Missions will come from different characters as you progress in your career. So you might start working with Robin or Huntress, and as your reputation increases, you'll start working directly with Nightwing and then Batman. Ambush Bug missions are also apparently quite likely to break the fourth wall.

They stated the storyline of the game will address why there are suddenly so many new heroes on the streets. Also, the actual writers of the comics at DC will work on the missions. Aside from the instanced missions there will occasionally be giant events in the main gameworld where lots of fighting will happen with all the players there. (more on this later) Secret Identities will play some sort of part in the game but no further details on that.

One audience member asked if there would be a chance to be a Green Lantern in the game, and the answer was no. Players could have energy powers and have them come from their hand, but there are no immediate plans to allow players to join the Corps. They did say they were debating it for end-game missions, being deputized into the Corps for a mission or two, etc...

Costumes were addressed, in regards to loot. So if you find a set of shoulders or a bracer of power or something, and it doesn't match your outfit, you can set it to be invisible while still retaining the effects. We got nothing more on exactly what loot would do.

After the panel, I went down to the DCU Online booth and checked out the demo they had running. It was a simulated invasion event in Metropolis with giant Brainiac ships infecting citizens that were then controlled into attacking the city, with Bizarro and an armored Lex Luthor running around. It looped repeatedly, so whenever Lex or someone was defeated, he would take off and show up somewhere else later. (presumably in the live game, once defeated he would stay that way). As I entered gameplay, Superman popped up in a window to explain the mission to me, with full voiceover.

I controlled a skinny little hero in orange and blue who was using archery powers and superspeed. His arrows also appear to be on fire, or explosive or something. He had four attacks available. Two varients of firing at the enemy, a close-up punch attack, and one where he jumped up and shot an arrow straight down, causing a circle of fire to explode on the ground. Buttons on the controller activated special attack versions of these powers as well but it was hard to tell what they did differently. Targeting was handled with a sort of limited auto-focus.

Superspeed was interesting, my little hero easily ran up the various buildings and terrain, although he seemed to be able stay on the wall even when stopped, which seems an oversight in the physics engine, or perhaps a feature designed to reduce frustration. There was regular superspeed and a boosted speed where lighting started streaking around him and he moved even faster. It appears to only be a travel power as well, I couldn't find any way to use speed offensively like the Flash. It took some getting used to, as I tended to get stuck in geometry when running up walls. The camera doesn't shift and you suddenly can't see where you are going.

Each hero available for play during the demo also had something called 'weaponizing' selected as a power I was told. This means that various objects in the environment could be used as weapons. I tried this out by throwing a bus at Lex Luthor. I later discovered that when an ice-based hero briefly froze an enemy into a giant block of ice, I was able to throw that block around. One would assume you could sacrifice this ability for other bonuses.

After taking out Lex a few times and watching Superman and Supergirl slap Bizarro around, I started knocking out civilians. Afterwards they curled up in a ball and I was able to remove their nanite virus or whatever and stop them from respawning.

I have to say, I came into this demo not sure what to expect from DCU Online. I thought it would be a City of Heroes clone with auto-attacks like most other MMOs. I wasn't expecting a fully realized physics engine and real-time attacks. I've gone from mildly interested to intrigued here, and I'm eagerly awaiting more information on the game.