges Riddler will then reveal to Batman the location of another hostage.
Alignment puzzles
Dotted around Arkham Asylum were spray painted question marks that could only be seen in Detective Mode. The trick to solving these was to find the right place to stand in order to align the punctuation symbol up correctly. Whilst some of these were simple, others required that you find new paths in order to complete the puzzle.The Riddler trailer for Arkham City hints that we may see more alignment puzzles as the letters move into alignment, however, this has not been confirmed.
Riddler trophies
These little green question marks were dotted around the Asylum last time around, often in areas that, whilst off the beaten track, were fairly easy to get to.
In Arkham City, the Riddler has upped the ante. There are apparently 400 of these hidden in the open-air prison and don't expect all of them to be easy to reach.
One of the new features that batman has to contend with are pressure pads. These are tied directly to opening the trophy traps (right). In some cases Batman will be able to stand on them and retrieve the trophy using the Batclaw, in other more challenging cases, batman will have to showcase his acrobatic abilities in order to springboard from one pressure pad to another, in sequence, for the trophy trap to be opened. Other trophies can be collected by guiding a remote-controlled batarang through vents or around obstacles to hit an out-of-reach switch. |
| Pressure pad to the left of Batman's cape tip opens the trap above his head. |
Chronicles of Arkham
Whilst not technically set by the Riddler, these archives did count toward the World's Greatest Detective achievement. I would imagine that there will be something similar in Arkham City that reveals the history of the area and how it was transformed into the prison by Strange and Sharp.
Again, this has not been confirmed.
RiddlesEach area of Arkham Asylum had several riddles that could be answered by scanning the appropriate part of the environment. Whilst some of these were more subtle than others, there were often things that stood out as 'this is a riddler challenge'. It appears that in Arkham City the Riddler's security can be hacked using the cryptographic sequencer by entering the answer to a riddle. Perhaps this means that the environmental answers will be played down in favour of inputting an answer. this would certainly make things harder for Batman. If the riddles hidden within the recent Riddler trailer are anything to go by then Arkham City's riddles are going to be fiendishly difficult.
Joker TeethWithout a doubt, the most annoying 'riddle' in Arkham Asylum was destroying all the sets of Joker teeth that were scattered around. Hopefully these won't make a return appearance. If they do however, they should pose some kind of threat which gives Batman more of a reason to destroy them.
Interview TapesThe interview tapes in Arkham Asylum gave both an insight into the fractured minds of the key inmates as well as a background narrative depicting the lead-up to the game's events. A preview of ArkhamRiddler may know what Hugo Strange is up to. He certainly has no fear when addressing Arkham's new warden; could he be trying to prove that he is smarter than both Batman and Strange?
One thing is for certain, last time the Riddler was playing, this time he's out for blood.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Superman books in October
ACTION COMICS #2
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by RAGS MORALES and RICK BRYANT
Cover by RAGS MORALES
Variant cover by ETHAN VAN SCIVER
1:200 B&W variant cover by RAGS MORALES
On sale OCTOBER 5 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with three covers. Please see the order form for more information.
In his weakest moment, Superman is taken down – but by whom? And if the world wasn’t ready for a man with super powers, they’re utterly unprepared for the rage of a Superman cornered! The cornerstone character of the new DCU continues his debut adventure!
SUPERMAN #2
Written by GEORGE PEREZ
Breakdowns and cover by GEORGE PEREZ
Art by JESUS MERINO
On sale OCTOBER 26 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
The all-new adventures of Superman continue! Everyone can see the new villain who’s attacking Superman – except The Man of Steel! How can he stop a threat that none of his super-senses can detect? Meanwhile, a Daily Planet reporter starts digging up some dirt on Superman, including a secret that could ruin him forever!
SUPERBOY #2
Written by SCOTT LOBDELL
Art by RB SILVA and ROB LEAN
Cover by ERIC CANETE
On sale OCTOBER 12 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Project N.O.W.H.E.R.E. has put a lot of effort into creating their Superboy, and they intend to make sure he performs to their standards. And what better opportunity for him to demonstrate his raw power than to throw him into an alien prison riot? Good luck, Superboy... you’re going to need it!
SUPERGIRL #2
Written by MICHAEL GREEN and MIKE JOHNSON
Art by MAHMUD ASRAR and DAN GREEN
Cover by MAHMUD ASRAR
On sale OCTOBER 19 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Get ready for a super-smackdown as Supergirl fights her cousin, The Man of Steel! What could cause these two to come to blows? Can the teenage Supergirl hold her own against the adult Superman? Well, let’s just say she’s got a trick or two up those fancy new sleeves of hers...
