The Legionnaire's Guide to SDCC09 (preview #2)

Here's the updated Legionnaire's Guide to San Diego. The previous version only had the DC schedule. Added Friday's Mattel/DC panel; Saturday's DC Editorial panel and the Siegel/Shuster/Superboy lawsuit panel; and Sunday's Smallville panel.

Thursday July 23

11:45-12:45 Superman: Two Worlds
Torn between New Krypton and Earth, The Man of Steel has only just begun his latest adventure. You've seen the stories. A new planet of Kryptonians. Scores of super-powered beings. The people behind Superman's future are here to face the most trying times in his life. Meet the talented folks behind Superman as they give you a glimpse of what is in store for our favorite Super-family. Featuring Superman Group Editor Matt Idelson, Geoff Johns (Adventure Comics, Superman: Secret Origins), Greg Rucka (Action Comics), James Robinson (Superman), Sterling Gates (Supergirl), Renato Guedes (Superman), and more! Room 6DE

2:15-3:15 Spotlight on Geoff Johns
He is the mastermind behind the smash-hit, critically acclaimed Flash: Rebirth and DC's most anticipated book of the year, Green Lantern: Blackest Night. Wondering what makes Geoff Johns tick? Don't miss this panel hosted by Eddie Berganza, Group Editor—DCU, interviewing one of the most exciting talents in the DCU. Room 6DE

Friday July 24

11:00-12:00 Mattel and DC Comics: A Heroic Partnership
You've been a fan of Mattel's popular DC toy lines, now find out the latest news, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes scoop on your favorite Mattel/DC action figures, including DC Universe Classics, Justice League Unlimited, Infinite Heroes, and exciting new lines like Batman: The Brave and the Bold, as well as the world premiere of new action figure lines announced here first! Join Mattel Toy designer Bill Benecke, Mattel marketing brand manager Scott Neitlich (AKA "Toy Guru"), The Four Horsemen, and representatives from DC Comics and Warner Brothers for an insightful Q&A. Room 2

3:00-4:00 DC NATION
Calling all NATION recruits! Bring your friends and hear top talent discuss where the DC NATION is heading from 2009 and beyond. Sr. VP - Executive Editor Dan DiDio hosts this exciting discussion with Ian Sattler, James Robinson, Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, and more! Join them for a VIP look into the most talked about stories and events of the summer! Room 6DE

Saturday July 25

11:30-12:30 Spotlight on Francis Manapul
The hot up-and-coming artist Francis Manapul takes the stage to discuss his kinetic art on one of the most anticipated projects of the year: Adventure Comics with Geoff Johns! Hosted by Group Editor Matt Idelson see what's it like illustrating the return of Superboy. Come find out from one of the freshest artists in the biz! Room 4

12:45-2:00 DCU Editorial Presentation
Senior VP/executive editor DCU Dan DiDio, senior story editor—DCU Ian Sattler, and countless DCU talent are gathering for a discussion that's not to be missed. Now that Blackest Night is upon us, what lies ahead for your favorite heroes? Got a question for your favorite DCU creator? Come on by! There's no greater gathering of top-tier creative talent! Room 6A

1:00-2:00 Comics Arts Conference Session #11: The (Strange) State of Siegel and Shuster Scholarship
Brad Ricca (Case Western Reserve University), director of Last Son, a scholarly documentary on Siegel and Shuster, moderates this conversational panel featuring Craig Yoe (Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman Co-Creator Joe Shuster) and Lauren Agostino, an independent scholar, who will share letters connected to the 1947 lawsuit and portions of the original Superboy script that completely upset a lot of myths about who created Superboy. Room 30AB

Sunday July 26

10:30-11:30 Smallville Screening and Q&A
Comic-Con favorite Smallville returns, as showrunners Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson join cast members Allison Mack (The Ant Bully), Erica Durance (House of the Dead), Cassidy Freeman (Finishing the Game: The Search for a New Bruce Lee), Justin Hartley (Gemini Division) and new series star Callum Blue (The Tudors), who will be playing the villainous Zod, to talk about the year ahead, answer fan questions and give an exclusive sneak peek at clips from season nine. Award-winning comic book writer, Emmy-nominated film and television writer/producer, and Smallville alum Jeph Loeb (Heroes) will moderate the session. From Tollin/Robbins Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, Smallville will air Fridays at 8:00 PM this fall on The CW, premiering September 25. Smallville: The Complete Eighth Season will be released on DVD and Blu-ray Hi Def August 25. Room 6BCF

Who knows which other panels we may find something out? Remember, last year, who expected to hear about the Legion from the "Smallville" panel?

