The jam-packed WonderCon room cheered as the panelists – Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV – took the stage, where Snyder thanked the audience for their support ever since his run on Detective Comics.

Snyder talked a bit about his angle for Detective Comics, how he viewed Gotham City as a place that would mold itself to challenge its heroes in new ways. Though he did have more stories for Dick Grayson as Batman , DC decided to bring Bruce back as Batman with the launch of the New 52 in September 2011 and Snyder opted to concoct the Court of Owls story as a new way to challenge Bruce. Interestingly, the Court of Owls story was planned before Snyder even knew about the New 52.Snyder described the contentious relationship between he and Batman artist Greg Capullo – Snyder wanted to work with full scripts and Capullo did not – but eventually the troubled relationship blossomed to a true friendship. Snyder described himself as Capullo’s comic book wife. “He definitely rides the Harley and I take the sidecar.” Snyder described the true passion that Capullo has for Batman and for the fans, describing how he pumps out two pages a day and never takes a day off, even on vacation or when a family member is in the hospital. Snyder also said that he and Capullo are in the process of negotiating new contracts for staying on Batman as far as issue #48 or #49.

Snyder talked about the impetus for Death of the Family as well, which came from his own fears as a parent after having a second child. He also touched on the relationship between himself and Tynion and the development of Talon, which was an idea from DC that Snyder didn’t want to do until Tynion gave him a pitch for it. From there, Snyder presented it to DC and pushed the book to give Tynion a chance to grow as a writer.The panel showed off Talon #7’s gatefold cover, which features Bane surrounded by the Court of Owls with a broken Calvin Rose on the ground.“The idea is always to try and create something new and old at the same time,” Snyder said of things like the Court of Owls and Death of the Family. He said that Zero Year would take the same approach. “There’s nothing in this book that you’ve seen before.”The idea stemmed from the realization that the Year One history just couldn’t have happened, continuity-wise, in the New 52. Snyder said that instead of just rehashing Year One, he wanted to try and give an origin in a way that no one has ever seen with different characters, challenges, tech, and situations. Zero Year, said Snyder, is “a very different challenge; a different Gotham than you’ve ever seen for Batman.”Snyder said that he’ll never change things like Joe Chill or Bruce’s parents – the core stuff – but things like using the pearls will not be rehashed. The writer made it clear that he knows that Zero Year might never reach the peak of Year One, but he’s happy as long as people know that it’s something they’ve worked their hardest on. The cover to Batman #22 was shown, which shows a molten molding of the Bat symbol in the cave.Superman Unchained was next up (forget for a minute that it’s technically a Batman panel). But Snyder said that there was some fitting crossover by having Superman talk on a Batman panel. “You’re going to see Superman in Batman coming up very soon and you’ll see Batman in Superman Unchained really early, too,” he confirmed.He also said Lois Lane would play a large role in his story, and that he sees her as a kindred spirit and someone that’s similar to Clark in many ways. He joked that Jim Lee said that he wanted to draw Lex Luthor to look like Grant Morrison. They also went over the foldout splash page they talked about in the DC Comics All-Access panel earlier today He said he still gets intimidated talking to Lee, referencing how he has to reject his super-fan mentality about his signed X-Men #1. “I have to remember it’s not ‘Jim Lee’ it’s just ‘Jim.’ I’m like yo, Jim, what’s up? I love you…”Discussion moved briefly to The Wake, which touched on a lot of the same points as the earlier panel . Snyder said that The Wake would explain every myth of the sea that humans have ever had. “It’s totally out of control, I hope you guys like it.”

Joey is a Senior Editor at IGN and a comic book creator. Follow Joey on Twitter @JoeyEsposito , or find him on IGN at Joey-IGN . If he could, he'd run away to live amongst wild cats for the rest of his days.