Simone spoke during today's DC panel here at San Diego Comic-Con about where she's planning to take Diana following the conclusion of the controversial Rise Of The Olympian storyline: She's teaming up with former Bird Of Prey Black Canary to go undercover as cagefighters for two issues, starting with this Wednesday's Wonder Woman #34. Following that, there'll be an even more extreme change in the new storyline Warkiller:

Wonder Woman is going to renounce the gods and declare that she is no longer an Amazon. We're going to see her as more of a superhero than she's been in quite some time.

Don't think this means that the series will lose its Amazonian edge with this change, however; Simone also teased that Themyscira, the home island of the Amazons, is about to find itself with a new ruler: Ares, the god of war. Not that everything will go to plan:

They're not too happy about that. They're not going to make everything easy for him.

Cagefights, out and proud superheroics and warrior women making gods' lives misery - How can you resist? Warkiller begins in September's #36.

This does not mean, however, that you should expect to see superheroes with names like Nite Owl: The Revenge or Silk Spectre: A New Beginning. That would be dumb.

With Dark Horse and, surprisingly, Marvel pretty much phoning it in in terms of their major releases this week (The HC version of Stephen King adaptation Dark Tower: The Long Road Home and a rescheduled hardcover collection of Orson Scott Card's second Ultimate Iron Man series being Marvel's two exceptions), it falls to DC to pick up the slack... only they're having an equally quiet week: If you're not interested in the hardcover collection of shenanigans surrounding superhero marriage in Green Arrow/Black Canary's Wedding Album, Justice League origin Vixen: Return Of The Lion or virtual reality leading to wholescale destruction in Wildstorm's Number Of The Beast, then you're almost out of luck... but I'll keep DC's must-have book of the week until later.

Image Comics keep the interest flag flying with the first issue of Zero G, a scifi whodunnit monster movie on paper, while Avatar offer up the first official issue of new Warren Ellis superhero series No Hero.

But the two picks of the week are IDW's paperback collection of Peter David's Star Trek: New Frontier comic, and the first issue of DC's Top 10 Season Two, Zander Cannon and Gene Ha's revisit of the Alan Moore series from a few years back that puts Hill Street Blues into a room with superheroes and sees what comes out afterwards — Witty, filled with pathos and beautifully illustrated, it easily dominates the slow week (and would, to be fair, do so on a busy week as well). Add it to your shopping list immediately.

While you're adding things to lists, you can find a complete list of this week's new comic releases here to see what else you might want to think about, and then use the Comic Shop Locator Service to find out where your closest local store may be. Just... stay away from the financial news for awhile, okay?

While Beeman - who directed last week's second episode, and has been with the show since the beginning - doesn't point out the major flaw in last night's "One of Us, One of Them" (That would be the "Hey, Sylar's a good guy now! Look, he put on a funny accent and ordered that asshole cop around! Ain't he a card?" turnaround, which didn't just stretch what little credibility the show had as much as just gleefully shred it while giggling and telling the audience not to think too much, just look at Zachary Quinto in a suit - Seriously, people, WTF? You couldn't have at least tried to put some effort into that plotline?), he's happy to share some behind the scenes gossip about Claire's showdown with her mom and Hiro and Ando's moviegoing experiences in Germany:

The first draft of the script, from a production standpoint, was very big. It had the bank robbery more-or- less as it currently exists. It also had a Claire/Meredith scene, which currently occurs in a cargo container. This scene originally took place in a deserted warehouse where Claire was surrounded by fire. The Hiro/Ando/Daphne scene, which currently occurs in a German movie theatre, originally took place on a train traveling through India, complete with Hiro and Ando on the roof of the train and Ando nearly falling out the side of a baggage car.

Personally, I loved the first draft of this script. It was a great, incredibly exciting read. I loved the way the bank robbery was written, and the idea that Sylar was to become HRG’s new partner blew my mind. The entire component parts were great – but, collectively, it was also, obviously, too big to be affordable. Beyond that though, the choices we producer’s faced of how to get the budget down became very subjective. The bank robbery was the obvious thing that had to stay because it drove the central story and the key recurring stories for the series– For me, the scripted moment where time freezes and future Peter appears was a key event (it sent a chill down my spine when I first read it.) So the Claire story and the Hiro story were what had to be attacked.

Not that the bank robbery escaped entirely unscathed:

There were changes made to reduce budget in the bank scenes as well. Most noteably – at first Jesse’s power was Earthquake-stomp (Like Gorgon of the Inhumans from the Fantastic Four comics) But this power implied cracking floors and walls and all manner of damage that would be expensive to produce. At the last minute we changed him to a Sonic scream (like DC’s Black Canary) – this was easier to accomplish but was a bummer too us because we already had Echo from the online webisodes with sonic power – Oh well…

The biggest bummer for me was the death of the villains (Well, three of the four) so quickly - Not only does it kind of make me wonder what the point of pretending that they were a big deal in the first place was if they were going to be written out after a botched bank robbery (Also, what was the point of the "hidden Peter" plot at all?), but I'm depressed that Weevil's death robs me of any more potential Veronica Mars reunion moments. But what did the rest of you think?

Season 3, Episode 3 [Beaming Beeman]

Besides the Justice gang, Souders also confirmed the return of Cyborg from the Teen Titans. Will he be a new addition to DC's Super Friends?

Souders also spilled what we've all been been expecting since featured characters have been jumping off the Smallville Titanic one after the other: this season will focus on the relationship between Lois and Clark. Clark gets a job at the Daily Planet (which was hinted at in the season finale). "The camaraderie as they work side-by-side that everyone loves from the DC Comics and all the Superman lore is going to come to fruition this year," Souders told TV Guide. "The two of them are thrown together in some unfortunate situations for Clark. She becomes a little bit of an obstacle to him saving the world, when he's on a deadline."

Sounds like a predictable year. Let's hope they switch things up and let Doomsday murder the doe-eyed Clark Kent and then have his way with feisty Lois.

[TV Guide]

We're not sold on the eye-smudge makeup she wears in her Canary gear, which looks like it's a combo of Heath Ledger's Joker and Kristen Dunst from Marie Antoinette. But that "Canary Cry" effect ain't half bad. When did she develop such Wonder Woman-like powers of leaping, though? And were we the only ones out there hoping there might be a steamy love scene between Black Canary and Chloe? After all, the intrepid reporter keeps getting burned by boys. Maybe it's time she tries the other team. We're just saying.

Here's the official episode summary. I love that she's a conservative talk-show host when she's not dressing like a freak:

THE GREEN ARROW AND BLACK CANARY BATTLE IN SMALLVILLE — While secretly working for Oliver (guest star Justin Hartley), Chloe (Allison Mack) intercepts one of Lex's (Michael Rosenbaum) project files, but she is attacked by the Black Canary (guest star Alaina Huffman), a mystery woman with a subsonic cry. Dinah Lance, Black Canary's alter ego, is a conservative talk show host who is working at the Daily Planet and clashes with Lois (Erica Durance).