You can also listen to this as a podcast here:

http://www.dccomics.com/media/podcasts/DCComics_2008-04-19_Legion_New_York_Comic_Con_2008.mp3 

NYCC ‘08: THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES PANEL

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by Chris Mautner
Lest anyone doubt the popularity of DC’s flagship team book The Legion of Super-Heroes, let him or her discuss the matter with the devoted throng that attended the 50th anniversary panel at the New York Comic-Con this Saturday afternoon.
Though far from packed, a sizable crowd nevertheless showed up to hear artist Keith Giffen, writer (and DC comics publisher) Paul Levitz and current Legion editor Mike Marts talk about their experiences working on the book.
Asked by moderator and historian Peter Sanderson what was the defining element that made the Legion such a revolutionary book, Levitz cited the title’s willingness to let the characters age, change their relationships and even, in the seminal case of Lightning Lad, die. Giffen pointed out that of all superhero teams, the Legion was the first to recognize the price of heroism.
“Up until then comics had come out of classic comic strip tradition of freeze frame. Everyone is going to be same age forever,” Levitz said. “The Legion, four issues into own series said ‘Screw this stuff, we’re going to kill people and change relationships.’”
Marts cited the book’s clubhouse atmosphere, which gave younger readers a strong opportunity for identification. “A lot of kids knew you couldn’t be Superman or Batman but hanging out in clubhouse with friends is something you did all the time,” he said. “You could relate to them almost immediately.
Giffen, meanwhile, stressed the book offering a counterpoint to the dystopian, post-apocalyptic future type of stories that have become so popular these days. The Legion, he said, gave you a “future you wanted to live in. … That’s when it made its mark.”
Asked about past contributors to the lengthy series, Levitz discussed how writers like Jerry Siegel and Ed Hamilton brought, respectively a levity and an epic sense of scale to the work early on, while Jim Shooter (who was supposed to attend but had to cancel his appearance at the convention) brought a humanity to characters who had previously been somewhat cardboard – something that, to this day still amazes Levitz, given that Shooter was showing that sense of humanity while he was 13 years old. All three cited the work of the late artist Dave Cockrum as seminal. The contributions of Curt Swan and Jim Sherman were also highly praised.
Asked about the specific challenges of working on the Legion, the immense number of characters (“30 damned characters” as Giffen put it) and their histories, costumes, and other miscellany were cited as a strong hurdle.
“I thought I was somewhat familiar with the Legion when I came on board, but I was in for a little bit of a surprise,” Marts said. “Knowing what color Batman’s costume is pretty simple,” versus the multitude of legion kids. “It’s tricky to keep the look consistent.”
Levitz stressed the need to be willing, especially for artists, to delve into the challenge that is the group’s immense history while being willing to build new worlds. “For Legion you either get the crazy artist who’s willing to put everything in it or it really shows,” he said.
The Legion’s past reboots were discussed, with Giffen saying that his “5 Years Later” shift in the Legion (which has a love/hate relationship with fans) came about due to his not knowing what else to do when he landed the writing chores on the title after Levitz.
Asked about Legion’s future, Marts said Shooter has an intricate plot laid out and that readers would see more romance and perhaps even a wedding in the book’s future. He also said a legion-related project would be coming out at the end of the year, adding that Shooter is “on for the long haul.”
“There’s nobody lining up to draw or write the Legion,” Giffen added, talking about all the worlds and space aliens an artist would have to invent for such a comic. “There’s no point of reference you have to make it up as you go along.”
The high point of the panel had to be when, in response to a fan question, Giffen voiced his ire for the character Karate Kid.
“I hate that character,” he said good-naturedly. “I agreed to come on Countdown only if I could kill him. If I come on Legion again, he’s dead.”
Why does he hate him so much? “Two words put together. Super-Karate.”
“Everyone in this field has characters they hate,” Giffen said. “I just have the bad taste to say it out loud.”

NYCC ‘08: THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES PANEL - NEWSARAMA

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NYCC ‘08: DC’s [Final] FINAL CRISIS PANEL

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Report by Albert Ching
With the third installment of the New York Comic Con drawing to a close Sunday, DC’s final panel of the convention focused on, appropriately enough, Final Crisis. DC Universe Executive Editor Dan DiDio was joined by Final Crisis artist JG Jones, editor Eddie Berganza, assistant editor Adam Schlagman and, arriving about 15 minutes into the panel, Grant Morrison, writer of the mini-series
DiDio began the panel by explaining the basic concept behind Final Crisis - that it’s the third part of both “official” and “unofficial” trilogies in the DC Universe. Officially, it’s the third “Crisis” after Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis, with the former representing the “death of the multiverse,” the latter representing the ‘rebuilding of the multiverse,” and Final Crisis being the “final saga of the multiverse.”
Unofficially, it’s part of a trilogy of recent events that DiDio calls “an exploration of our heroes.” Identity Crisis, the first part, was in DiDio’s words, a “personal threat” to the protagonists of the DC Universe. Follow-up Infinite Crisis was “putting the greatest odds against the heroes,” and Final Crisis is ‘the day that evil won.”
“This is the one time evil wins,” said DiDio. “What does that mean for our heroes?”

