HEROES CON: DC Up-to-date
At Heroes Con in Charlotte N.C., DC Comics held its second panel, titled “Countdown and Beyond,” helmed by Dan DiDio under the watchful eye of the VP of Marketing John Cunningham, who was working double duty, also manning the Powerpoint slideshow. Provided were the clarification of how The Flash cancellation/relaunch will go down, as well as the timeline for the Black Canary/Green Arrow wedding.
First, The Flash will be, as previously reported by Mike Gold, ending its run with issue number 13. DiDio admitted to falsely leading readers and retailers alike that the current Flash writer, Marc Guggenheim, was going to be a long term installation and that the orders for issues 14 and 15 were purposely solicited. Flash #13’s story will conclude in JLA #10, followed by All Flash Special #1 the third week of July. The third week of August will see Flash #231 on stands and will go on monthly from there.
Editor Jann Jones feels that while Black Canary can kick some serious butt superheroes may not make the best wedding planners, bringing us The Black Canary Wedding Planner in September to kick off “wedding month.” The second and third weeks we’ll see the bachelorette and bachelor parties in Countdown and JLA respectively. The big event will happen the last week of September with the Green Arrow/Black Canary Wedding Special, written by Dwanye McDuffie – who will also be taking over at JLA with issue #13.
DiDio also says Action Comics is back on track and we can expect to see a couple months where we are doubled up with issues. In addition, a future issue will feature panel in 3-D whenever the action takes place in the Phantom Zone.
Other titles that may or may not have been previously announced were various 52-related spin-offs: Infinity Inc, Black Adam, The Crime Bible featuring The Question and the Four Horsemen, who are not dead but will be facing the three heroes that were missing in 52.
We were given some details about new horror-themed DCU based comic/character Simon Dark, who resides in Gotham and seems to be a twist on a Frankenstein-like being. This is meant to be part of the move to help populate the universe with more “mystical” type characters since the siphoning off of many such folks to Vertigo. Apparently it’s a one way trip since it was said in no uncertain terms that Swamp Thing, Hellblazer and their mature title ilk will not be reappearing.
Black Adam, not Black Atom
Fixed. Although for all we know, this could be some change to Ray Palmer that's happened since Identity Crisis…
Nope, they'd already announced a Black Adam mini-, which will cover what happened to him between 52 and Countdown.
My bad and sadly I'm so behind and/or confused about the DCU what with Mary Marvel actually having his power and where is Captain Atom… plus the outright flustered over getting tapped to write up something… Don't I get points for spelling McDuffie right?
Only his first name.
Way to go, Adriane! Good job :) Sad to see Vertigo characters will never return to the DCU, but excited that means there's more opportunities for new spooky characters :)