WIZARD WORLD PHILADELPHIA: DC'S BATMAN PANEL

PHILADELPHIA -- Gotham Central is safe from cancellation, DC Comics' Dan DiDio said at the Batman panel at Wizard World Philadelphia on Sunday.

"Gotham Central is a key book for us at DC," DiDio said. "We'll keep it around as long as we can."

In other news from the panel:

* DiDio described All Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder as Frank Miller's "unofficial Batman: Year Two."

* DiDio teased that Infinite Crisis will address the issue of who would assume the mantle of Batman after Bruce Wayne and what would happen in Batman was ever blacklisted by other heroes.

* DiDio said that he's careful about overuse of The Joker.

"We'll hold him back for a while," he said. "Infinite Crisis will see a little Joker and after that Joker will be around. He's part of the Batman mythos."

* Will Tim Drake go after Ray Palmer for the death of his father?

"Ray is gone from the DCU for the forseeable future," DiDio said. "What happened in Identity Crisis forced him to remove himself from the universe."