Saturday is traditionally the big day at Comic-Con and this year didn't disappoint: biggest crowds of the event, a crazy carnival atmosphere on the Gaslamp streets, and blockbuster previews, of course. The crowd of 6,000 in Hall H witnessed Marvel's super hero star power with Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson previewing Marvel's Avengers, an early sneak of Captain America and Kenneth Branagh and Natalie Portman talking about the eagerly awaited Thor. The Hall H crowd also got treated to appearances by Harrison Ford for Cowboys and Aliens, and Ryan Reynolds for Green Lantern. Wow.
Saturday was slightly marred by Comic-Con's first-ever incident of violence: a scuffle broke out in Hall H before Universal's panel for Paul over seating and in the heat of the moment, one of the attendees jabbed a pen in another's face near his eye. Apparently the pen was originally intended for autographs. Frankly, with the massive crowds, I'm surprised more fights haven't broken out - something to be said for the Comic-Con crowd. But, hey, let's not over-hype the incident into a violent stabbing as the local TV news outlets were breathlessly reporting. It was a scuffle.
Comic-Con is all about lines and patience, especially if you're getting something for free. My personal experience was driven by hunger, and FOX was promoting free hamburgers outside the Convention Center for their new animated series, Bob's Burgers. FOX had taken over and re-cast the nearby Tin Fish restaurant into a Bob's Burgers joint, while giving away 200 burgers an hour. I ended up waiting nearly 40-minutes for a lukewarm burger, but I had already adopted the Comic-Con attitude of, "Dammit, I've been waiting here long enough and I'm going to see it through to the end!" That's what Comic-Con frenzy does to you.
On a more under-the-radar note, I sat in on a session about the old cult favorite vampire soap opera from the 1960s, Dark Shadows. If you remember it, it was in black and white and came on in the afternoon everyday, where Barnabas Collins would forge gothic romance upon Collinwood. Kinda cheesy in retrospect, with bad dialogue, muffed lines, cheap quality, but it has captured the hearts of fans. And it can be argued that it is the precursor to the current Twilight series frenzy. The good news: Tim Burton and Johnny Depp - big fans of the show - are on board to create a film version of Dark Shadows. Cool.
And my last Day 3 at Comic-Con experience was an interview with comic artist superstar Jim Lee (of which I will post an article at a later date). He chatted a bit about his endeavor as co-publisher for DC Comics the new DC Universe/Sony Online Entertainment massively multiplayer (MMO) online game. A preview trailer was shown and it is nothing short of spectacular. Even better, the man who re-cast X-Men, Batman and Superman, was gracious enough to sketch a little something on my iPad (posted above), using just his fingers only. In about 10 minutes. Now, that is awesome!
Comments