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Geoff Johns is juggling 3 Epic stories from DC Comics. We talk about all of them. You'll hear behind the scene details of Flash Rebirth, Green Lantern The Blackest Night, and Legion oF 3 Worlds. You'll hear character discssions of all the major players, from the reborn Flash family to the GL Corps, and previews of what's to come in Adventure Comics and Superman : Secret Origin.


Here are some quotes from the conversation.

Answering the concerns that Johns current portrayal Of Barry Allen is so different from his silver and bronze age characterization.

“Everyone is in a very different place at the beginning of  Flash Rebirth to the end, because I didn’t want to open up with a big Flash parade, and Barry running in with a big smile,. I might as well have started with Flash #1 and we’d be off and running, but there were other emotional explorations with Barry Allen and the Flash team. I wanted to go against expectations and do a 180 on everything. Flash is back, but Barry Allen isn’t…that’s what the story is about.

The great thing about it is it allows me to explore him emotionally... I love the discussion and debates, because I know where this story is going …I remember when we did The Sinestro Corps Wars, and Kyle at the end of the first issue was possessed by Parallax. People went crazy! They couldn’t believe how we could do this (laughs) …and Ethan was saying ‘We should tell them that he’s not going to be Parallax,.’ And I said “No! Let them get riled up, because they should, but we know where this story ends.’ … In Flash Rebirth Barry is searching for the same answers…this story is trying to solve a crime, but Barry is moving much too fast to do that.”

 

On Blackest Night’s further exploration of the multi colored Lantern Corps. “Every one of my artists has brought their own take  on the designs for each of the various corps and characters…Doug Mahnke’s first issue Green Lantern #43 is an all Black Hand issue. It’s one of the creepiest issues you’ll read.”

 

On the upcoming Blackest Night crossover stories, and how this GL story has morphed into a major DCU event.

 

“ Events are just big stories…sometimes there’s a bad connotation to that “event” term…You always want it to be good, and as a writer you want to protect your own story…with Blackest Night there’s just more story potential, so when (The Editors)  wanted to make it bigger and explore it more , it made sense to me, because you’re gonna have DCU characters face dead ones, and Black Lanterns on all sorts of levels…”

On this edition of The Word balloon podcast, a conversatio with the creative team on Supergirl, Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle. They discuss Supergirl, from the recent reveal that Lucy Lane is the new Superwoman, to the death of Zor-El, and the fallout from New Krypton. There's plenty of chracter dissections of Lana Lang, Allura Cat Grant and Kara Zor-El herself, and their views on where all these strong women fit, in this corner of the DC Superverse.

Some quotes from the conversation...

On Lucy Lane/Superwoman's role as Kara's new enemy.

Gates: "I wanted a villain that can act as a Lex Luthor type...when New Krypton
was told to me, I thought it was a master stroke on Geoff (Johns)  and James(Robinson's) part having General Lane be the main bad guy...what great drama you get having Lois's
family be against the Superman family?...There's some more crazy stuff coming up with Superwoman."

On the character designs for the leading women in the series..

Igle: When It comes to Supergirl the very first conversation I had with Matt Idelson He said, 'I don't want to see Supergirl's panties again,' and I agreed ...I think there should be a coy sexiness about her but I don't think it should be as overt as it's been drawn...it just didn't fit my image of what a teenaged Supergirl is supposed to be...she's Superman's cousin, and should be, even by default, sort of a role model to young girls..."

(For Lana's Asian influenced outfits) My wife Corrine works in the fashion industry for a company that does a lot of photo touch ups for Vouge, Cosmo, Louis Viton...
so I get to see all these fashion materials... I was thinking more in terms of something a little eclectic but business like...with Cat, it's all Victoria Secret and Fredrick's of Holywood...the sluttiest dresses I can find (laughs)."

Gates: "I guess that means write more Cat Grant scenes."

On The Death of Zor El

Gates: "Going in, Geoff and James really said we need to upset
things. This can't ne a predictable Superman story and I think the death
of Zor El made New Krypton completley unpredictable, because you realize,
'holy crap, no one is safe.'

Igle: With Supergirl 36, I think that  was one of the highlights for me working on the book
...when I was a teenager I lost a friend to gun violence so I was able to channel
all of those feelings in that opening scene.

Gates: .(Kara) doesn't get to (Zor) for nine pages,and she doesn't have powers, and is running across an open battlefield to get to him before he dies, to either save his life or talk to him one last time.....I lost my father when I was 17 not to violence but a massive heart attack...in those moments when Supergirl is holding Zor-El , and he's says 'I'm proud of
you.',  that was something as I held my father, I wanted him to say,and he couldn't. He was already gone

Given the scene in the Origins and Omens of Lana Lang spitting up some blood
how's her future looking?

"Lana Lang has her own set of problems coming up that we won't come to a head until Supergirl 47."

On Kara's new civilian identity as Lana's niece...

Gates: "Linda Lang is not going away...it kinda got side tracked with all the New Krypton stuff...I was happy to see Linda Lang appear in Superman Batman...as long as it happens elsewhere in the DCU, it's a real thing...We're going to do a story about her in the Supergirl Annual ...that's tenatively called Linda Lang Day One."

The editor Of the critically acclaimed Image anthology of comic stories based on the songs of Tori Amos, Rantz Hosley stops by to talk about the book.

