WIZARD WORLD PHILADELPHIA: DC/WILDSTORM PANEL

Ron Garney said his run as artist on JLA will go beyond his initial six-issue collaboration with Chuck Austen.

"You guys are going to be really happy," Garney said cryptically at the DC/WildStorm panel at Wizard World Philadelphia on Saturday.

Garney is teaming with Austen on "The Pain of the Gods," a six-issue story as JLA runs bi-weekly beginning with #101 in July.

"It's a little more of a tale of each one individually," Garney said. "We take each one and get into their heads. It's more of a humanizing story. You will get to see a side of the Martian Manhunter you haven't seen before."

In other notes from the panel:

* Adam Strange, a new series by Andy Diggle and Pascual Ferry, will begin in September. "It will reset the science-fiction aspect of the DC Universe," said DC's Dan DiDio.

* Darwyn Cooke said that his DC: The New Frontier "really gets rolling" with #4, out next week.

"All the little stories you've read tie together," Cooke said. "There's not a piece you've read that isn't instrumental to the climax of the story."

* DiDio said that the new Manhunter series "adds a real sense of grit and urgency to the DCU."

* According to DiDio, Majestic will be rolled back into the WildStorm Universe after his mini-series in the DC Universe.

* Twilight Experiment, the six-issue mini-series written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, is targeted for an October launch from WildStorm.

"We've been dying to do this because we've doing a lot of street-level, dark stuff," Gray said. "It's a wild super-hero epic."

* Writer Dan Jolley on his new series Bloodhound: "Things are getting tougher in the DC Universe, and in some ways this title plugs into that. He's completely non-powered, no meta-human abilities, but he does enjoy mangling people with his bare hands. There's really nothing quite like this in the DCU right now."

* DiDio on the future of Tim Drake: "Tim Drake plays a part in Robin, 'War Games,' Identity Crisis and Teen Titans,"

* DiDio, responding to a request to more DCU titles on better stock of paper: "We're looking at that. But we don't want to price books out of the market."

* DiDio on Grant Morrison writing in the DCU: "We're excited about Grant working in the DCU. We've opened every door to him and we'll see what he comes back with."

* In discussing the future of The Legion, DiDio said an outstanding storyline will be resolved.

* DiDio on the Batman Begins movie: "We have a lot of faith in it. It's a great script with great casting, and they're taking it very seriously."

* DiDio said there are plans for Mister Miracle and the New Gods, and Michael Turner added that there might be hints of things to come with the characters in Superman/Batman #11.

* Jolley said that how the new Firestorm fits in with the old one will be explained by the end of the first year of the title.