Superman lawsuit update

Update: news from CBR and Newsarama (here and here), both written by lawyers who know how to interpret all this legalese.

I haven't posted an update to the Superboy/Superman lawsuit lately, but something new came out on Wednesday.

The BEAT wrote

The Siegel family — including Joanne Siegel and Laura Sigel Larson — were granted half the copyright to Superman in 1999, and the present case involved their share of the revenue from such Superman appearances as SMALLVILLE. The Siegels argued that a “sweetheart deal” from Warner Bros. led to lower than market value licensing fees for the use of Superman.

Jeff Trexler at Newsarama posted that:

Last year a federal court awarded the Siegel heirs half of the copyright in the Superman material in Action Comics #1. Remaining to be decided, however, was how much that copyright interest was worth.

Today the court released its ruling on the first issue related to this question: namely

“whether the license fees paid” by Warner Bros Entertainment Inc. (“Warner Bros”) to its corporate sibling, DC Comics, for the audiovisual rights to the Superman copyright pursuant to various licensing agreements entered into during the 1999 to 2002 period “represents the fair market value therefor, or whether the license for the works between the related entities was a ‘sweetheart deal.’”

These licensing agreements included the TV series "Smallville", the movie "Superman Returns", and animated shows such as "Justice League" and "Legion of Super Heroes".

CBR has more here, and The BEAT has more as well.

There's still a big part of the Superman lawsuit still remaining (but hopefully in the near future), and the Superboy copyright lawsuit is supposed to follow that one.

SDCC09 preview

DC Comics released their schedule for this year's San Diego Comic Con, so for those of you who are going (which does not include me this year), here's what you can look forward to:

Thursday July 23

11:45-12:45 Superman: Two Worlds
Torn between New Krypton and Earth, The Man of Steel has only just begun his latest adventure. You've seen the stories. A new planet of Kryptonians. Scores of super-powered beings. The people behind Superman's future are here to face the most trying times in his life. Meet the talented folks behind Superman as they give you a glimpse of what is in store for our favorite Super-family. Featuring Superman Group Editor Matt Idelson, Geoff Johns (Adventure Comics, Superman: Secret Origins), Greg Rucka (Action Comics), James Robinson (Superman), Sterling Gates (Supergirl), Renato Guedes (Superman), and more! Room 6DE

2:15-3:15 Spotlight on Geoff Johns
He is the mastermind behind the smash-hit, critically acclaimed Flash: Rebirth and DC's most anticipated book of the year, Green Lantern: Blackest Night. Wondering what makes Geoff Johns tick? Don't miss this panel hosted by Eddie Berganza, Group Editor—DCU, interviewing one of the most exciting talents in the DCU. Room 6DE

Friday July 24

3:00-4:00 DC NATION
Calling all NATION recruits! Bring your friends and hear top talent discuss where the DC NATION is heading from 2009 and beyond. Sr. VP - Executive Editor Dan DiDio hosts this exciting discussion with Ian Sattler, James Robinson, Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, and more! Join them for a VIP look into the most talked about stories and events of the summer! Room 6DE

Saturday July 25

11:30-12:30 Spotlight on Francis Manapul
The hot up-and-coming artist Francis Manapul takes the stage to discuss his kinetic art on one of the most anticipated projects of the year: Adventure Comics with Geoff Johns! Hosted by Group Editor Matt Idelson see what's it like illustrating the return of Superboy. Come find out from one of the freshest artists in the biz! Room 4

There are also a number of other panels that might yield some Legion info; last year, who expected to hear about the Legion from the "Smallville" panel?

More answers with Dan DiDio

Couple of items in today's "20 Answers" with Dan DiDio:

10. ...We had a question about the heroes who have come into the books where the title characters have stepped out. What happens if you find out what readers really like Batwoman in Detective, Mon-el in Superman and Flamebird and Nightwing in Action when it’s time for Bruce and Superman to come back home? Is your plan flexible enough to allow for more time, or spinoffs?