Source: Newsarama
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by RAGS MORALES and RICK BRYANT
Cover by RAGS MORALES
Variant cover by ETHAN VAN SCIVER
1:200 B&W variant cover by RAGS MORALES
On sale OCTOBER 5 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with three covers. Please see the order form for more information.
In his weakest moment, Superman is taken down – but by whom? And if the world wasn’t ready for a man with super powers, they’re utterly unprepared for the rage of a Superman cornered! The cornerstone character of the new DCU continues his debut adventure!
SUPERMAN #2
Written by GEORGE PEREZ
Breakdowns and cover by GEORGE PEREZ
Art by JESUS MERINO
On sale OCTOBER 26 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
The all-new adventures of Superman continue! Everyone can see the new villain who’s attacking Superman – except The Man of Steel! How can he stop a threat that none of his super-senses can detect? Meanwhile, a Daily Planet reporter starts digging up some dirt on Superman, including a secret that could ruin him forever!
SUPERBOY #2
Written by SCOTT LOBDELL
Art by RB SILVA and ROB LEAN
Cover by ERIC CANETE
On sale OCTOBER 12 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Project N.O.W.H.E.R.E. has put a lot of effort into creating their Superboy, and they intend to make sure he performs to their standards. And what better opportunity for him to demonstrate his raw power than to throw him into an alien prison riot? Good luck, Superboy... you’re going to need it!
SUPERGIRL #2
Written by MICHAEL GREEN and MIKE JOHNSON
Art by MAHMUD ASRAR and DAN GREEN
Cover by MAHMUD ASRAR
On sale OCTOBER 19 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Get ready for a super-smackdown as Supergirl fights her cousin, The Man of Steel! What could cause these two to come to blows? Can the teenage Supergirl hold her own against the adult Superman? Well, let’s just say she’s got a trick or two up those fancy new sleeves of hers...
Action Comics #1 cover for September
"This is a young Superman who still believes a better world for everyone is possible," said writer Grant Morrison, who'll be chronicling the Man of Steel's days as the world's first superhero when DC Comics relaunches its entire line of comics in September.Source: NYTimes
The Post got a sneak peek ahead of this week's San Diego Comic-Con.
While most of the titles, including "Batman" and "Green Lantern," will showcase DC's iconic heroes when they're well into their careers, "Action Comics" shows the earliest adventures of Superman, who's initially a bluejeans-and-T-shirt-wearing crimefighter with a small red cape.
"We felt it was time for the big adventures of a 21st-century Paul Bunyan who fights for the weak and downtrodden against bullies of all kinds, from robot invaders and crime lords to corrupt city officials," said Morrison, a former "X-Men" writer.
"The new look reflects his status as a street-level defender of the ordinary man and woman."
The series will show how Clark Kent becomes the world's foremost superhero and how he got his iconic costume, which has been tweaked in the new continuity -- meaning no more red briefs.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Tony Bedard on War of the Green Lanterns Aftermath
Newsarama: Tony, what does the Aftermath series concentrate on, now that the "War" storyline has ended?
Tony Bedard: As anyone who read that last chapter of "War of the Green Lanterns" can tell you, this storyline has fundamentally shaken up the Corps and delivered some major shocks to the status quo. Mogo is gone, Sinestro has a green ring, and Hal Jordan has been summarily booted off planet Oa and off the Corps! We have major repercussions to deal with in the two-part Aftermath special.
Nrama: How does the change in Hal's status affect the other Earth members of the Corps? Or the Corps itself?
Bedard: Hal is widely regarded as the greatest Green Lantern ever, and every single Green Lantern has to wonder: "if the Guardians dumped him, what might they do to me?" Even the ones who weren't Hal's biggest fans are shaken by this development. In a way, Hal's absence has a more shocking impact than his presence would have.
Nrama: Will the Aftermath series explore the ramifications of Sinestro's new status? How does the Corps react to that?
Bedard: Sinestro's new status is the biggest question mark of all right now. To a man, the Green Lanterns want him dead. Each of them knows someone who fell in the Sinestro Corps War. Each of them knows the man is a tyrant and he cannot be trusted.
But a green ring chose Sinestro, and that's a mystery that must be unraveled. So as the Guardians struggle to understand what this means, the shell-shocked Lanterns worry that he might worm his way back into their good graces, and some of them will do anything to keep that from happening.
And, of course, there's the whole question of what Sinestro thinks about this. As horrified as the other Lanterns are, he may be even more shocked by that green ring on his hand.
