Dan Didio moderated the DC Rebirth Panel at Baltimore Comic Con. Paul Levitz, Dan Jurgens, Tom King, James Tynion, Keith Giffen, and Hope Larson were on the Baltimore panel. This panel’s primary focus was the Rebirth initiative. There was not any news announced other than each creator talking briefly about their current projects.
Tom King briefly talked about his work on Batman. Nothing about the current story or new stories were announced at this time. He did talk about his enjoyment in writing the Bruce Wayne/Alfred dynamic. He particularly likes the idea that Alfred does not take Bruce seriously all the time.
James Tynion talked briefly about his current work on Detective Comics. He said that he was initially terrified when he got the Detective Comics assignment. His biggest fear was how was he going to create something to last for the one of the longest running comics for DC. He decided to make Detective Comics a team book. His favorite characters are Batwoman and Tim Drake. His goal here is to tie the Batwoman mythology into Gotham as up to now, she was mainly on her own in the story lines with only minor and brief encounters with the other Bat characters. As far as Tim Drake, he is his favorite character. He likes Tim’s optimism. He sees Tim as the detective even saying that he was smarter than Bruce was at his age. His biggest challenge is to balance the singular with the group action.
Hope Larson, who is a recent addition to DC Comics talent pool, after coming from indie comics, discussed her current work on Batgirl. Right now Batgirl is in her own bubble away from the other characters so she is not really maintaining continuity with the other characters at this time, but she is trying to stay on top of the other stories. She is on her own, on her own journey of self discovery. There are no plans to bring Dick Grayson into Batgirl at this time.
Paul Levitz came up to talk about his works on Doctor Fate and even briefer on his Earth 1 project. As far as Doctor Fate, he wanted to create a character that was similar to him in being a first generation American. He wanted to explore religious issues such as Angels. As far as the Earth 1 graphic novels are concerned, he just sited the enormous amount of work.
Keith Giffen discussed his idea to pair the Jamie Reyes Blue Beetle with Ted Kord in a mentor role. Dan Jurgens mentioned Superman and that there are still stories to be told involving the late New 52 Superman. No other details were mentioned. More in the line of Batman, he just mentioned Terry McGinnis returning at Batman Beyond but nothing on what will happen with the future Tim Drake after giving the mantle back to Terry.
In the question and answer period, Didio mentioned that the Rebirth plan is a two year plan where the characters are being reestablished as well as who and what they are fighting for. There was a brief mention of the Suicide Squad/Justice League crossover for December 2016 and January 2017. There was a question about the cancelled Gotham By Midnight title and the future of the Spectre. Tynion mentioned that he is currently staying away from the supernatural elements, but in the future he wants to explore the horror aspects of Gotham. There currently are no stories involving the Spectre at this time. A question was brought up about the possibly of three physical or metaphorical Jokers and all Didio said was that it appears that there are three physical Jokers, nothing solid as he emphasized the “appears”. Nightwing, who Didio admitted to wanting to kill off just said that Dick is currently dealing with the Parliament and the Court of Owls at this time.
To wrap up, the Rebirth event is supposed to be a springboard to reintroduce old characters and hopefully spin them off into their own series.
