NEW YORK COMIC CON: BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, PART 2

Warner Home Video announced two new animated movies based on Geoff Johns stories for 2013 at its panel for Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2.

Superman: Unbound will come out in the middle of the year and is based on Johns' Brainiac comics story from 2008.

Justice League: Flashpoint, the story that led into DC's The New 52, will be out in the fall and will likely premiere at Comic-Con International in San Diego.

Following are highlights from the panel:

* A trailer for the Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes was shown to start the panel.

* The panelists -- executive producer Bruce Timm and voice director Andrea Romano -- were introduced, and a trailer was shown.

* Timm said the story was "so big and so well-loved" that it would have been impossible to do it in one movie. He said he told Warner that both movies had to be green-lit back-to-back.

Romano said doing the movie back-to-back also helped to schedule the actors.

* Romano said that 33 actors were involved in the movies.

* Romano said she met Michael Emerson, who plays the Joker, at a Comic-Con. She said that afterward, he said it was the hardest work he's ever done. "He's remarkable and scary and weird," Romano said.

* Timm noted that the voices were really different, and he wanted to do unique casting for it. "He's really different in the comic anyway. It's not the typical Joker," he said.

* Emerson recorded the role in New York, and there was a Skype hookup when Romano worked with him.

* Timm said director Jay Oliva - a longtime storyboard artist -- was a huge fan of the comic. "Beside all of his other talents, he's a genius at action staging," Timm said.

* An action clip was then shown.

* Timm noted the voice of the new commissioner was by Maria Canals, who voiced Hawkgirl in Justice League.

* Timm said he didn't want the soundtrack to sound like Danny Elfman or John Williams. Christopher Drake took a 1980s approach with synthesizers for the first movie, and Timm said "It wasn't what we expected, but it was really cool." In the second movie, when Batman fights Superman, Drake brings in an orchestra sound.

* Romano said that Mark Valley was "so game" in playing Superman, and the actually showed up a week early. "He did manage to make him a sympathetic character," Romano said.

Timm noted that Valley put on glasses when he played Clark Kent.

* Timm noted that Yuri Lowenthal, who plays the Son of Batman, actually dressed as that character as a kid for Halloween.

* Conan O'Brien provides the voice Dave Endochrine, who interviews The Joker after his release from Arkham.

Romano said he was able to bridge his character's slowly developing manical laugh in one take. "I think he has a future in voiceover," Timm added.

* Timm said there will be aspect of Grant Morrison's Batman work that might be touched upon in future work, but he couldn't say more than that.

* Timm said that while use of tobacco guarantees an R-rating -- thus Gordon's use of nicotine gum in the first part -- "It turns out swastikas on naked breasts doesn't automatically get your an R-rating."

* Timm said there are many ways to play Batman from the 1960s TV show to the Christopher Nolan movies. He said when he created the old Bruce Wayne for Batman Beyond, he didn't realize "I was kind of ripping off Frank Miller."

* Timm said he hasn't heard from Frank Miller about Part 1. "Hoping," he said.

* Timm said there are no plans for Batman Beyond, but "I would love to do it."

* Asked about Kingdom Come, Timm said, "That might be a while."

* Asked about Knightfall, Timm said, "It comes up every now and then."