I know it's centered around 2008 product, but will we see something by Christmas?

Peace,

Chip

Seriously doubt that we'll see anything before the January resets as far as a branded area. Some of the product may show up right before the holidays but it's not going to have a specific space until the resets.

My guess is that this "DC branded area" will have DCUC, whatever JLU is becoming, DC Super Friends, the battle figures (whatever they're called now) and I would guess some Batman and Superman themed role-play stuff, maybe some board and card games, too. There may be some Batman Begins placeholder stuff like Hasbro did with Spider-Man Origins just to "reserve" peg space until the movie toys hit. With TRU getting Batman specific exclusives there may even be a seperate Batman line (although it could be exclusives to TRU) next year that we haven't heard about yet.

I'm hoping it'll be before Christmas but it really doesn't look that way.

is the aisle branding universal, or just one or two stores?

I don't think this "aisle branding" business is going to be anything major or out-of-the-ordinary. Basically if you just take a look at how the Marvel based figures and toys are all grouped together in the action figure aisles now and I think that's going to be a pretty good represention of what Mattel has planned. I'd say nothing more than just more space devoted to DC toys (and The Dark Knight is going to be responsible for a lot of that) and all of the merchandise grouped together...

Is this "aisle branding" going to take place in Canada? I'm getting fed up with the lack of DC stuff here at major retail stores...

I know this is the case with Hasbro and I believe that it applies to Mattel, too, but when these guys are talking about plans and product releases they're usually just talking about the US. Other countries are usually handled by that country's division or by another company that acts as a distributor. Look at the back of a JLU or DCSH purple card and there is contact information for 6 different international divisions of Mattel, each one of those divisions most likely makes their own plans for product based on what the US division is offering and what they've determined what will be the most profitable to the company in that country. If they don't think superheroes will sell in that market they won't be offered or they'll be offered on a very limited basis.