BrianWilly
Disciple of Whedon
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2003
- Messages
- 13,275
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 56
...or, I saw Geoff Johns in the bathroom. He had a hot Asian lady friend with him. (not in the bathroom)
Oh and *inhales* I SPOKE ENGLISH-SOUNDING WORDS TO ADAM ****ING BALDWIN.
I SAY WOOT AND I MEAN IT
Anyway I was at WonderCon today, went to DC panels, etc etc.
The Geoff Johns panel was packed. He was one single person, and the room was pretty big, but it was still seriously full. I questioned Johns about Earth being the first planet to ever have life and what does that mean for the Guardians' timeline, 'cause I'm a big dumbass who likes wasting questions. He gave the generic "It'll be explored in Brightest Day" answer.
DC Nation panel was just DiDio, Jim Lee, and Johns, which surprised me. There was some talk about new responsibilities, and there was a lot of talk about making more, better DC movies. Johns wants all DC characters to make it to the big screen. Other than that there were no real revelations here other than that All-Star Batman would be reborn under a different title.
For my question, I mentioned to them that for the past several years DC's team books like JLA and Titans either seemed to be getting together or breaking apart and all I've been getting is "JLA: Disassembled" and "New Titans," and as a reader it seems like all they're doing is throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. Johns said he agreed. DiDio seemed like he agreed as well, and said something to the effect that even though it doesn't always work, they always try to do the best and be putting out the best books that they can.
(Newsarama transcribed my question as [Next person up was irritated with rapid roster changes in team books, specifically Teen Titans. "I agree with you, I think you need stability on team books," Johns said. "There will be some stability brought back to the Teen Titans."] which, eh, I suppose is pretty much how I expected it to be transcribed. Though I didn't mention Teen Titans at all, Johns just brought it up as an example.)
But my favorite part of today would have to be the spotlight on Greg Rucka. It was actually incredibly revelatory, I wish I could transcribe it all for you. It's a little sad that there weren't that many people there to hear what he said, maybe forty or fifty tops in the huge room...but that also made for a more intimate, subdued atmosphere, which was nice. He talked a lot about his process, his take on female characters, stuff like that. He says that a writer needs to be challenged and to "feel scared" about what they're writing, and shouldn't ever get too comfortable. Which may explain the most pertinent news that, according to him, he just finished the last thing he'll be writing for DC for a bit.
Yup, it's all true: Rucka is taking a break from DC comics. It didn't sound like there was any malicious reason for it at all; he just basically says he needs to do his own thing at the moment. Read what you will of it.
He gave a very in-depth, very interesting analysis of Wonder Woman and how he went about writing her. He was quite open about it, possibly because...well, he's taking a break from DC and can be a bit more open. He actually spoke fairly harshly against some former WW writers, saying that they didn't like the character, they just wanted to f*** her. His exact words.
He said that WW is absolutely a political character, but that unfortunately the feminism of the era that she was created under is hard to transition to modern times. He is completely cognizant of WW's creepy bondage themes. There are the bondage boots. The bracelets of submission. "The lasso isn't a lasso, it's a whip." Again, his exact words. He said that writers tend to just ignore that, which he disagreed with. I found that interesting because I didn't really catch any of those themes in his issues.
Also, DC apparently didn't like all the emphasis he was putting on gods and myth while he was on the book.
Geez. He very much disagreed with the tendency to write her off as inhuman, too perfect. Interesting revelations #4575: From his perspective, Diana's far from flawless, and her fatal hubris is arrogance. It is that arrogance that led to her acting as the sole arbiter of life and death with Max Lord, and that would have come back to bite her in the ass in the next twelve month's worth of issues that he had originally planned out for the series.
There was a lot of discussion re: Batwoman. He gave a hilarious flow-chart diagram example of what it takes to became a Bat family member...happy childhood > traumatic childhood incident > diverting of energy into dealing with traumatic childhood incident > epiphany leading to dressing up in spandex. He likes the fact that Kate is sort of third-generation bat family; they don't ever needed to have met Batman to be able to take up his symbol, his cause. Interesting revelation #25798: the scene where Kate refuses to lie when questioned by her commander about her sexuality, which is one of my favorite scenes ever, was suggested by Peter Tomasi back when he was still editing Bat-books. This **** was planned out way in advance.
He dislikes the take on Batman that's always
"Stay out of my city." He feels like Gotham is a big place and Batman wouldn't turn away help so long as they're operating reasonably, ie no killing. He dislikes the interpretation of Batman being as insane as the Joker, because that diminishes Batman's heroism.
It seems like he wishes there were less event books. Well okay, scratch that, he literally said verbatim that he wishes there were less event books. He misses the days when there could be a twelve-issue run on something without big events butting in. He went on a bit, quite vociferously, about how badly the comics industry was doing. They have to be back in the spiral stands, the fact that they're only in specialty stores now is really hurting them. They're only being marketed to people who already buy them, manga sales is literally hundreds of times better than comic sales. Etc etc. It's really nothing we haven't already known, but it was interesting to see how genuinely frustrated he seems to be with it.
When it came time for questions, I told him Detective Comics #859 was my favorite comic issue last year. Then I asked him wtf was up with Diana making out with imaginary Bruce in BN: WW.
He knew that there were people weirded out by that whole thing, and explained that he "saw a story" there. So, yes, Greg Rucka is a total Bruce/Diana 'shipper.
Interesting revelation #25897: Cris Allen was always intended to die and Renee was always intended to quit the force at the end of Gotham Central. But turning Cris into the Spectre was Geoff Johns' notion; Rucka was apprehensive at first, but then warmed a bit to the idea after he considered that if he was going to kill off one of the only visibly married black men in comics, he might as well be turned into the most powerful entity in the universe.
