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Emerald City Comic Con: What’s New In The DCU? Panel

Posted: Sunday, April 1, 2007
Posted By: Caryn A. Tate

Joan Hilty, editor of DC titles including Flash and Checkmate, moderated the panel “What’s New in the DCU?” on Saturday at the Emerald City Comic Con. The panel also consisted of writers Gail Simone, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid, and Kurt Busiek.



The casual and laid back panel involved numerous participants posing questions to the panelists regarding the current state of the DCU and plans for the future. After introductions were made by Hilty, the questions started up right away by eager and excited fans. The subjects included the following comic titles and topics:

DC/Marvel rivalry: A fan asked the panelists what it is about DC that they prefer over other publishers like Marvel or Image.
  • Simone: Diversity. DC promotes diverse characters and storylines, and if you have a story to tell, chances are you’ll be able to tell it somewhere in the DCU.

  • Rucka: He likes the pillars of the DCU, the “holy trinity.” He said that he is amazed that he gets to write what these characters say, and that DC created three distinct voices which are all legitimate types of heroism. He feels the biggest difference with DC is that it’s very optimistic and forward-looking, and that the DCU doesn’t suffer from passive aggressiveness like Marvel. Rucka continued, “Marvel is more introverted.”

  • Waid: He feels similarly to Rucka. As great as Marvel characters are, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman were first. The superhero genre was built upon them. (He also jokingly stated that he likes the DCU because Wolverine isn’t in it.)

  • Busiek: He likes the way DC feels like a world of champions, that there are protectors of respective cities that cover the world. When they come together in the Justice League, they stand together as a force. In Marvel, New York is very interesting, but that’s basically all. Busiek feels that DC has a sense of the world, and he likes the scope of it.


Movies of DC Superheroes: When asked about the recent movie versions of DC characters, and which were “woo-hoo!” movies and which were “bad,” the panelists responded in afairly mixed way.
  • Rucka said, “Batman Begins was ‘woo-hoo’! Superman Returns was ‘bad.’” He continued to say that he felt there is a problem with making a Superman movie that you can’t take a small child to see.

  • Simone agreed, and stated that she was disappointed with the Lois Lane character portrayal in the Superman film.

  • Waid loved Superman Returns. He said, “I know it has flaws, but I don’t care.”

  • Busiek stated that he wore a grin the entire time throughout Superman Returns. Afterward he noticed the flaws.


Diversity in Comics: A fan asked how the writers deal with diversity in characters without it becoming the be all, end all of a character.
  • Rucka advised fans not to mistake publicity for characterization. As an example he mentioned Batwoman, and that he felt the way she was described in the New York Times article was completely different than the character on the comic book page. He stated that he felt the article damaged that character.

  • Simone went on to say that while she’s a female comic book writer, that’s not all she is. She stated that it’s the same with characters, and that they should be well rounded.

  • Busiek stated that these “diverse” characteristics are what make characters people, not what make them diverse. He emphasized that “people are diverse.”

  • Rucka continued by saying that characters are never one thing, and that “by telling me this character is African American tells me nothing.”


Renee Montoya & The Question: When asked if Renee would become The Question, Rucka replied that next week is “Renee’s week” in 52.

Later, when asked why The Question was killed, Waid responded that no one person decided it. Rucka stated that decisions like this aren’t made capriciously, and that this story arc takes a different look at death in the DCU. He said, “Ralph’s question is: ‘Why does everyone else come back from the dead, but my wife doesn’t?’” Rucka went on to say that The Question’s death was intended to put back the threat that death is in comics, and that we don’t get to see characters deal with their own death very often. He also urged fans not to confuse the animated version of a character (from Justice League Unlimited) with the comic book version.

Metal Men: When asked if there would be any new developments with the Metal Men, Rucka said that he couldn’t reveal anything, but that there would be something upcoming in 52. Waid stated that the characters would be appearing in Superman/Batman, and that Grant Morrison may soon be giving some details of their origin.

Blue Beetle: A fan inquired about the classic version of Blue Beetle and whether Ted Kord would be back. Rucka advised him to keep reading 52. Hilty stated that the Jamie Reyes version of Beetle should be supported, and that he’s a great character (to which all four of the other panelists agreed).

Brave and the Bold: When asked about his title, Waid stated that there’s a possibility of a Bizarro/Brainiac team-up that he’s looking forward to. He continued to say that the book is doing well, and that the easiest way to make the title tank would be by not featuring the more prominent characters in the DCU.

Legion of Superheroes: A fan of the title asked Waid about why he’s leaving the book. Waid replied that the artist is leaving to work at Marvel, and he doesn’t want to continue on the title without him. Their run will end with issue #30, and the upcoming writer on the title will be Tony Bedard, whose work Waid said he enjoys.

In other, more random topics:
  • A fan asked if DC would ever get back into individual issue story arcs. Busiek suggested checking out the last two issues, and the next upcoming issue, of Superman. Rucka mentioned Paul Dini’s current run on Detective Comics. Waid stated that Brave and the Bold is meant to be read in single issues.

  • Busiek mentioned that he initially left Aquaman to work on a special project that has since been delayed, but that he will be working on a Lex Luthor mini series and more Superman related books.

  • A question was posed as to whether the Red Hood/Jason Todd character would be back. It was mentioned that there will be a good chance of seeing him during World War III.

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