I had meant to get around to writing about this right away, but life gets in the way.
I went to Fan Expo 2008 in Toronto this year with my friends Sophie and Keith. It was a great con, and I had a great time. I'll try to put down as much as I can remember here.
Sophie and I went to two panels on day one; The DC Nation panel with Dan Didio, Ethan Van Sciver and Keith Giffen. Dan was on his game for the panel, which was nice as some interviews I had heard him in, he was pretty grating, but this time, he was playful and having a good time with the crowd. Ethan was defensive when I asked about the need to bring Barry Allen back, but when we mixed it up a little more over on the CBR forums, I think I got a clearer picture of why he wants Barry back, even if I don't agree. He said:
"[Fans] miss him. Barry Allen ushered in the Silver Age with Showcase #4. He's a neat character, with his ironic twist of always being late in his personal life as Barry, but having the superspeed secret ID of Flash. He raised Wally. He's a different personality, has some slightly different ideas about crimefighting than Wally West, though."
Dan spotted A guy dressed as Namor in the crowd and pulled him on stage to sit next to a thoroughly weirded-out Keith Giffen.
There was a lot of talk about Aquaman, his constant reboots, and how everyone has a great idea to relaunch him. DiDio basically agreed that Arthur works best in a team setting.
Lastly, the crowd sort of turned on Marvel, and began pandering to DC, starting questions off with lines like "Marvel sucks, but why does DC..." Dan got control of the crowd and kept the focus on DC. In a very candid moment, DiDio explained what he throught DC could do better to help out the fans, and that was to stop rebooting the characters as often as they do, saying that he thought it created a distance between fans and the characters when every few years, the heroes are reinvented.
All in all, it was a great panel, and Dan DiDio stood out as funny and sharp.
More to come.
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