Well once again we have seen the new pop culture mecca known
as SDCC come and go. What may have once been a humble comic convention is now
the place for movies, TV shows, comics, and animation to appease their many
fans about upcoming projects. So who had a big con and who didn’t this year?
Winners:
Saga, Dave Stewart,
and David Aja
Quite literally these three were winners at comic con, with
each being a victor at the Eisner Award ceremony. Saga, the white hot Image series brought to you by storytellers
Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples, swept up best new and continuing series.
Dave Stewart is a world renowned colorists of comic books and he took home his
8th (!!!) Eisner for his work. Finally, David Aja, he of the
beautiful drawing abilities, took home two statues for both his interior work
and his covers. Congrats to them and all the other winners!
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| That's him. Dancing. It's a proud moment |
Cosmos
Do you like SCIENCE? Of course you do, because it’s amazing
and you can’t exist without it (In your face Math!). In the 70’s and 80’s we
had the late, great Carl Sagan to serve as a diplomat of science to the world.
He created a show called Cosmos which
ran on PBS in 1980, which if you haven’t watched it… well that may be why you
don’t like science. But guess what? You can just wait and watch the new one
with world renowned astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson! The trailer came out at
SDCC and apparently it was great and we should all be happy, hence its
inclusion in the winners category.
Venture Bros. Fans
I hope I am not the only one part of the Beacoup Pop
community that loves this hilarious and oft times uncomfortable show about
failure and cartoon mayhem. At SDCC the creators of the show, Jackson Publick
and Doc Hammer, tend to show up and be very uncomfortable on stage which manifests
as them shouting nonstop non-sequiturs at their fans. And buddy did they not
disappoint this year. Head to Bleeding Cool’s write up to read all the crazy
quotes. But the reason they are winners is because they are already working on
the season 6 (season 5 ended on Sunday night) so hopefully we won’t have to
wait 3 years for the new adventures of the Ventures! Also, Dark Horse comics
will be releasing an art book from the creators soon, so look forward to that!
Godzilla
I am a new initiate into giant monster movie fandom (if you
have suggestions for what to watch, lay ‘em on me folks) but I have been oddly
excited about this film since I heard about Brian Cranston’s involvement.
Luckily it sounds like my faith was not misplaced! Attendees and multiple sites
have reported that the footage shown to convention goers was visually arresting
and that the immersive off site exhibits built for the film were marvelous. In
the footage we apparently see a giant monster, not dissimilar in appearance and
size to the Cloverfield monster,
destroying an airport. There are soldiers firing and people fleeing from the
behemoth of a beast when suddenly something hits the ground next to the
monster. Turns out, it’s Godzilla’s foot! His foot is bigger than this first
monster and they pan up to show that Godzilla is this Mt. Everest sized ungodly
monstrosity! Color me titillated and hopeful for this movie!Marvel
At this point it isn’t really a surprise any more. Marvel/Disney
are now a well-oiled publicity machine and they know just what dog and pony
show to give us to work us up into a froth. It started with Tom Hiddleston
appearing, in costume as Loki, to preview a clip of the upcoming Thor: Dark
World. Following this, attendees got a sneak peek at the next Captain America
movie and heard from the cast. Then things got jumping again with the entire
cast of Guardians of the Galaxy appearing on stage. They flew them in from
London, where they are shooting, just so the cast could do the meet and greet.
They even had footage to show, despite only working for 10 days. So far the
buzz is that Chris Pratt will be hilarious and scene stealing and that Rocket
Raccoon looks awesome.
Then when the place was already jumping, Joss Whedon
came out to reveal the next Avengers title, Avengers: Age of Ultron, which sent
the comic news world into a tizzy. Agents of SHIELD also got a big boost from
its pilot and the reveal that Cobie Smulders will be part of the action for a
few episodes this season.
Outside of their own ventures, Marvel’s farmed out
properties also seemed to fare well at the con. The new X-Men movie showed a
compelling trailer and showed how they might just pull off Days of Future Past.
Amazing Spider-Man 2 fared the worst with some people saying Electro may be
lame (I disagree but we can fight on twitter if you want [@bugmanjon]) but
Andrew Garfield continues to be the happiest actor on Earth just for getting to be
Spider-Man. So all in all, Marvel marches on.
Losers
Seventh Son
Jeff Bridges already had a bad weekend as his newest flick, RIPD, flopped at the theatres. But to
add insult to injury, people didn’t seem to impressed with his next movie
either. In it he is a witch hunter taking on an apprentice. We can find out
this January (never a good sign for a movie) when it comes out.
I, Frankenstein
Probably the next
Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters, a candy coated story idea with a genuinely
intriguing premise and popular genre actors that fails to live up to its own
potential. At least that’s what the internet says. Come see it at the dollar
theatre with me, I bet we have a good time.
DC/ Superman vs Batman
I may catch some flak for this one but… I think DC got
mauled. Sure the reveal that Man of Steel will be followed by Superman vs
Batman got people excited but… well they didn’t have enough pizzazz. Zach
Snyder and the general from MOS made the announcement and used a quote from
Dark Knight Returns. So we get a Superman punches Batman movie but no
announcements on who Batman will be played by, no cast members on stage… just
the logo with the “S” smooshed on the Bat. In addition, DC was expected to
announce a Flash film and a tentative release date for the Justice League movie
(for what, the 4th time?). Neither came to pass though. At this
point we are going to see Starlord and Rocket Raccoon on screen before we see
Wonder Woman or Flash. Hopefully DC follows through and figures out how to
catch up the Marvel cinematic machine.
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| Like a knife at a heat vision fight. |
Comic books… I guess?
Not to sound like a grumpy old codger but it didn’t seem
like there was much news about comics at the comic con this year. I am fine
with the event being a pop culture phenom and the place that folks launch
movies and shows I guess. It did seem like the comics got left behind a little
more this year. Image had their own amazing convention beforehand so they had already
pimped out what they wanted. Marvel and
DC are focused elsewhere at the moment. So what did we get to hear about? Well,
we have Marvel Now 2 where some series will be re-numbered and given a new
creative team possibly. We get a Longshot ongoing, Origin II for Wolverine, and
the return of Nightcrawler for the X-Men universe. For DC we got some new
teasers for Forever Evil and heard that a lantern corps will die in one of the
Green Lantern family books. I am guessing that some big things are being saved
up for NYCC later this year so that the books get the spotlight and don’t have
to share it with the movies, but I guess we’ll see.
In the end I guess I would say that no matter what I wrote,
everybody wins. We all get some new and interesting entertainment. I hope
everyone can remember that when they start typing out their obscenity laden
tirades about how DC is the superior company or how Whedon sold out to the
mouse for taking out Hank Pym from the Ultron storyline. What do you say we all
just, I don’t know, wait and see the finished products and maybe have a good
time when we do?
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