We discuss how he and Tori got together on the project, wrangling all the artist and writer talent to put the book together, and gives his views and cautionary tales of self publishing in today's comics market.

On this edition of the Word Balloon podcast, we present a
conversation with artist Kevin O'Neil, to discuss this month's
release of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Vol III):
Century #1 ("1910") drawn by O'Neil and written by Alan Moore.

Kevin discusses the background of the story, and his views on past characters like
Mister Hyde Mina Murray, the mysterious Orlando, and the Family line of Captain Nemo.
His thoughts on the LXG film, and the origins and future plans of his co-creation with Pat Mills, Marshal Law .

The interview does cover plot points and setting that have been discussed in other preview
articles and reviews of the book, so beware.

Her are some non spoiler quotes from the talk...

On the inclusion of Nemo's daughter in the 1910 League.

"She occupies a great part of the story, and we will follow her in later books."

On the process of putting the literary cameos and pop culture easter eggs in a subtle way.

"We just have to tread a careful line as to how we populate the book..
as we proceed with incredible numbers of different characters in street scenes
and backgrounds or newspaper headlines ...it's a lot of work, but we realize
we have these Jess Nevins books analyze every single panel and we know
a lot of people who like that  it...however if you don't know the references,
it won't spoil the enjoyment of the story, it's just another layer of
fictional stuff going on alongside the main story."

On the creation of Marshall Law,  and could such a story be told today?

"I scribbled out an idea of the name, and rough character sketch for Marshall Law and sent we sent it as a "Mad Max" type of thing for Epic to Archie Goodwin. Archie had warned us that Marvel will take a hell of a longtime to do creator contracts...it ended up taking a year , during which Dark Knight and Watchemen were released...during the interim Pat said 'Why don't we do Marshall Law as a super hero hunter I said 'well don't you mean super-vilians?'  and Pat said , 'No superheroes, I hate them." (laughing)

I felt the energy of that loathing, and that's what we did...Chris Staros did the first ever 1987 review of Marshal Law in his pre internet era Staros Report... cut to us doing League for Top Shelf . Chris asked who owned the rights to Marshal Law, and I told we did (Pat Mills & O'Neil). op Shelf will do a big slipcase edition of Marshal Law featuring every story appearance of the character to be released hopefully later this year...and now reviewing the stuff for the Top Shelf collection I'm surpirised at how strong it was and how far it went becuase i think it would be harder to get that material passed today."

More of Word Balloon's audio coverage from the floor of April's  FX International convention in Orlando  .Featuring one on one talks with Olivier Coipel (THOR, HOUSE OF M) , Matt Kindt (PISTOL WHIP, SUPER SPY), Tony Bedard (REBELS) Chuck Dixon (GI JOE, The Simpsons), Steve Rude (NEXUS), and Arthur Suydam (MARVEL ZOMBIES, CHOLLY & FLYTRAP).

Here are some quotes and tidbits from the conversations...

Expect The announcement of what's next for Coipel and Marvel during
this summer's con season.

Matt Kindt's new OGN 3-Story The Secret History of the Giant Man
will be out from Dark Horse ."It's a weird story that takes place
in the 40's,50's and 60's with the narrative from the POV of his Mother,
His Wife, and his daughter."

Tony Bedard on REBELS: "I think we've had enough with stories that are so
intertwined, they never get a chance develop their own personality.
We want to give these characters a chance to develop on their own terms
and give them their own corner of the DC universe to play with...it's
one of those books where you really don't know who will survive in a
given issue...Vryl Dox wants to do good, but6 he doesn't mind if you.
die in the process."

Chuck Dixon is taking over chronicling the tales of "The Man With No
Name" in the soon to be retitled The Good, The Bad & The Ugly from
Dynamite.

Steve Rude:  Lots of Nexus Product Nexus The Origin: Remastered ,
"Nexus: As it Happened Volume 1" a black and white Archive, and the
long-awaited conclusion of Nexus: Space Opera due out in July.

Arthur Suydam: For Radical Working on Hercules Aladdin and Shrapnel
they're also releasing Cholly and Flytrap Center City featuring
Suydam's post apocalyptic sci-fi duo . It comes out in June.

In part 2 Dan talks about the events in Mighty Avengers, from the revelation that Loki has been manipulating the Mighty and Dark Avengers, to the Mighty teams upcomingencounter with the Fantastic Four.

On Mighty Avengers and Dan's choice to make Hank Pym leader of the Avengers"It will get more messed up as we go along...for all of Hank's fault he is a geniusand has a very non linear way of thinking...but he's still that messed up freak who built Ultron...the question is how do you redeem him...some stink doesn't go away no matter how hard you try...it's nice to have Hank on this redemptive path... he may never get rid of his past sins, but his trying makes him heroic."

On this edition of The Word Balloon podcast, we present a 2 part
conversation with Dan Slott.

In part 1 Dan discusses the current events in Amazing Spider-Man.

On Amazing #600 and the return of Doctor Octopus "One of the things
we wanted to do was take the villains off the board for awhile so
when they come back it's big...John Romita Jr and I get to tell this
60 page story...We're building towards season 2 of Spidey which begins
after we wrap up some stuff in issue #600."

On the mysterious background of Mister Negative "I can't wait fir people to know more about him...I gave Fred Van Lente some big for his upcoming Mister Negative mini series...but there's more coming including ties to previously established spider-man characters. Let's leave it at that. "