This has been a pretty intense news week for all corners of the DCU so in an effort to not be completely overwhelming, I’m going to take a more categorical approach to this week. Let’s give it a shot, shall we?
First up, film:
As part of their “#DCWeek” campaign, the CW launched a special called “DC Film: Dawn of the Justice League” which featured Geoff Johns and Kevin Smith setting up clips and interviews about the upcoming DCEU projects. You can watch the whole thing on the CW’s website, but here’s a breakdown of the important takeaways in case you don’t have 20 minutes to spare.
We get our very first look at Wonder Woman footage, a handful of clips of Diana in civilian gear and then a look at her in full Wonder Woman regalia on horseback chasing after a carriage of some kind. The footage isn’t a lot to go off of, but for what it’s worth, it did look great.
We also get some confirmation that the movie will focus on Diana’s origin story. Take a look at the clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9Ur4De7yT8
The real standout of the Wonder Woman portion of the special was a quote from director Patty Jenkins.
“The greatest thing about Wonder Woman is how good and kind and loving she is, and yet none of that negates any of her power.”
I don’t know about you but this is exactly the sort of thing I want to hear when people talk about Diana.
We also got a look at some extra Batman vs. Superman footage that quite frankly looked pretty much exactly the same as the rest of the footage we’ve seen so I’m not even going to bother talking about it. Kevin Smith does refer to Doomsday by name though, so, sorry anyone who was in the “maybe he’s Bizarro and not Doomsday!” camp. Better luck next time.
In addition to that, we got some interview clips and art for the upcoming Aquaman, Cyborg and Flash movies to prove that yes, they really are happening, and yes, those characters have all really been cast, even though none of them have actually started filming yet.
The Flash portion of the show featured Geoff Johns confirming that TV Barry Allen and Film Barry Allen will be two entirely separate characters in two entirely separate universes – something we already knew – but then went on to show a clip of Ezra Miller talking about Film Barry’s origin being… well exactly the same as TV (and comic) Barry’s. I guess this isn’t that big of a surprise but it does make me wonder how the DCEU really plans on differentiating these two characters aside from just swapping out actors, especially when the DCTV Flash is such a hit with fans.
And finally, the last big announcement to come from the CW special: A confirmation of a Green Lantern Corps film featuring (at least) Hal Jordan and John Stewart. No casting announcement or plot information was given but some concept art was shown both Hal and John along side some alien members of the Corps, and a promise from Geoff Johns that “Green Lantern” would definitely be appearing in the Justice League film. But we can’t be certain if this means Hal or John or both (or neither?)
Take a look.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8nuAkm90Ag
Next up, in TV:
This week marked the premier of Legends of Tomorrow as well as the return of CW’s Arrow and Flash. Now, since I’m writing this from the past I can’t talk about Legends at any length since it hasn’t actually aired for me yet, but I live in the hope that Captain Cold was amazing it in.
By the time this column is published you ought to be able to catch the premier on Hulu+ or the CW’s website.
We also got a first look at live action Vixen, played by Megalyn Echikunwoke, who will be appearing in an upcoming episode of Arrow. Megalyn voices Vixen in the animated series. Here she is in full costume, via Newsarama:
Monday marks the digital release of the long-awaited Adventures of Supergirl comic by Sterling Gates and a pantheon of artists. I’ve been covering this comic and the slow development of news surrounding it since I first started writing this column so it feels good to finally see this thing to fruition.
Issue #1 features art by Bengal and will run you a bargain price of 99 cents. You can pre-order here.
And finally, comics:
Solicits for April’s upcoming issues were released on Tuesday of this week with some pretty major changes on the horizon for a handful of books. Specifically books from the Bat offices.
Grayson is changing hands from Tom King and Tim Seeley to Hacktivist and Batman and Robin: Eternal alums Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing with artist Mikel Janin being swapped out for Carmine Di Giandomencio.
Both Seeley and King tweeted shortly after the solicits were published that this did not mean they were leaving Gotham behind and that they have “big things brewing” with King making a cryptic follow up promising that they would continue to work on “elevating Dick Grayson’s status in the DCU”.
About @HackinTimSeeley and I not being on the Grayson solicit: something big and cool is coming, and we just needed the room to work on it.
— Tom King (@TomKingTK) January 19, 2016
It's important to (cryptically) say that what's coming continues our ongoing effort to elevate Dick Grayson in the DCU.
— Tom King (@TomKingTK) January 19, 2016
Lanzing and Kelly both tweeted out that they were excited to be taking over their favorite DC title and would be following a road map set by Seeley and King.
Re: GRAYSON – we're doing a few issues, following a roadmap set by Tom and Tim. We're not changing gears, just taking the wheel for a while.
— ??????? ??????? (@JacksonLanzing) January 19, 2016
As of right now we can’t be sure what exactly this means for the future of Grayson or what “big things” Seeley and King may have up their sleeve. These solicits coincide with the 51st issues of every non-rebooted or canceled ongoing that began in the New 52 and knowing DC’s obsession with the number “52”, if I had to guess, those “big things” are likely going to start coming into play on either issue 52 or 53, so around May or June of this year.
Personally, I’m hoping for a shift that leaves Dick Grayson filling in as Batman again and King and Seeley taking over the main Batman book. But who knows.
Also, Batgirl‘s team of Cameron Stewart, Brenden Fletcher and Babs Tarr seems to be getting split up with only Fletcher’s name remaining on the Batgirl solicit. Art for issue 51 will be provided by Eleanor Carlini.
Whether this is just a one issue change or a permanent thing is something that has yet to be seen.
Tarr did tweet some WIP images of Batgirl related art she was working on, but no clarification as to whether they were covers or interiors.
working on fun batgirl things today! 🙂 pic.twitter.com/x8O59GVEvs
— ✦ ???(e)? ???? ✦ (@babsdraws) January 18, 2016
Phew. What a week.
What was your favorite (or least favorite!) big of DC news to come out of #DCWeek? Let me know in the comments!
