Introducing the panel, Action Comics writer Geoff Johns said,

We've all kind of started to work together on Superman... we're all working in tandem to get the Superman universe lined up like we did on Green Lantern, get all the characters on the same page so we can go and tell crazy stories... We had a huge summit that we worked on all three books all the way through December 2010.

The first crazy story to spin out of that summit is October's New Krypton, which Johns teased with this high concept pitch:

Kandor is grown on the planet Earth, and all the Kryptonians decide 'Hey, cool, this must be new New Krypton' and Superman says 'No, it's not,' and chaos ensues.

More important than stories, according to the writers, is the characterization. Johns again:

We don't really want to change anything about Superman like saying, he's gonna have a kid. It's not about changing stuff as much as it's about exploring character... We want to get to them on an emotional level... [For example, the story 'Last Son'] was really about, Superman can never have a kid. He and Lois may love each other, but they can never have a kid. The House of El will end. How do they react to that?

Superman writer James Robinson admitted that part of that effort will include making sure that characters like Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen will return to the versions everyone knows, instead of superpowered giant turtles fighting evil gods: "The [supporting] characters have lost their way a bit," he said, before saying that Jimmy Olsen should be the third most important character in a Superman comic, after Superman and Lois. Johns agreed, and added that there are also plans afoot to use Lois more often: "If Superman married her, she's gotta be the coolest woman in the world."

The most important revelation from the panel may have come from new Supergirl writer Sterling Gates. When asked whether he will bring a more consistent characterisation to the Maid of Steel after an erratic few years where she's been portrayed as confused, evil, stupid, slutty and almost continually unheroic, he said that he saw her as one of the strongest characters DC Comics has, and feels that she's been mishandled recently. "Can we officially say that she's not a slut?" Johns asked, to the applause of the audience. So, now you know: Supergirl isn't a slut.

That's Mary Marvel's job.

James Robinson, who's better known in comic circles for his critically-acclaimed Starman and The Golden Age series than his screenplay for the unsuccessful adaptation of Alan Moore's literary pulp series, was given the keys to the kingdom by DC when it came to choosing which characters get to frown while punching bad guys in the new Justice League book:

I remember this was at San Diego and they had a hospitality suite for DC. On the wall was a beautiful poster, I think it was done by Ron Garney, of all of the current DC characters running forward. And Dan [DiDio, DC Executive Editor] literally said, 'These are the ones that I'd like you to use,' and then said, 'I know one of the things you are known for is finding those obscure characters and bringing them to life. So throw in a couple of those characters too.' And that was it.

Congorilla's basically a magical, seven-foot tall, golden gorilla. But he has the intelligence and the sophistication of a big game hunter, who has lived for 90 years... At the same time, because he is in a gorilla's body, the golden gorilla's physical demands mean when he is challenged, he's this savage, exciting jungle predator. So that's why I stress that he's magical, and I am probably ripping off a million characters here, but it's occurred to me if he takes on Deadshot, all Deadshot needs to do, it doesn't matter if he's a seven-foot tall gorilla or not, is shoot Congorilla and he's dead. So the whole concept of this big game hunter, who became this big gorilla and could originally go back and forth, doesn't work. So now he is basically stuck as Congorilla and he's magical, I am giving him sort of a healing factor, which will allow him to survive against that type of foe. That makes him just that much more formidable if you can't eliminate quickly.

Suddenly, I feel that they have your attention.

The comic debuts later this year.

Golden Age James Robinson I: Justice League [Comic Book Resources]

• It's a formula. Any storytelling formula is going to be lame. Any. Of course, Campbell didn't think he was prescribing a formula. He thought he was describing the pattern that's inherent in all the great stories. But over time, lazy writers like George Lucas have used it as a checklist. It's just as boring as the video game where you have the level bosses and then you have the big boss at the end. Except in the "Journey," it's the guardians of adventure, followed by the "dragon," followed by the final battle.
• It discourages originality. By the same token, if you claim that every great story is really just the same great story with surface changes, you're encouraging people to plagiarize the hell out of old stories. Instead of championing stories that are different, like say, Firefly/Serenity or James Robinson's Starman, you're tempted to call a schlock-fest like the original Star Wars "mythic" because it's about a hero who's singled out.
• Why is one hero so special anyway? The hero doesn't just get the "call to adventure" because everyone's getting it. He gets it because he's the most important person alive, with the most special skillz or the biggest brain. Everybody who's not him sucks and should go away. It plays into people's fantasies that they're secretly amazing, without having to work for it. But for those of us who aren't Ender Wiggin or Luke Skywalker, it's just pointless. What about a hero who's the greatest because she decides not to put up with the shit that everybody else is putting up with? What about a group of people who decide to work together to change the crappy status quo?
• The "hero" is always a d00d. Why does the hero encounter the goddess halfway through? Because she's hawt and he's a guy. If the hero was a chick, would the goddess be a dude? Somehow we doubt it.
• It's cheesy as hell. Here are some choice New Age-y quotes from Campbell. Sample quote: "Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again." Woah, dude. I just felt my crystals vibrate a little. Campbell also appears to be the inventor of the phrase "follow your bliss."
• He shoehorned a lot of myths into his theory. Campbell himself writes, in Thousand Faces, that he's not interested in exploring the differences between myths, just the similarities. In other words, he looked for whatever similarities he could find and overlooked any differences as "variations" in his monomyth. He also ignored countries outside the Indo-European tradition, like East Asia and Africa.
• It confuses personal growth with solving problems. Sometimes in order to defeat a great evil, you have to learn an important personal lesson and grow as a person. But often, you don't. Oftentimes, defeating a great evil just requires fighting like hell and doing what has to be done, and there's no time to meet the goddess or touch your magic wand or any of that stuff. Campbell's monomyth is unrealistic and spreads the idea that war is therapy.