Alex Segura, DC Entertainment’s DC Universe publicity rep (read: he promotes the mainstream, superhero aspect of DC’s comics publishing empire), had a cryptic message on the company’s blog, The Source, Friday night. He told readers: “[DC Executive Editor] Dan DiDio just swung by my office and said ‘keep your phone on Monday morning,’ and darted off. What does it mean? You got me, gang. But if I were you, I’d keep my eyes peeled to this very space once the weekend’s over.”

Today, Segura followed up with a second entry, titled “When Dan DiDio Calls Your Phone at 6am, You Answer.”  Segura claims to have been called into the office early and suggests that there will be some early news. This is a departure from a lot of DC’s stories on “The Source”, which tend to be published after 10am.

What DOES it mean? Well, it could be a number of things. There’s been something in the water whenever I’ve spoken to DC folks lately, and it all seems pointed at this week. Of the handful of industry professionals I contacted just before the new year about creative changes to Booster Gold and the possibility of a return to publishing Justice League International in 2010, about half of them told me that they had no comment, but that I should wait until the second week of January for some major DC announcements.

And with Gail Simone, the writer of Wonder Woman, spilling the beans on Facebook that there would be a “big announcement” in the next week, it wouldn’t surprise me at all to discover that whatever she’s got cooking will be one of the things I’m told to look out for. She is, after all, the writer of the least-promoted member of DC’s “trinity,” and arguably the most successful female creator in mainstream superhero comics. The idea of her being given carte blanche to play in the DC sandbox for a Crisis-level crossover has been tossed around a lot in the last couple of years, and not long ago, DiDio himself indicated that he wasn’t opposed to the idea.

Wonder Woman, herself, has the distinction of being the only character to successfully break free from the mind control of both Darkseid and Nekron in the last two crossovers. Of course, that implies that she had to fall under the control of both villains, casting a shadow of doubt on how she might handle a major crossover of her own…!

UPDATE: The story given today, at the start of what DC assures us will be another week of big announcements, is that they’re launching Brightest Day, the details of which can be seen here. Apparently, the “Brightest Day” banner will serve the same function as Marvel’s “Dark Reign,” as it will be featured over the titles on the covers of a number of titles–so far confirmed by DiDio are the two Green Lantern monthlies, Titans and The Flash. He says more will be announced soon, both currently-ongoing books and some new #1s. Who wants to bet we’ll get a Brightest Day: Aquaman out of this? On another line of conjecture, too, let’s look at that logo. While the “Black Hand” logo is pretty well-established from his time as a villain in the series and so seeing it for the first time merely suggested to most fans that he’d be in the Blackest Night mix, the Brightest Day logo features seven points of light. My guess? This story will follow the travails of one of two things, possibly both: the “New Guardians” who have been teased by Johns and DC as coming out of the Blackest Night story, one representing each of the seven (non-black) Lantern Corps of the emotional spectrum; or, this could just be the logo of the long-rumored White Lantern ring; whoever that turns out to be, might be the central protagonist (or even antagonist) of Brightest Day, and this logo may be that individual’s sigil. Although it’s hard to think of a story called “Brightest Day” having an antagonist. It seems like it should just be a rollicking adventure story where nothing much goes wrong.

On a side note, I owe J. Caleb Mozzocco a Coke; I think that’s how it works, since he noticed the “jinx” of our simul-blogging the same subject at the same time this morning before I did. Either way, read his Linkarama piece because he’s clever and entertaining.

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