One of the most anticipated panels of any convention is “Jim Lee & Friends.” Not just because it’s nice to see that you can be Publisher of a comic book company and still have friends — though that’s nice — but also because Lee often drops huge DC Comics bombs on the audience. For example, last year’s New York Comic Con revealed not just Lee and Jeph Loeb reunited for H2SH, but also the return of DC’s Vertigo imprint — among other announcements. So what did this year’s bring? Read on for our recap, but first the panel synopsis.
At this year’s New York Comic Con, DC President, Publisher and Chief Creative Officer Jim Lee will treat fans to a powerful lineup of surprise announcements, reveals and special guests, along with great conversations with top comic creators, during DC’s annual NYCC “Jim Lee & Friends” panel. Moderated by Jim Lee.
Cool synopsis, bro. Anyway, as one might expect, the panel kicked off with Jim Lee coming out, as one needs to be friends with oneself, first. There was a bit at the beginning where Lee didn’t have a mic stand, the audience suggested water bottles to hold it up… And it didn’t work. Then a mic stand came out, and we were off to the races!
Lee started off by talking about DC High Volume: Batman, an ongoing podcast that adapts classic Batman books, and is released on a weekly basis (for more on that, listen to our podcast with High Volume host Coy Jandreau). Lee listed the previously released adaptations on the podcast, with Batman: Ego being released on October 29, based on the Darwyn Cooke book. To talk more about it, Lee brought out his first friend: Troy Baker.
Baker has voiced various Batman characters in video games, animation, and more. When asked about jumping from Joker to Red Hood, Baker said, “That’s the job… What used to get me detention is now my job. If some teacher tells you to stop, be safe of course, but recognize you’re the future talent.”
He continued to explain that reading comics, and watching Batman: The Animated Series. Baker shouted out Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill on that series as part of the reason he got into voice acting.
Getting to it, Lee explained the reason Baker is on the panel… On December 31 on DC: High Volume, they’re doing Batman: The Killing Joke, with Troy Baker voicing The Joker. Baker noted that he’s read the book multiple times, and the team is trying to make, “the most authentic adaptation of the source material.”
Baker shouted out Mark Hamill again, explaining how Hamill can just throw out the Joker voice — but for Baker he’s sweating on the mic. When he taped Arkham Origins, he got two hours into a four session when they called it and told him to take a break. Driving the point home, Lee played his voicemail message, which Hamill taped for him, in character as The Joker.
Following up on that, Lee challenged Baker to tape his own message as The Joker, to which Baker asked if there was a Batman cosplayer in the crowd. There was… Not, but instead several Red Hood cosplayers. Calling one up, Baker taped Nelson’s (that’s the cosplayer) voicemail message, using Hamill’s dialogue from Jim Lee’s message.
Next up, Ed Boon, the co-creator of Mortal Kombat. After showing off the trailer for Mortal Kombat II, Boon says he’s seen the movie “like four times now.” Lee revealed Boon has a cameo in the movie, which has a panel at NYCC tomorrow.
Lee also revealed something that he hasn’t even told his wife: that when he would work all night on a page back in the day, in order to rally he would play the Mortal Kombat theme song and dance around to keep himself going.
The big comics announcement? Sub-Zero is going to be in DC K.O., the currently running event written by Scott Snyder… Who was, shocker, the next guest. After laying out the plot of DC K.O. — basically 32 heroes and villains fighting to the death to gain enough “Omega Energy” to take down Darkseid — Lee explained that there are other characters who get pulled in… Including Annabelle, the evil doll from The Conjuring series.
The reason is that the DC characters are going to bring in characters from other universes in order to get even more Omega Energy that is available in the main tournament — which is how Sub-Zero and Annabelle get in on the action.
That’s not all! Homelander from The Boys, Red Sonja, Vampirella, and the kicker… Samantha, the bear from Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees are all in DC K.O. as part of a “bonus level.”
Moving to the next friend, Freddie Stroma, who plays Vigilante on Peacemaker arrived. He discussed working with James Gunn, and improvising on set, as well last night’s finale, with Stroma humbly discussing how great of an experience it was. Lee then discussed how they got Stroma to write on the recent Vigilante comic for DC. The kicker? Lee drew a picture of Stroma as Vigilante to convince him. And the second kicker? They made prints of the drawing, and are giving away some to the audience.
“It’s James Gunn, he writes that humanity so well,” Stroma wrapped up, talking about the show. “I love that my motivation most of the time is just to have him be my friend.”
And that was it! They showed the full trailer for Mortal Kombat II. The end!
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