DD: That would be the best of both worlds – if we’re able to support the Batman titles or the Superman titles without Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent, then that shows the strength of the DC Universe and more importantly, the strength of the characters that are inhabiting those books. So my standpoint is that there is room for all of them, and as their stories progress, we’re going to let them flow according to their natural course, and whether or not Superman reutns sooner or later or how the changes in the Batman books play out – it all gives us hope that we have a lot of untapped potential for stories in the future with the characters that are now in them.

So, we have a long-term plan as for how this goes, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to be flexible as to how we play it.

NRAMA: So the return of Bruce Wayne or Superman are set in stone for a specific month or a specific issue?

DD: We have a very strong structure as to how these stories unfold, and that’s probably something that’s not too flexible, but there are a lot of aspects as to how things can progress.

...

18. With Superman: Secret Origin coming up, a reader asked how often do you feel a character’s origin needs to be re-told or tweaked, and what drives that decision? Secret Origin is the third retelling in 20 years, Batman’s has been retold a handful of times to include and remove and include Joe Chill...

DD: In this particular case, there was a real sense of some of the status quo changing following Infinite Crisis and a feeling of some things changing when Geoff and Richard Donner stepped on board – you got the sense that there were slight changes in the past of Superman’s world. The re-introduction of the Legion of Super-Heroes that we’re still seeing in Legion of 3 Worlds is another tweak. So in that case we felt that it was time to revisit that and to embrace the sensibilities of that, not only because there were slight changes and I felt that they made for great story, but it also re-introduces Superman back into the Legion of Super-Heroes lore, which I think will make everybody very excited, but it was also setting up a lot of the parameters of the world of Krypton and who Superman is, and will play out in the Superman story in the coming year or so.

The interesting part of this story for me is that when we came up with the changes after Infinite Crisis and launched Geoff’s run on Superman, there were a lot of people asking for Superman’s origin, and one of the reasons why we pushed this through was that people asked for it early on.

Adventure Comics #1 preview

The DCU Blog has a 5-page preview of Adventure Comics #1, due to August 12th. What did Superman do? He joined a team of super-heroes, among other things.

The Francis Manapul art is pretty damn good, much different than his Legion stuff, yet still similar.

Heroes Con, WizardWorld 09: Nothing going on

It's the beginning of Con season. This weekend: Heroes Con in Charlotte and Wizard World in Philadelphia.

Here's the non-scoop from Heroes Con: basically, nothing Legion-related at either Friday's DC Universe panel (according to both CBR and Newsarama), or Saturday's DC Nation panel (Newsarama).

Meanwhile, up in Philadelphia, it's WizardWorld. Only Wizard seems to be covering this one, and unfortunately their page is impossible to navigate or find anything. But they've got a DC Nation panel on Saturday.

Update: CBR covered WW's DC Nation panel where once again nothing Legion-related was discussed.

Gerry Conway on Twitter

Here's a series of "tweets" from Gerry Conway (@GerryConway) a couple days ago on Twitter. Rearranged for easier chronological reading. ("twhirl" is a Twitter client he uses to read and post.)

I need to remember: don't read reviews or comments on stuff I write. No matter how many positive comments, all I see are the negative ones.
10:34 PM Jun 16th from twhirl

I mean, great baseball hitters miss two out of three times at bat, and that's considered a great average. Writers and artists, though...
10:36 PM Jun 16th from twhirl

We're expected to bat a thousand every time. And when we don't, we get slammed as "hit or miss." Well, duh.
10:38 PM Jun 16th from twhirl

My problem is I wrote too much when I was writing comics. Twice as much as most other writers, on average. Five, six titles a month.
10:41 PM Jun 16th from twhirl

I like to think most of it was pretty good. I think I wrote as many good stories as the best writers working at the time. Unfortunately...
10:43 PM Jun 16th from twhirl

... I also wrote a lot I wasn't happy with. Didn't hit a home run every time at bat. Sometimes just a base hit. Sometimes a strikeout.
10:49 PM Jun 16th from twhirl

But some readers only see the strike-outs. A 100+ issues of JLA, and all they remember are the Detroit stories. Sheesh.
10:52 PM Jun 16th from twhirl

A solid run on Batman and Superman, and all they wanna talk about is how I sucked writing Legion. But you know what's sick?
10:54 PM Jun 16th from twhirl

I listen to them! Five great reviews, a dozen compliments from happy fans, and all I hear is the snarky guy who calls me old school.
10:56 PM Jun 16th from twhirl

Yeah, I know, but this is why I shouldn't read reviews or commentary. I ain't got no perspective. Sheesh.
10:59 PM Jun 16th from twhirl

Thanks, geek! I know I'm too hard on myself. But what people think really does matter to me. Sigh. You'd think, at my age... ;)
11:00 PM Jun 16th from twhirl

Thanks for the support, guys. Guess I just needed to blow off some steam. Fssttt.
11:06 PM Jun 16th from twhirl

Bits of Legionnaire Business

Woww, it's been slow with no new Legion book. Hurry up, Adventure Comics!

