Sunday Supervillainy – Heading to Conflux 9

I’ll be heading to Canberra to attend Conflux 9 from April 25 to 28. Conflux 9 is this year’s national science fiction convention, here in Australia.

The organisers have me down on three panels that I need to think about:

1. What was great about SF when we were young? Die hard fans talk about books that hooked when they were young. Who were these books and authors? Why did they grab? And what’s different now?

2. Kissing in space. Sex in space. Is it possible and are readers actually interested in sexy SF? This panel discusses the spectrum of SF. What turns some people on turns others off. Is there a happy medium?

3. Putting the heart into superheroes. The evolution of comic heroes from paper to film. Is it a reflection of our times or something more? Have comics always had hidden depth? This panel discusses various superhero comics from Batman, Avengers, X-Men. What were they like and what has Hollywood done to them now?

I’d be pleased to get some discussion of all this going before I get to the convention. Anyone got the answers to all these questions?