Nrama: Will you be exploring Sinestro's response? Or are these two issues more about the Corps?
Bedard: We do get into Sinestro's response, and the profound questions that arise with a green ring on his hand, but "Aftermath" is also about the other rifts and strained relationships in the Corps.
Nobody's very thrilled with John Stewart for taking the shot that killed Lantern Mogo. There's also a whole load of new Lanterns recruited by Mogo with no regard for their fitness to serve. Kyle Rayner and Soranik Natu have major issue to resolve if they want to save their relationship. Oa is half-ruined (again!) and everyone, Lantern and Guardian alike, is suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after having been either possessed by ring entities or mind-controlled by Krona.
The Corps is in very rough shape right now and there's no telling if they can keep it together.
Nrama: Will we see more of the pieces put into place that were touched upon in the "War" story? Is there any element in particular you're exploring in more detail?
Bedard: Everyone's reaction to Sinestro is probably topic number one. Especially for Sinestro's daughter, Soranik Natu. Every minute that Sinestro is on Oa is torment for her, and she may have to finally do something about it.
There are also the Lanterns who feel like Mogo should be avenged. The poor planet-Lantern is now in pieces, orbiting Oa like a macabre asteroid belt, an ever-present reminder of what they've lost in the war.
And Ganthet is struggling with the loss of his right hand, along with his fellow Guardians' ever more erratic behavior.
Nrama: Mogo's death had larger ramifications though, didn't it? What did his death represent, and how will you be portraying the challenge of replacing his role?
Bedard: Mogo was the moral compass that helped guide power rings to their new wearers. He may be irreplaceable, and with him gone, the whole candidate selection process is in question. Exhibit A: Sinestro. Mogo's death will have further-reaching implications than you might think, and it is a major subject in "Aftermath."
Nrama: We now know who stars in Green Lantern #1 in September, but your new series, Green Lantern: New Guardians, is still a bit of a mystery. Will "Aftermath" set up Kyle's New Guardians team?
Bedard: When Green Lantern: New Guardians launches in September, everything you need to know will be there from issue #1, but the underlying question of whether the Guardians are fit to command the Corps is one that runs through "Aftermath" and will be a major component in New Guardians.
Nrama: Fans have more information now about the members of Kyle's New Guardians team, who are shown in full color on issue #2's cover. Is there anything else you can tell fans about the other members who work with Kyle Rayner?
Bedard: I think you can guess a lot from the covers that have been released, but I can say this is not the same lineup that Hal fought alongside. I actually want to remain mum beyond that — it's more fun to wait and see exactly why Kyle pulls together the team he ends up with.
Nrama: How will these "Aftermath" issues set up the Red Lantern series? Or any of the other new elements in September?
Bedard: There are certain moments in "Aftermath" that feed into Red Lanterns, Green Lantern, and Green Lantern Corps, but this is more about wrapping up "War of the Green Lanterns" and dealing with the emotional damage of that conflict.
Nrama: Then to wrap up, Tony, is there anything else you want to tell fans about "Aftermath" or what comes after?
Bedard: I think Geoff put such a great twist into the last chapter of "War of the Green Lanterns" that anyone who read it will want to pick up Aftermath. There are too many huge plot threads to follow, and you won't be disappointed when you see just how the many members of the Green Lantern Corps react to the worst conflict they've ever faced.
Source: Newsarama
Scott Lobdell on Teen Titans, Superboy and coming to DC Comics
Newsarama: Scott, before we get into specifics of Teen Titans and Superboy, let’s talk about how things came together. What's it like reuniting with Bob Harras (and, in one form or another, several other of your Marvel comrades from that period) in the year 2011 at DC? Based on your comments in other interviews, it sounds like it was rather unexpected.
Scott Lobdell: Totally unexpected! It was unexpected that it happened at all... and unexpected that it is so much fun. I’ve never been a member of a rock band, but I can imagine this is what it is like when people talk about “getting the band back together.”
Bob and I worked together nearly 10 years, nearly 10 years ago. And it is funny to read on the message boards about how “He’s just hiring his friends!” No one who knows us would ever mistake us for friends — friendly, sure — but when Bob and I talk it is almost always about characters or plots or pitches that he shoots down.
Honestly, I usually feel like the kid whose father is the math teacher – no matter how high my grade or how many extra credit assignments I take I am always having to prove myself way more than everyone else. When I turned in my Teen Titans plot I got rave reviews from my editor, other editors, publishers, artists! Bob said “I will be honest with you... I didn’t hate it.” Which is Bob for “This was great!”