Going back tomorrow for more fun and, hopefully, more Adam Baldwin, who is really tall and has the perfect skin.
Oh and *inhales* I SPOKE ENGLISH-SOUNDING WORDS TO ADAM ****ING BALDWIN.
I SAY WOOT AND I MEAN IT Anyway I was at WonderCon today, went to DC panels, etc etc.
The Geoff Johns panel was packed. He was one single person, and the room was pretty big, but it was still seriously full. I questioned Johns about Earth being the first planet to ever have life and what does that mean for the Guardians' timeline, 'cause I'm a big dumbass who likes wasting questions. He gave the generic "It'll be explored in Brightest Day" answer.
DC Nation panel was just DiDio, Jim Lee, and Johns, which surprised me. There was some talk about new responsibilities, and there was a lot of talk about making more, better DC movies. Johns wants all DC characters to make it to the big screen. Other than that there were no real revelations here other than that All-Star Batman would be reborn under a different title.
For my question, I mentioned to them that for the past several years DC's team books like JLA and Titans either seemed to be getting together or breaking apart and all I've been getting is "JLA: Disassembled" and "New Titans," and as a reader it seems like all they're doing is throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. Johns said he agreed. DiDio seemed like he agreed as well, and said something to the effect that even though it doesn't always work, they always try to do the best and be putting out the best books that they can.
(Newsarama transcribed my question as [Next person up was irritated with rapid roster changes in team books, specifically Teen Titans. "I agree with you, I think you need stability on team books," Johns said. "There will be some stability brought back to the Teen Titans."] which, eh, I suppose is pretty much how I expected it to be transcribed. Though I didn't mention Teen Titans at all, Johns just brought it up as an example.)
But my favorite part of today would have to be the spotlight on Greg Rucka. It was actually incredibly revelatory, I wish I could transcribe it all for you. It's a little sad that there weren't that many people there to hear what he said, maybe forty or fifty tops in the huge room...but that also made for a more intimate, subdued atmosphere, which was nice. He talked a lot about his process, his take on female characters, stuff like that. He says that a writer needs to be challenged and to "feel scared" about what they're writing, and shouldn't ever get too comfortable. Which may explain the most pertinent news that, according to him, he just finished the last thing he'll be writing for DC for a bit.
Yup, it's all true: Rucka is taking a break from DC comics. It didn't sound like there was any malicious reason for it at all; he just basically says he needs to do his own thing at the moment. Read what you will of it.
He gave a very in-depth, very interesting analysis of Wonder Woman and how he went about writing her. He was quite open about it, possibly because...well, he's taking a break from DC and can be a bit more open. He actually spoke fairly harshly against some former WW writers, saying that they didn't like the character, they just wanted to f*** her. His exact words.
He said that WW is absolutely a political character, but that unfortunately the feminism of the era that she was created under is hard to transition to modern times. He is completely cognizant of WW's creepy bondage themes. There are the bondage boots. The bracelets of submission. "The lasso isn't a lasso, it's a whip." Again, his exact words. He said that writers tend to just ignore that, which he disagreed with. I found that interesting because I didn't really catch any of those themes in his issues.
Also, DC apparently didn't like all the emphasis he was putting on gods and myth while he was on the book.
Geez. He very much disagreed with the tendency to write her off as inhuman, too perfect. Interesting revelations #4575: From his perspective, Diana's far from flawless, and her fatal hubris is arrogance. It is that arrogance that led to her acting as the sole arbiter of life and death with Max Lord, and that would have come back to bite her in the ass in the next twelve month's worth of issues that he had originally planned out for the series.There was a lot of discussion re: Batwoman. He gave a hilarious flow-chart diagram example of what it takes to became a Bat family member...happy childhood > traumatic childhood incident > diverting of energy into dealing with traumatic childhood incident > epiphany leading to dressing up in spandex. He likes the fact that Kate is sort of third-generation bat family; they don't ever needed to have met Batman to be able to take up his symbol, his cause. Interesting revelation #25798: the scene where Kate refuses to lie when questioned by her commander about her sexuality, which is one of my favorite scenes ever, was suggested by Peter Tomasi back when he was still editing Bat-books. This **** was planned out way in advance.
He dislikes the take on Batman that's always
"Stay out of my city." He feels like Gotham is a big place and Batman wouldn't turn away help so long as they're operating reasonably, ie no killing. He dislikes the interpretation of Batman being as insane as the Joker, because that diminishes Batman's heroism.It seems like he wishes there were less event books. Well okay, scratch that, he literally said verbatim that he wishes there were less event books. He misses the days when there could be a twelve-issue run on something without big events butting in. He went on a bit, quite vociferously, about how badly the comics industry was doing. They have to be back in the spiral stands, the fact that they're only in specialty stores now is really hurting them. They're only being marketed to people who already buy them, manga sales is literally hundreds of times better than comic sales. Etc etc. It's really nothing we haven't already known, but it was interesting to see how genuinely frustrated he seems to be with it.
When it came time for questions, I told him Detective Comics #859 was my favorite comic issue last year. Then I asked him wtf was up with Diana making out with imaginary Bruce in BN: WW.
He knew that there were people weirded out by that whole thing, and explained that he "saw a story" there. So, yes, Greg Rucka is a total Bruce/Diana 'shipper.Interesting revelation #25897: Cris Allen was always intended to die and Renee was always intended to quit the force at the end of Gotham Central. But turning Cris into the Spectre was Geoff Johns' notion; Rucka was apprehensive at first, but then warmed a bit to the idea after he considered that if he was going to kill off one of the only visibly married black men in comics, he might as well be turned into the most powerful entity in the universe.
Going back tomorrow for more fun and, hopefully, more Adam Baldwin, who is really tall and has the perfect skin.
