2007 Merchandise & Miscellaneous News Archives

Wizard World

March 17, 2007: Superman Homepage Wizard World LA Report: DAY ONE (Jeffrey)

By Jeffrey Bridges

Much smaller than Wizard World Chicago, but no less spunky. Scantily clad women handing out caffeine gum were the least of the of the reasons why this day was a great success. Folks flocked to the SuperfanHomepage table to chat it up with superstars Neal Bailey and Jeffrey Bridges, heroes in their own minds.

Or the day might have been slow and sparsely populated, I'm not sure. I spent most of the day dreaming about all those people flocking to talk to us and give us caffeine gum in more clothes than you'd find on your average street walker. No, that last part is true. Really.

Really really.

But this is not what you came here to read about, no! And if it is, I think you're at the wrong website! Scantily clad women is every OTHER website on the internet (and any portions of this fine, upstanding site pertaining to Erica Durance). You want Superman news, and so news you shall have!

What little of it there is, anyway.

DC did not have a booth at Wizard World LA, much to my vexation. There was but a hint as to why in the DC Nation panel, which was the only source of Super-news to be found on this most early and sparsely populated day of the con.

After merely joking that DC "forgot" to send their booth to Wizard World LA, Didio confessed that this was DC's third convention in four weeks and they just couldn't do all of them, and he felt it was more important that he, Bob Wayne, Jimmy Palmiotti and Bill Willingham where there in person to talk to the fans. Considering the "wealth" of information Didio gave up I'm not so sure I agree with that, but he was certainly affable and entertaining.

He explained that the upcoming weekly series "Countdown" would take place in real-time and advance the entire DCU forward by the same amount. All the Countdown books that come out in a month, whether they collectively span five minutes or two weeks of time, all take place in the same month and will tie in to the rest of the DC books as the year goes on.

Regarding the massive amounts of delays with DC's books, Didio was very apologetic and seemed all too aware of the problem. One fan told him he was psyched to get some of DC's new upcoming books, but due to the delays his loyalty to the company has gone right out the window. Didio's response seemed genuine, and not as rote as I expected it to be.

We are aware of that; we were nervous about that. And you know, I used to do a joke, 'You keep buying late books and we'll keep making them'. Seriously, there's a lot of seriousness in what I say. Because if you look at it... there's all these books are running late but people still buy them when they come out. So it almost justifies them being late... but, there's a limit. And I think we've pushed everything to the limit.

The great part of what we're trying to accomplish with the DC universe... the idea of trying to synch up and try to move the universe one month at a time, together, is a daunting task. It means the books have got to come out or else the whole thing falls apart. Everybody's aware of that right from the start and it's everything we're doing right now to make sure it happens. Simple as that.

You know what, I can't go back and fix those, but I certainly can look from where we made our mistakes and try not to repeat them, that's the plan. We have to work hard to earn your respect, and to win your trust in our production again. And that's what we're going to be doing.

To me this actually didn't come off as making excuses, but as an apology for mistakes made and a sincere attempt to right the ship in regards to sticking to a release schedule. Here's hoping he didn't just pull a fast one on me, like a scantily-clad woman trying to get me to chew caffeine gum.

One fan referenced Brad Meltzer using Frank Miller's "Dark Knight" as continuity in "Justice League of America" and another book (though I couldn't hear which) referencing "Kingdom Come" as merely one very small example of the mess that DC continuity has become (as we all know it's gotten particularly bad in the Superman line). Again, Didio seemed honest and open about it, and actually admitted it.

Yeah, we're doing that, you're honestly right. Something's going on! There's a plan, there's a plan. A lot of these, there's a lot of references going on. You're going to see the world of the Legion start to leak it's way into the DCU in current time... there's a lot of things happening. And it's moving to... it's moving somewhere. How's that for being as vague and annoying as possible?

Honestly, much to my surprise (like women in nearly no clothes offering me caffeine gum... you don't expect that, I tell you), again it seemed to me that Didio was being honest here. Do I believe going back even as far as "Birthright" that there's been a plan for why all of these apparent continuity discrepancies would be going on?

No. What am I, a guy who chews caffeine gum?

But I think, much like with all the delays with releasing the comics, they've realized it's a big problem and are actually working to fix it. Here's hoping anyway. What's that? Caffeine gum? Don't mind if I do.

Didio then said that they've got plans to bring back "Infinity Inc." with John Henry Irons in the lead. More John Henry? Don't mind if I do!

...Jimmy Olsen Must Die is a particular storyline, one of the biggest through-lines in "Countdown".

Palmiotti chimed in with, "It's huge. There's a reason Jimmy Olsen must die."

Didio: "We can justify killing Jimmy Olsen in this book."

Palmiotti: "It's going to be a really, really big year for Jimmy Olsen."

Jimmy's death being justified? John Henry leading a book?? Continuity messes cleaned up??? Books actually coming out on time???? HOW CAN A PERSON COPE?????

Fear not.

The nearly-naked girls have caffeine gum.



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