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Sunday, October 10, 2010

Guest Post by Joe Slab

sgWelcome to another Aquaman Shrine guest post!

While I am at the NYCC today, F.O.A.M.er Joe Slab--who attended the show on Friday--has this report focusing on DC's future plans for the Sea King, based on what he heard at some Friday panels. Take it away, Joe!


NYCC 2010: More Bright Days Ahead for Aquaman

Hey everyone! Besides meeting Rob Kelly live and in person at NYCC on Friday, the other highlight of my day was attending the Spotlight on Geoff Johns panel and since Rob (by his own admission) hates attending panels, he has allowed me the opportunity to update fellow FOAM members on the latest discussion about plans for the Sea King.

Dressed in his trademark t-shirt and jeans, Johns immediately began taking questions from eager fans and right off the bat the topic turned to Aquaman. "There are lots of plans for Aquaman after Brightest Day...he will still be badass" was Johns' first reply to a fan's question. While he didn't officially name the project, he stated that Aquaman, Mera, and Aqualad are all going to be major players in the DCU in 2011 and this was affirmed by his editor and handler, Eddie Berganza. The next question was about Aquaman's rogues' gallery from a fan who stated that he is loving what is going on with Black Manta and the newly introduced Siren in Brightest Day. Johns replied that there will be new Aquaman rogues as well as old foes returning, naming that he likes both the Scavenger and the Fisherman.

After a hastily-whispered conference with Eddie and much prompting by the crowd, Johns shared a possible future spoilery scenario whereby the trinity of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman come to Aquaman and ask him to help them reform the Justice League. Aquaman replies that if the League needs a leader he will join. Taken a bit back, the trinity tries to negotiate their position...cut to the next page and Aquaman is calling the meeting of the new JLA to order! Johns ended this vignette by stating "Aquaman is the leader of the DCU." Later on in the panel, another fan asked if other members of Aquaman's family would be showing up in the future referencing both Atlan and Deep Blue? Johns replied "Yes" but it was clear that he was speaking in generalities and not about these two specifically.

After the panel, I had the privilege of meeting with Geoff personally and he is one of the nicest and most genuine guys I have met both in and out of comics. He truly believes that DC's heroes stand for what is best about humanity and this certainly comes through when he talks about Aquaman. After signing my copies of Blackest Night #8 and Brightest Day #1, I asked Geoff about the connection between Mera, Siren and Hila, Mera's twin sister who has only one appearance to date in DC Comics (can anyone name the issue???) [It was Aquaman, Volume 1, #22--Rascally Rob]. Geoff stated that Siren is not Hila and that he was careful to make that distinction. We laughed at how much discussion there has been about this in the Aquaman forums, and I held back on asking him if Hila will be referenced in Brightest Day for fear of spoiling the story for myself as well as others.

So rest easy FOAM members, the dark days of Aquaman's absence and irrelevance in the DCU appear to be behind us and while it cannot happen soon enough, I believe we will hear something early next year prior to Brightest Day's conclusion announcing an official Aquaman project. At another panel writer James Robinson let it slip that he is working on a Hawkman project, and after all, if DC is doing Hawkman, can Aquaman be far behind? Can it Rob???

Best regards to everyone – Joe Slab

9 comments:

Joe Slab said...

Thanks rob! for letting me share in the very cool experience that is the Aquaman Shrine!

I am Jslab425 @ aol, Twitter, DCU boards, Comic Bloc Forums, and ComicVine.com. Love to hear from fellow FOAM members!

Joe Slab

David J. Cutler said...

Cool stuff--sounds like Aquaman's headed to JLA to me ;)

Dennis Doucette said...

Joe! Great Post. You should be a regular guest Poster! I hope to go to the next NYCC and maybe we can all hang out. I mean were pretty much Internet Best Friends now due to Aquaman

Josh Hill said...

great post! on a side note, I hope at next year's NYCC I can be there and get to meet up with some of my fellow FOAMers!

Brent said...

Thanks for all the great Aqua-bits! Hope springs eternal! :)

Orin's dad said...

Great post Joe! What exciting news and hope you bring all of us Aqua-fans!

Andy Luckett said...

Excellent post, Joe! Thanks for being our man on the scene and bringing us the scoop! And that comment of Geoff's about Aquaman being the leader of the DCU? Well that just scratches me right where I itch. Good stuff!

Anonymous said...

I'll believe in Johns' love for Aquaman when I see something more done with the King of the Seas other than BD!

Great post... I cannot debunk any of this couse it seems to confirm all I've been reading about the Con and what Johns said about Aquaman all over the web!

Again, great post! More to come?

Joe Slab said...

The unofficial word from almost everyone that I interacted with at NYCC is that all 5 major players in the Brightest Day main book (Aquaman, Firestorm, the Hawks, Martian Manhunter, and Boston Brand) are being primed for new projects in 2011 when DC plans for an explosion of new books (some ongoing, some limited.)

Geoff intimated that DC is avoiding making any official announcements about names/times/dates until the last minute in order to give Marvel as little time as possible to develop counter-marketing strategies.

So while nothing is guaranteed at this point, I think its fun as fans to anticipate and speculate.

Thanks for all your feedback!

Joe Slab