• Writer James Gunn asked on his Facebook page and on Twitter, "Which Super-Hero would you want to sleep with?" Yes, we are all still 14. No Legionnaires made the list (except for Supergirl), but L2 Violet and Triplicate Girl made the comments. Mildly NSFW for language and pictures of scantily clad super-heroines that you can see in comics anyway.
  
  
• Matthew at the Legion Abstract gives odds on what the fate of Superboy-Prime will be at the end of "Legion of 3 Worlds".
  
  
• Travis aka Tpull starts a series at FilmFodder on "Deconstructing/Reconstructing the Legion".
  
  
• I'm way behind in all my books, but apparently there's something cooking with Booster Gold and the Legion. From a May 23rd interview with Dan Jurgens at Newsarama:
  

  BLOG@: The message boards over at Newsarama were already buzzing when they saw your preview pages—Proty and Ivo? Will the Legion of Super-Pets be somehow involved with the much-ballyhooed story of Brainiac 5 coming after Booster’s ring?
  
  DJ: Could be! There is a definite plan for the Legion story, what we will deal with, etc. We’re simply waiting for the right time to plug it in.

  
  The latest Gold Exchange update from Newsarama:
  

  BLOG@: ...Well, inside the lab we have a solitary blackboard note this month. Superman 2965? Is that going to tie into the upcoming story with the Legion of Super-Heroes?
  
  DJ: Possibly!

  
  
• The newest version of Daily Scans has this sequence from the SW6 tryout featuring Cera Kesh, Plaid Lad, and the Emerald Empress.
  
  Then there's this recap of the Great Darkness Saga. For those who read it as it came out monthly, without the internet to spoil things, it was amazing. All you knew of what was going to happen came from the "next issue" blurb on the letters page or the last page of the story. Nobody knew who the villain was; Darkseid hadn't been seen for years. Best Story Ever.
  
  Next, some pages from the storyline including L3 Lightning Lad and Starman, stuff that didn't make it into either the Lightning Saga or the Superman & The Legion reprint books.
  
  Some pages from LSH v2 #259, where Superboy leaves the Legion for good (not counting the time he left because for tax purposes they could only have 25 members).
  
  Lastly, "one perfect moment" where Saturn Girl totally pwns Universo, at the end of the Universo Project storyline.
  
  
• The Gay League reviews the history of Lightning Lass with Violet, and Element Lad & Shvaughn Erin.
  
  
• Until we get the Season 2 DVD, here's a link to a torrent file to download the entire season 1 and 2 episodes of the Legion animated show.
  
  
• DCAUYojimbo put together the Legion series entry for the DCAU Resource, with info on everyone, everything, and everywhere that appeared in the Legion animated show.
  
  
• Brendan McCarthy posted about a rejected pitch he had for DC, which would have starred Jimmy Olsen and Saturn Girl as immune to a "terrible reverse-Bizarro plague", called Delinquent Jimmy Olsen.
  
  
• Finally, via MTV's Splash Page, actor Danny McBride ("Land of the Lost", "Tropic Thunder") wants to make a movie that adapts the Ait/Planet Lar comic book “Hench,” about the sad life of a supervillain’s henchman.
  

  Asked whether Warner Brothers’ association with the film would mean we’ll see some familiar characters from the DC Comics universe, McBride said the audience will “see a lot of the superheroes,” but later added, “once we write this filthy dirty script, probably no one’s going to want to be involved with it.”
  
  Pushed to offer the one character he’d want more than any other in the film, McBride suggested a DC character who could pull off his own arms and use them as weapons — a suggestion that we admit being a bit mystified about. Was he talking about Arm Fall Off Boy from the Legion of Superheroes? Calling all DC geeks!