Wouldn’t that be a great cover blurb for Teen Titans #1? “I didn’t hate it! Bob Harras, EIC!”
Regarding Bobbie Chase, my editor on Teen Titans and Red Hood & The Outlaws, a little known piece of comic history is that she was the editor of my very first ongoing series at That Other Company, a series called Alpha Flight. And while we only worked together for four issues before she started the Midnight Sons line, handing me off to another editor who promptly fired me, I was eager to work with an editor with lots of experience working in the classic Old School Plot And Then Script style.
What is interesting about Bobbie is that she has always been known as someone who possesses what has become the ancient art of getting the books to the printers on time — a tactician. But what surprises me about working with her so much is how she’s so invested in the characters and plots and what makes a good splash page and how to bring readers back the next issue and all the nitty gritty of comic book production. Honestly, there are a lot of editors over the years who have sent the plot onto the artists with a passing glance. Bobbie is not one of them!
And a quick shout out to Mike Marts — not only did I work with him on some X-stuff when he was an intern and later an editor, but he was also the guy who took a chance on a very off-center Alpha Flight relaunch. While there wasn’t an audience for it, he was always very supportive about what we were trying to do. That is a very admirable trait in an editor, and it doesn’t surprise me at all that he’s become the head honcho in the Batman offices.
Nrama: Now, out of all 52 of the books announced by DC as debuting in September, Teen Titans definitely seemed to strike a unique chord, even ending up as a trending topic on Twitter for most of the day the initial image was released. How closely did you monitor that kind of stuff? Positive or negative, it has to feel good to be writing the book that seemed to have inspired the most emotion out of people.
Lobdell: I confess that I spent a few days reading all the press and message boards I could find. But you have to understand, when I was doing most of my mainstream super hero comic writing there wasn’t an Internet: most of the responses to work we got were letters written to the book that would show up in the offices weeks after the book was on the stands (which was usually three months after we had put the book to bed). Fabian [Nicieza] and I would often annoy the assistant editors responsible for the letters pages because we’d pour over the letters to see how we were doing with the fans — the crayon ones, the six-page single-spaced typed ones! The idea of immediate fan gut reaction to an idea or an image wasn’t even imagined at the time. So, the idea that I could sign on and read hundreds of reactions to the news, in real time? Yeah yeah, I know the Internet has been around for a while, but this was all new to me.
On the subject of positive or negative: In the old days, when people sat down to write a letter to a comic book company it meant a lot to us writer-types because we thought “There is someone who has given this a lot of thought... sitting down and putting their thoughts on paper, driving to the post office, etc.” As such, those letters were often very thought-out evaluations about what they did and didn’t like about a particular comic book story. Now, I don’t know if it has something to do with the accessibility of the Internet or the power that comes with seeing your every thought made manifest on a glowing computer screen, but I have to say a lot of what I read feels like farting in church: Yeah, you can do it — free speech and all that — but why would you want to? [Laughs.]
Seriously, if you are going to sign online and create a profile and respond to a comic, give it some heft. “Lobdell has never written anything at all that has ever been above below average” is a silly statement, comical even. And trust me, it is not a very original thought. (My girlfriend Amber hates that I Google “Scott Lobdell hack” just to read all the people that insult me. I know I shouldn’t, but man, some of these people are hysterical with their barbs! If you are going to skewer me or my ideas, be creative!)
Regarding overall reaction, I will tell you a story (because this interview is not long enough as it is)... I was invited to speak at a retailer convention in Baltimore one summer (The same summer John Romita Jr. was invited to speak in Hawaii. Right?!). I was excited because I was going to be announcing the “Age of Apocalypse” story.
“It is going to be awesome! We’re going to go back in time and kill Professor X which means the X-Men never happened! And we’re going to drive the point home by canceling all the X-Men books! X-Force! Excalibur! Uncanny! And we’re going to be replacing them with all-new X-books!”
It was probably the closest I’ve ever come to being dragged through the streets and lynched from a lamppost by a cheering crowd of angry retailers! [Laughs.] They were furious! They were convinced this was the worst idea they had ever heard in their lives. (You have to remember, this was before anyone had ever heard of House of M!)
We all know how it turned out: it was probably the most successful event ever in the history of the medium. It was a creative, artistic and financial hit.
That’s what this re-what feels like: something that has never been done before. Something that will fill the hearts and minds of readers with dueling bouts of hope and change and fear and loathing... until they see the comics and take a deep sigh of relief and shout “Woohoo!”.
