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Perhaps it was inevitable there had to be a sequel. As DC Comics and its much touted virtual comic book convention DC FanDome – Saturday’s wall-to-wall info laden presentation of enough pop cultural/comic related ephemera to leave even the most devout teetotaler in a stupor – charged through one movie trailer presentation after another for upcoming flicks based off of DC properties, it soon became apparent that there was still much more to say about DC. It was a lot to take in, after all: director Matt Reeves formally introduced the first official trailer for his upcoming Batman reboot, The Batman; teases for Aquaman 2 and Zack Snyder’s Justice League cut for HBOMax; trailers for Wonder Woman 1984 and James Gunn’s iteration of The Suicide Squad. The above, along with looks at a new Suicide Squad video game and upcoming information on the Arrowverse capped off over 100 hours of original content and left most fans of comics in popular media feeling quite warm and fuzzy indeed.
As the virtual balloons and virtual streamers were swept to the side (by the virtual brooms, I imagine) after the rousing success of yesterday’s DC FanDome event, the salient words of one horror movie scribe echoed loudly in many-a DC/AT&T executive’s noggin – “We get to carry on and plan the sequel! Cause let’s face it, baby! These days, you gotta have a sequel!” And with that bit of Kevin Williamson sage-like advice rattling around in their collective psyches, part two of DC Fandome was announced for September 12 just as pop cultural pundits such as myself attempted to dissect all of the news to come out of the first event.
In a statement, DC said that “DC FanDome…became too massive to contain in the four dimensions of only a single day on Earth-Prime! And we realized that not even The Flash could get through the entire 100+hours of programming in 24 hours. With hours upon hours of content and choices of what to watch and explore, DC fans (including DC’s Jim Lee himself!) clamored for a way to access more of what DC FanDome has to offer. So, in order to super-serve the world’s finest fans, DC FanDome has been transformed into a two-part event: the eight-hour DC FanDome Hall of Heroes show on Saturday, August 22, followed three weeks later by DC FanDome: Explore the Multiverse, a 24-hour, on-demand experience accessed via the DCFanDome.com program scheduler on Saturday, September 12.”
The extension of the DC FanDome is needed for fans of the actual comic book material itself: In over 100 hours of recorded footage, a shockingly little amount of time was given to comic books themselves, the source material (or the “IP farm” as the more cynical-mined among us refer to both DC and Marvel) for the film, television, Young Adult novels and video games that are now so bountiful. The excitement that DC generated with welcome announcements for the return of a racially diverse universe via the much-missed Milestone imprint of comics and the advent of storyteller and director John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) on writing duties for a new Batman title were a much needed shot in the arm for an otherwise extremely lackluster crop of comic book news, specifically when it comes to the main in-continuity DC Universe line of comic books such as Justice League, Flash, Superman, Green Lantern, etc. Sadly, that initial excitement was not followed up upon. A comic book fan might be forgiven yesterday for being understandably deflated and underwhelmed with the lack of announcements about the main DC line going forward. And as far as breaking news about new main-line books that don’t involve Batman…Forget about it: Yesterday’s silence regarding books fans are actually clamoring (and have been since 2016’s Rebirth initiative at DC) for such as a brand new Justice Society of America, a Wally West Flash or Teen Titans titles spoke volumes for many old-time fans as to DC’s agenda – or non-agenda – for these perennial evergreens.
Which is why the DC FanDome sequel is needed: Much service was given yesterday in a classy and fun way for movies and the like. On September 12 let’s hope that DC remembers to spread the love a little bit further for their actual comic books.
