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My DC Panel
2008-04-21 14:56:37

This comic cost DC's top guy a ride home

So the strangest moment at this past weekend's New York Comic Convention had to be when I found myself sitting on a DC Panel.

This was Sunday morning, and I had an hour to kill before hosting PRIZE OR NO-PRIZE, Marvel's tirivia giveaway panel (which was well-attended and a lot of fun, as usual. One of these days, I've got to get around to writing some all-new questions for the thing.) At their last convention, DC had closed out their programming with a sort of round-robin discussion with a group of fans. I'd read about it online somewhere and was mildly curious—it sounded more like a Marvel panel in terms of its tone. So, since they were doing it again at the NYCC, I thought I'd stick my head in, get a sense of what they were doing, and maybe cause a little trouble.

But the second he saw me step through the door, DC honcho Dan Didio pointed me out, and ushered me up, asking if I wanted to join the panel. In the blink of an eye I found myself sitting alongside a row of DC editors and staffers, talking about comics I'd read in my formative years. It was quite surreal, kind of like stepping into the Negative Zone or something.

All of Dan's stories, oddly enough, seemed to be about Marvel books—whether it was the issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA he saw in a store window while riding the bus, got off the bus to purchase, and then realized that he didn't have enough cash left to get back on the bus; the Marvel Super-Heroes cartoons of the mid-late 1960s whose daily rundown he could quote from memory; or the panel from FANTASTIC FOUR #40 whose dialogue he could quote verbatim. I suspect he's secretly kept his Merry Marvel Marching Society membership up-to-date all these years (you should ask to see his membership card the next time you bump into him.)

I had to dash out as soon as the panel ended, so I didn't really get a chance to speak with the other panelists. But they seemed like a bunch of relatively-nice individuals. It almost makes me sad knowing what we're going to do to their market share with SECRET INVASION.

Almost.

More later.

Tom B

I think it's good to hear that DC and Marvel guys can get together and just talk comics. I think a lot of readers don't necessarily differentiate between Marvel and DC. I'm much more interested in reading good comics and both companies publish great comics (and they both publish some stinkers too). I'm really excited for both Secret Invasion and Final Crisis. Hopefully both will be great and Marvel and DC will keep pushing each other to make better books.

Posted by rialb on 2008-04-21 14:46:12

Haha! What a great story. I veto partisanship.

Posted by kyle-latino on 2008-04-21 14:48:54

Could someone at Marvel PLEASE do something about the flashy green advert? It's horrible to watch and it's going to cause someone an epileptic seizure. (Are ad-makers complete idiots or something?)

Posted by Fetsur on 2008-04-21 15:48:52

Someone call Joe Q! We need to detox Brevoort as soon as possible! His programming is coming undone. O_O
Seriously though, I'll agree with rialb here, it is pretty cool that someone as involved in Marvel as much as Tom can get invited up to a DC panel and chill. I'm totally on board with Secret Invasion, but I'll pass on Final Crisis. I'm looking forward to Blackest Night though.

Posted by doncorswhazie on 2008-04-21 16:10:25

Nice
You guys should trade an editor for a panel every year. There's been some smack talk lately with JoeQ saying things about DC and Morrison saying some things about DC. Some of the fans on the message boards don't seem to understand that it's just smack talk, not real insults. Stuff like this shows the difference between rivalry and animosity.

Posted by Jason M Bryant on 2008-04-21 16:20:46

I was at the panel, Tom, and it was good to see you all up there. For me it was probably my favorite panel of the show.

And I think no matter what else, it really came across that everyone in that room loved comics.

Posted by richlovatt on 2008-04-21 16:30:17

it's never over
some friends of mine, comics-pro, used to say that you begin your comics-reading with Marvel and end-up with DC.
For years it had been a great moral problem to switch of one to another.But now it's OK.Thank you.
I remember the Claremont run on X-Men being very important for me ,in the loneliness I was having at this time.I discovered the work on Morrison on 'Doom Patrol' far later, was really impressed, it was what I needed at this time too. I learned later that he did comics this way especially to proove that comics could be thinked a different way that the Claremont/Byrne' way that tended to beame a school.If you just discover love and all the problems that are coming with X-Men, with the Doom Patrol you begin to nightclubbing, the difference between the two stated here for me.
Now I 'm still seeing it as two very differents state of mind, Marvel's one could be resumed in what Warren Ellis made to say to American Eagle in Thunderbolts :
'let's finish this and get home'
and DC in what I don't know who (my mistake ) made Jason Todd reply to an alternate Bruce Wayne about how he think to deal with the OMACs that are waiting for them outside :
'i will take the time it need'.

Hope that none had been hurt with what had been told here.
See you.Take care.

Posted by bulgarianyogurt on 2008-04-22 04:24:36

I know how you wish there was more coverage of Prize or No Prize, but considering how you guys got screwed over by the NYCC program (they didn't list the panel at all in their schedule), you didn't get as many people as you should have.

I go over the panel about halfway down the article: http://www.4thletter.net/2008/04/return-of-the-wrath-of-comic-con/

One more year of this and I'm going to have to buy a warehouse.

Posted by Gavok on 2008-04-23 00:55:13

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About this blog:
Ramblings and musings from the mind of Tom Brevoort. "It won’t be clean. It won’t be fun. It mostly won’t be coherent."

About the author:
Tom Brevoort is Executive Editor for Marvel Comics, and oversees such titles as New Avengers, Civil War, and Fantastic Four.


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