Superman Homepage

2007 Comic Book News Archives

August 10, 2007: Superman Homepage at Wizard World Chicago 2007, Day 1 - Friday

The first full day of Wizard World Chicago was a huge success for the Superman Homepage. Neal Bailey and I both attended for the website. Neal manned the Superfan Homepage booth (the website markets itself at conventions with its alternate URL, SuperfanHomepage.com, for legal reasons) which is located in the left rear of the convention center - and he'll be at the booth all day tomorrow and Sunday too. If you're attending Wizard World, stop by and say Hi to Neal, sign up to become a registered member of the Superman/Superfan Homepage (if you're not already one), pick up one of our super cool Superfan Homepage business cards, and of course purchase one of Neal's books. Neal will be providing additional convention reports throughout the weekend.

While Neal marketed the Superfan Homepage, I (along with my friend Anthony Lujan) covered the convention proceedings themselves. There were two booths that were of principal interest to Superman fans - the DC Comics booth of course and the Mattel booth.

At the DC booth, there were some very cool DC Direct action figures, statues, and accessories with a Superman theme. One of my favorite items is the forthcoming DC Direct JLA Trophy Room Kryptonite Display which includes light-up versions of green K, red K, blue K, and yellow K.

There's a Cyborg Superman figure in an upcoming Green Lantern line of DC Direct action figures as he's represented in the current Sinestro War storyline in the Green Lantern titles.

Already seen at Comic-Con last month, there are prototype figures of the Justice League as they're depicted on TV's "Smallville". The final figures are scheduled for release in April 2008 and include Clark, Victor (Cyborg) Stone, Ollie (Green Arrow) Queen, Bart (Impulse/Flash) Allen, and Arthur (Aquaman) Curry.

DC Direct is also releasing action figures from the upcoming direct-to-DVD "Superman: Doomsday" animated film.

The Mattel booth also had some very cool Superman related figures. In conjunction therewith, Mattel sponsored a panel presentation specifically to discuss its coming plans for DC Comics properties.

The big news which the Superman Homepage announced a while back is that Mattel now has the license for the entire DC Universe whereas it used to just be able to produce figures related to Superman and Batman (plus the Justice League Unlimited animated line). According to Mattel's Director of Action Figure Relations, this opens up to Mattel more than 3,000 characters.

Mattel will be gearing much more of its future DC related releases to the collectors' market. Mattel is aware that there are distribution problems with their DC figures and they are addressing these. To some extent, the Mattel rep explained, the problem with figure availability has to do with what stores like Target choose to order after they are presented with the entire line and that, often, they simply don't have the shelf space to order a whole line. The Mattel rep specifically mentioned that he'd heard that some of the harder to find DC figures at present may be available at "Big Lot" stores including the S3 Sculpt of the Cyborg Superman.

Mattel plans to release a series of Fighting Figures which will be released in 2008. These will be packaged with one hero and one villain. These are iconic representations of the DC characters. Among the two-packs planned for the first wave are Superman versus Lex Luthor, Superman versus the Joker (who comes accessorized with Kryptonite to even the odds), and J'onn J'onzz (Martian Manhunter) versus Lex Luthor.

The big DC/Mattel news is the DC Classic collection which are all new 6 inch figures. The plan for 2008 is for there to be five waves of five figures per wave plus variants. Each wave in this all new line will include what Mattel calls a "build-a-figure" - if you purchase each figure in the wave, you can build a whole other action figure. The DC Classics will be sculpted by the Four Horsemen and will be similar to the S3 Sculpt line released over the past year (which included two-packs of Superman and Bizarro, and Superman and Clark Kent).

The upcoming second wave of the DC Classics collection made its world premiere at the panel. It includes Superman Red and Superman Blue from the electric Superman storyline of several years back. Neither Superman Blue nor Superman Red are "chase figures" which essentially means they won't be particularly difficult to find. Also, they are considered only one figure for purposes of the "build-a-figure" feature. You don't need to buy both Superman Red and Superman Blue to "build-a-figure" - each will contain the necessary component. Note: The other figures in wave two aren't Superman-related but, for your information, are Firestorm (new and classic), Aquaman (new and classic), Black Manta, and Harley Quinn.