I will tell you what I told those peeps in Baltimore that time: Trust us. It is going to be awesome!
Nrama: Of course, the looks of the starring characters of Teen Titans are pretty dramatically different than what people are used to — so should we assume that's reflective of dramatic changes to the Teen Titans characters and concepts?
Lobdell: I have to say I don’t really see things as being that dramatically different as much as I am seeing things being dramatically the same.
Tim Drake is still Red Robin, Cassie Sandsmark is still Wonder Girl, and everyone is still pretty much exactly who they are, just with a little custom fitting.
My first draft of Teen Titans read as if it were Teen Titans #101 — maybe a brief few months after [J.T. Krul]’s run which was ending with issue 100. People were very excited and supportive of it, but soon it was decided I didn’t go far enough: they wanted this book to feel like an issue one, not a continuation of a series cancelled by low sales. They wanted readers who were picking up Teen Titans #1 to feel like they were picking up the first issue of a new series... and so that is what Brett and I delivered.
Having said that, when the idea of Teen Titans was first created it was a book about sidekicks hanging out together. But we’ve come a long way from sidekicks – which was reflected first in Marv’s run where they are all their own super heroes, and later in Geoff’s run, where Teen Titans became about the newer generation of heroes being shown the ropes by the most recent generation.
Because that had all been done before (and done so extremely well by those guys) I didn’t feel like it was in anyone’s interest in going back and retelling those stories. I wanted to look at the idea of the Teen Titans if they were being formed right here and now. What would bring them together, and why would they stay together?
Again, Marv and George and later Geoff and Mike have given us some of the best comic stories of the past 30 years. Nothing I’m doing will change how great those stories were and will be now and forever.
Nrama: You've written a lot of teen books before, from Generation X to Gen 13 to even co-writing some Buffy: The Vampire Slayer with Fabian Nicieza. Does any of that inform what you're doing in Teen Titans at all?
Lobdell: That is such an interesting question and I wish I had an interesting answer to go along with it. I don’t think I think of characters in terms of younger or older, I just think of what I think makes sense for individual characters based on their worldview.
But I will say this: Sometimes I’ll look at previous choices (and this isn’t a slam against any one writer or editor because this particular example has been around for decades and has become part and parcel of the Teen Titans) and it leaves me scratching my head.
The Statue Graveyard In The Teen Titans Basement? I look at that and I think, “What 17 year old on planet earth has statues of their dead friends in their basement, or their garden or their front lawn?” I’ve had my share of friends who died in my youth, and it would never occur to me in a million years to have statues of my dead friends commissioned so I could keep them in my basement and visit with them whenever I was feeling depressed.
Yeah, you can make the argument “Scott, none of your best friends were super heroes!” Well, maybe not to you, they weren’t. But cops? Firemen? Sure a memorial here or there, but a garden of statues of all the cops who have fallen in the line of duty? Umm.
But so when I was pitching out my ideas for the Titans re-what, I explained one of the first things I wanted to do – while treating the Teen Titans like actual teens – was to lose the Friend Graveyard. Bob was like “I was just saying the same thing to someone last week!” (See? Simpatico!)
Now, I can see why a writer would introduce the idea in a comic – it is visual, it adds gravitas, it speaks to a history – I just don’t see it as something any teen character would ever do. (My mind reels at the thought of one of the Robins commissioning statues, let alone a series of statues from some Italian sculptor who has made a small fortune off the Teen Titan deaths over the years.) So, I guess in a round about answer to your question, does my past experiences inform my Titans work? Yes.
Nrama: What kind of continuing challenge is it to be writing teen characters for so long, and continuing to make that seem authentic, even though, as happens with all of us, those years become progressively further away?
Lobdell: [Laughs.] You make it seem like I roll around the streets of Los Angeles in one of those giant plastic bubbles! Yeah, I’m not a teenager, but I’m also not a trained killer like Red Hood, a soldier of fortune like Roy Harper, or a gorgeous former prisoner of war like Starfire. I’m not a mutant, a ghostbuster or an enchanted music box.
I haven’t read a lot of interviews with other writers, but I can’t imagine you asked Grant Morrison how he stays authentic writing about a vigilante whose motivation is nearly 20 years old – or if he finds it challenging to write a character who fell to Earth nearly thirty years ago and raised as a human who had to hide his super powers from the rest of the world while he was growing up. [Laughs.]
And, as I have actually been a teenager once (something I share with everyone else over twenty on the planet Earth) my familiarity with teenagers is probably a lot closer than Grant’s familiarity with vigilantes and supermen.
Source: Newsarama
