HEROESCON: DC NATION PANEL

By Billie Rae Bates

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Ian Sattler, Billy Tucci and Franco Aureliani held court at the DC Nation panel at Heroes Con on Saturday.

Following are highlights:

* Sattler discussed the five one-shots coming in September, including Weird War Tales, Star-Spangled War Stories and Our Army at War. Tucci talked his work on Star-Spangled War Stories. He said he's very excited about it, and it will focus on Mademoiselle Marie. "It's hard-core," he said. "It's all about the French Revolution and it's double-cross. ... She's gorgeous." He added, about the set of one-shots, "They're real edgy, too. Every one of them. ... There's a lot of historical accuracy, too."

* Sattler on J. Michael Stracynski taking over Superman: "His first full Superman script is one of the best I've ever read," Sattler said. "I can't recommend it enough."

* Tucci mentioned Superman #700, to which he's contributing, and the fact that the kids from last year's Halloween special (Superman/Batman #65) are returning in the issue.

*Sattler said to get ready for some surprising stuff for Batman this fall.

* Tucci, when asked if there are going to be more Sgt. Rock stories, said he has a couple in mind and planned to talk to Sattler about them.

* When asked about the fate of the White Lanterns as In Blackest Night concludes, Sattler said, "At the end of In Blackest Night, the revolving door of death is closed. Death means something again." He said that though for an element like this to stick doesn't happen very often in comics, the White Lanterns are not going away. "That's hard-core mythology. That's DCU forever."

* Regarding the Batgirl storyline, Sattler said, "I really love Stephanie Brown as Batgirl." He said DC is proceeding cautiously with the Cassandra Cain character. "We changed plans for Cassandra. ... We don't want to bring her in wrong."

* Will there be a sequel to Wednesday Comics? "We won't do one unless we feel that the quality will be equal to or greater than the first one."

* No answer yet on whether Aquaman will get his own series.

* On the price jump of some DC titles to $3.99, Sattler said, "It's our business -- we're not cavalier about what we charge. ... We're still trying to figure it out. ... The mainstream press has been really great in the past couple years. ... Some things are more expensive to buy, and that shows up in our books, from paper to printing, etc. I would love it if we could sell our books for as cheap as possible."

* Another Who's Who is planned; the process has begun.

* The Connor and Mia characters, recently phased out of the Green Arrow stories, will be in the next Green Arrow series.

* The fate of Krypto is secured; Sattler quipped that the dog will never die as long as he's around.