Mattel's representative promised that they are very aware of the demand for action figures based on the CW animated television show "The Legion of Super-Heroes". He said that Mattel is working on releasing action figures related to "Legion" and that they are considering the use of online stores or convention exclusives to expedite this.

The rep also said that the Mattel license also includes DC comics movies - including action figures for "The Dark Knight" and any future sequel(s) to "Superman Returns". Mattel indicated the license also includes past movies and that they are looking at things like figures related to the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, though nothing is planned for this as of yet. The representative explained that one complication is that, while they can do figures based on the movies, they would also need to work with the estate of Christopher Reeve in getting authorization from them (similar to what they had to do last year with the Marlon Brando Jor-El action figures that they did as part of the "Superman Returns" line). The representative said that they are "well aware of the demand for a Chris Reeve Superman figure."

When they took questions from the audience, one person specifically brought up Lois Lane. With regard to the "Superman Returns" line, this person said he felt Mattel dropped the ball in not releasing a Lois Lane figure, that the "Superman Returns" line had limited utility with only Superman, Lex, and Jor-El in it. With regard to a Lois Lane action figure in the DC Classic line, the Mattel rep indicated that they are looking at that but there aren't any plans in place as of yet.

The Mattel license also includes future releases of the direct-to-DVD animated DCU film properties and Mattel is considering the viability of figures related to "Justice League: New Frontier" as well as other upcoming animated projects.

After the Mattel presentation, I asked the Mattel representative if there were any plans to release a new sculpt of the animated Supergirl in the "Justice League Unlimited" line in her final season blue and red costume. He told me that this is being considered.

I also visited with Superman Homepage friend, "The Adventures of Superman" co-star, and "Superman Returns" cast member Noel Neill, who is appearing at the convention - she's actually diagonally across from the Superfan Homepage table. As always, Noel was super-gracious and permitted both Neal Bailey and I to take pictures with her. I asked her if she kept in touch with any of the people she worked with on "Superman Returns". She told me she'd spoken with director Bryan Singer who had at one point told her that all of the cast were contracted for the sequel but that Singer himself wasn't. Noel joked with him that he was looking to renegotiate his deal. She then ran into Singer again more recently and he told her that he did in fact re-up with Warner Brothers for the sequel.

Noel shared with me that she actually didn't film her scene with actor Kevin Spacey. She read her lines in bed with the dogs and Spacey filmed his part in the scene separately. She also confirmed for me that none of her work ended up on the cutting room floor. According to Noel, there was apparently a scene in the original script with Noel's Gertrude Vanderworth visiting Lex Luthor in prison but this was never filmed. Noel joked that they could go back and do this as a flashback in the sequel since they killed her character off.

While prior commitments prevent me from returning to the convention tomorrow or Sunday, Neal Bailey will be there all weekend long and additional reports from Neal are forthcoming.


2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - 3 Inch Action Figures	2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - DC Comics Booth	2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - DC AmeComi Figures	2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Barry Freiman with Noel Neill

2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Cyborg Superman (Green Lantern line) Figure	2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Barry Freiman with Dan DiDio	2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Kryptonite Display	2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Lex Luthor Fan

2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Mattel DC Universe Presentation	2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Doomsday Lava Action Figure	2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Mattel JLA Action Figures from "The Batman" line	2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Mattel Plushies

2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Mattel Panel	2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Mattel Presentation	2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Mattel Superman Action Figure (from "The Batman" line)	2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Mattel Super Friends presentation

2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Mattel Super Friends Action Figures	2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Mattel Super Friends Action Figures	2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Neal Bailey with Noel Neill	2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Mattel Cyborg Superman AF

2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Smallville Action Figure Models	2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Superman vs Lex Luthor Promotional Poster	2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Upcoming Superman Figure	2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Superman: Doomsday Action Figures

2007 Wizard World Chicago Convention - Superman Red Action Figure