Posted in: Comics | Tagged: band aid, blood moon, brainiac, Comics, dc, dc comics, entertainment, suprman doomed

A Story Timeline For DC Comics' Blood Moon Multiverse Event Of 2015

Published Fri, 26 Sep 2014 12:00:15 -0500

As Brainiac looms as the enemy in @DCComics' multiverse, I'm surprised @BleedingCool hasn't yet taken credit for predicting "bottle Earths."

— Todd Seavey (@ToddSeavey) September 25, 2014

Good point.

Here's a history of the Blood Moon rumour, previously referred to as the DC Band-Aid, on Bleeding Cool.

It began here. That Tom DeFalco was going to edit DC Comics for two months,

DiDio has also told folk that Tom DeFalco, ex-EIC of Marvel Comics, and recent writer on books like Superboy and Legion Lost , will be given an editorial position and the task of running a "second unit" of editorial responsibility at DC Comics, alongside existing DC (and also ex-EIC of Marvel Comics) EIC Bob Harras, creating a two month event to help the rest of DC cover the office move from coast to coast, without dropping the number of comic books being published…

Creators started to be named.

Working on the event as lead writers, I'm told, are Dan Jurgens, Keith Giffen and Brian Azzarello.

And yes, they are all also working on the Futures End weekly series. which comes to an end right about then. Almost as if the two things are going to tie in…

Maybe it'll be Crisis On Infinite Earths done right?

But changes came thick and fast as I nicknamed it the Band-Aid, something to cover the gap.

A large number of DC Comics being prepared in advance to run for two months in April and May 2015 to cover the move of the DC Comics offices from New York to Burbank.

It was going to be headed up by ex-Marvel Editor In Chief Tom DeFalco. But as of last week, that appears to be no longer the case.

I understand that Dan DiDio will be more directly involved. But also, so will ex-Marvel editor Marie Javins, who was previously assisting DeFalco on the project.

….

Expect a bunch of writers assigned to a bunch of books, some familiar, some not, to help fill the gap. Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Grey, Scott Lobdell and Fabian Nicieza are four I've heard mentioned but I also understand that they are looking further afield and folk are still being recruited. So wait by your phone…

I started to learn more about its structure.

I'm told there are to be forty one shots from ten to fifteen writers, spread over two months. Either in addition, or included, would be a weekly series running for the duration of the event. And, as well as the folk mentioned yesterday I've been told to expect some names more associated with digital. More associated with indie books. More associated with Marvel books. And even founders of other publishers. The names are still being juggled so nothing is fixed right now.

Then we got some further structure and the high concept of the Band-Aid.

I'm told that The DC Band-Aid project as I am still calling it, given no other alternative name, consists of twenty two part stories plus a weekly book running through the two months, totalling 48 books in all.

But the content will be modelled in part on the playing experience of that game, and others such as Infinite Crisis. Pitting various DC character of various realities together, against each other, with various outcomes.

What realities, I don't yet know. But popular amongst such games as the Red Son characters, so that's probably a lock. So… who would you like to see in combat against each other from the DC Multiverse? And who would you like to see write and draw such confrontations?

Seriously, DC Editorial will be watching and listening. And, as the title of this piece reflects, one creator described the project to me as "a love letter to DC Comics fans."

Then we heard some of those characters would be from the Pre-52

No sooner was the New 52 Relaunch underway (and folks found out that it was a stealth reboot) than people have been asking "when can we get the old stuff back?"

Superman in his red trunks. Batgirl in her wheelchair. Amanda Waller in her size-plus clothing. Alan Scott in his heterosexuality.

Well, as part of the comics event that we have dubbed The Band Aid, currently being planned and created in advance to help DC Comics keep putting out books during the publisher's move from New York to Burbank and masterminded by Dan DiDio and Marie Javins, I am told that it will include Pre-52 versions of various DC characters, face to face with their New 52 counterparts.

Although that last bit was wrong and we soon corrected.

It has been clarified to us that there will be no New 52 characters represented in the Band-Aid, aside from those from Earth 2. No Prime Earth characters at all.

Instead the comics will see heroes from different realities pitted against each other.

Then we had a DC Comics creator break cover (if not anonymity) over the Band-Aid as more and more creators were approached.

There still seems to be confusion among editorial, and thus, creators, as to what the title and plot actually are, and it has changed several times.

The current plot might be comparable to Marvel's Contest of Champions/Secret Wars from back in the day.

As of now, it is intended to be in-continuity and not an Elseworlds-type story.

It will feature some pre-52 characters along with New52 characters. So, apparently, the old pre-52 universe still exists somewhere, although how this is possible without invalidating Flashpoint is not clear.

As of right now, it has nothing to do with Anti-Monitor – many in editorial were surprised when Geoff Johns brought that character back. Some didn't know about it until that issue was printed. This is not the first time they have been surprised by a plot point in his books…

We were told it would all be announced at San Diego Comic Con. And we were completely wrong about that. However we were told,

I'm now being told that editors and freelancers are referring to the DC Comics event next year, prepared in advance to cover the move from New York to Burbank as "The Band Aid" between them now. Partly because the real title is in flux, partly because DC Comics are using different titles with different people to smoke out where the leaks are coming from. Better safe that sorry.

We did however get some more names of folk attached to the event.

Fabian Nicieza, David Gallaher, Adam Beechen, Larry Hama, Marv Wolfman, Dan Abnett, Len Wein and Jeff Parker.

Then I discovered who would be writing the weekly comic that would run through the event.

On the back of the success of his Doomed crossover on the Superman books, Scott Lobdell has been given the task of writing the weekly title that will run through what Bleeding Cool has dubbed the Band-Aid.

We were named what the event would be called, while sitting in a panel at San Diego Comic Con.

And there have been many names I've heard the project where multiversal versions of classic DC characters meet each other, thanks to Brainiac's Bottle Earths, or somesuch, twenty stories, two issues issue with a weekly comic running through the two months.

But I've heard one name, three times. And that happens to be Blood Moon.

Which did rather remind us of a previous tease that, at the time, was seen as a tease for Futures End.

I then got a few more plot details.

Via Brainiac, know in the Pre-52 for shrinking the city of Kandor so it would fit inside a bottle. Well he's been busier than that in the New 52 and instead of bottle cities, we get bottle Earths. Lots of them. And that's how we'll get a new Crisis…

Bottle Earths. You know what these could look like? Bottles as seen from above…