 

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NYCC ‘08: DC’s DC NATION PANEL

Report by Albert Ching

With many Marvel staffers still filing out of the panel room, Dan DiDio quickly began the first DC Universe panel of New York Comic Con Friday evening, “DC Nation”. He introduced the panel - Bob Wayne, Jann Jones, Keith Giffen, Gail Simone, Jimmy Palmiotti, Sean McKeever, Geoff Johns, Peter Tomasi and Ian Sattler - and then said this DC Nation panel will “do thing a little differently” (“Thank God,” someone behind this reporter said).

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COUNTDOWN TO NY COMIC CON: DAN DIDIO ON BATMAN R.I.P. & TRINITY

Welcome to the premiere of a new era here at Newsarama – the video era. As we and the New York Comic Con jointly announced a couple of months ago, Newsarama will be on hand at this weekend’s third annual con in our digital newsroom/studio interviewing many of the show’s biggest guests. That coverage will begin Friday and all throughout the weekend.

But since we were getting ready for the show anyway, we thought we’d get a running head-start on our new video wrinkle by recently paying a visit to the DC Comics offices in New York, NY, to catch up with DC Universe Executive Editor Dan DiDio on some of the publisher’s most high-profile projects heading into the convention, a hint or two (if you look closely) about upcoming goings-on, as well as a few words about some new DC announcements you’ll be hearing from the convention floor.

We’ve asked our friends and media partners from Pulp Secret’s The Stack to be your guide for our DC visit, and we usher in this new era with a talk with DiDio about Batman R.I.P and Trinity and what you need to know heading into the convention and DC’s summer publishing plans…

And check out our new video archive page for more videos with DiDio talking about Final Crisis and its tie-in titles, the exclusive announcement of the artist who will join James Robinson on the writer’s upcoming new Justice League title, and more…

NEWSARAMA.COM: COUNTDOWN TO NY COMIC CON: DAN DIDIO ON FINAL BATMAN R.I.P. & TRINITY

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COUNTDOWN TO NY COMIC CON: DAN DIDIO ON FINAL CRISIS & TIE-INS

In this video, DCU Executive Editor Dan DiDio talks to Newsarama about the upcoming Grant Morrison/JG Jones Final Crisis event, along with DC Universe #0, Geoff Johns and George Perez’s Legion of Three Worlds, and more…

As always, looks for an archive of all these videos on Newsarama’s special New York Comic Con Mini-Site and/or new video archive page…

NEWSARAMA.COM: COUNTDOWN TO NY COMIC CON: DAN DIDIO ON FINAL CRISIS & TIE-INS

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COUNTDOWN TO NY COMIC CON: DAN DIDIO REVEALS NEW JUSTICE LEAGUE ARTIST

In this video, Dan DiDio has an announcement for you - the identity of the artist who will join writer James Robinson on his upcoming new Justice League series. Plus, Dan talks to Newsarama more about Robinson’s plans, and the line-up for the new league team…

As always, looks for an archive of all these videos on Newsarama’s special New York Comic Con Mini-Site and/or new video archive page…

NEWSARAMA.COM: COUNTDOWN TO NY COMIC CON: DAN DIDIO REVEALS NEW JUSTICE LEAGUE ARTIST

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AWESOME!!!!

DC UNIVERSE #0 - THE REAL COVER

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You’ve seen a teaser or two, but today, DC Comics has provided Newsarama with the real deal – the true cover to May’s DC Universe #0
Back in February DC’s Dan DiDio described the one-shot, saying:
“Originally, we were going to do Countdown to Final Crisis #0 - that’s what Countdown has been counting down to: 51 to 0 – 52 issues in total, a year’s worth of work. Ultimately though, what happened was that when we were looking at how #0 was being created, we realized that in collecting Countdown to Final Crisis, it would be hard to collect the #0 issue, because it would leave us on a cliffhanger at the end of the book. We felt that probably wasn’t the best way to end a book, so we decided to end all the Countdown stories with #1, and there