1) Emerson_Nickerson wrote: With January getting closer, what can you talk about and reveal for the titles filling in during the Blackest Night skip?
DiDio: We're having a lot fun seeing the fans reacting so intensely to how, in Blackest Night, we're bringing all these lost characters back from the dead. So we've decided to expand what rises from the dead by bringing eight titles back from the dead.
In the month of January, you're going to see eight old series come back for one more issue, picking up the next number following that cancellation.
And the books that we'll be seeing are The Power of Shazam! #48, The Question #37, Suicide Squad #67, Phantom Stranger #42, Catwoman #83, The Atom and Hawkman #46, Weird Western Tales #71, and a very special Starman #81.
Even though these stories are picking up from a numbering of a canceled series, are actually taking place right now in today's continuity, and are completely tied to Blackest Night. They are our Blackest Night event books, but we're just returning the titles from the dead. So, we're not exactly picking up where the stories left off; we're actually picking up right in the middle of the action of Blackest Night.
Nrama: Oh, wow. Do I get to guess the creators on each of these?
DiDio: You might guess a couple of them.
Nrama: Greg Rucka is writing The Question?
DiDio: Of course Greg Rucka is writing it. The list of writers is The Power of Shazam! #18 is being written by Eric Wallace. Catwoman #83 is going to be written by Fabian Nicieza, Suicide Squad #67 is being written by John Ostrander. The Question #37 is Greg Rucka. Phantom Stranger #42 is Peter Tomasi. Weird Western Tales #71 is Dan DiDio. The Atom and Hawkman #46 is Geoff Johns. And Starman #81 is James Robinson.
Nrama: So with The Power of Shazam!, a lot of people have been asking about what's up with the Marvel family, but this is just showing these characters during Blackest Night?
DiDio: Yes, with each one of these, you'll see that there will be a returning Black Lantern. In Power of Shazam!, we'll be dealing with Osiris coming back, basically to give Freddy Freeman/Shazam a lot of trouble, but also to meet up with a very powerless Billy and Mary Batson.
The Question is about two Questions. They meet face to face, or at least as much face-to-face as two Questions can meet.
In Suicide Squad we have a very dead Suicide Squad ready to run into a very live, at least for the moment, Secret Six.
What Phantom Stranger does is pick up on some of the threads that are being set up in Pete [Tomasi]'s Blackest Night: Batman, and we're starting to look at how the rising of the dead affects characters like the Phantom Stranger.
Nrama: Will the magic characters be involved in that?
DiDio: I believe some of them are, but I'm not sure just yet. We're still in the final stages of that story.
Nrama: OK, then Catwoman?
DiDio: Catwoman gets to meet the man who, she put a bullet in his head, and that's the original Black Mask.
Nrama: OK, and Geoff on The Atom and Hawkman?
DiDio: Well in that book, there's a love story. It's the Black Lantern Hawks trying set up Ray Palmer with a very Black Lantern Jean Loring.
Nrama: Oh man, blind date so to speak?
DiDio: Exactly.
Nrama: All right, well, let's keep you for last. James Robinson on Starman? Wow, talk about returning a fan-favorite to the character he's most identified with.
DiDio: With Starman, James is actually picking up on some of the threads of the characters that he worked with, within Starman, and I don't want to give too much away on that one, but it is spectacular.
Nrama: Okay, and do we have artists on any of these?
DiDio: We do, but we aren't ready to announce them yet. We're still finalizing a bunch of them.
Nrama: Not even a hint? I could take a stab at guessing some of them.
DiDio: Well, the only thing I can give you is that one of the artists definitely has ties to one of the series.
Nrama: Then let's talk about you on – what is this? Weird Western Tales?
DiDio: [laughs] Guess who drew the short straw? No, it's going to be a lot of fun. I get a chance to reintroduce a lot of the Old West characters into the current – into the "New West," so to speak. So we get a chance to see Black Lantern interpretations of Bat Lash, Super Chief, Firehair, and of course, Jonah Hex.
Nrama: Wow. OK, then as a follow-up question, I'll just ask what a lot of people are saying about Blackest Night skipping a month. Does this mean there's something wrong with Blackest Night and you have to give the creators more time?
DiDio: Actually, the reason why there's a skip month is that we wanted to keep [artist] Ivan [Reis] on the entire series, but as the story's breaking down, the final issue is going to be an oversized issue. Blackest Night #8 is a larger issue. So because of that, we wanted to give Ivan a little more time so that he could get ahead and continue doing the outstanding work he's been doing on Blackest Night. And because we've had such a positive reaction to the way we've brought some of these Black Lanterns into the stories, we decided this would be a great thing to do during this break, to fit with rising from the dead by bringing back these series for one more issue.
...how does that Torrent thing work?....is it compatible with macs!?
..........all right, thanks a lot!
