Comic Con

As a geek, nerd, dork, fanboy, etc., I'd be remiss in my self-appointed duties to not talk about what's been going down at the biggest collection of geeks, nerds, dorks, and fanboys in the world: the San Diego Comic Con.

I've been keeping up as best I could, but foolishly forgot that G4 airs from the Con until this morning. Bummer. Regardless, I checked out updates at IGN, CBR, and some other abbreviations. I won't be recapping everything, just the stuff that appealed to me the most. Or the stuff I have an opinion on, even if it was completely unappealing to me.

First and foremost, the unauthorized trailer for The Walking Dead:


Talk about faithful. And awesome. The zombies look astonishing. I'd daresay they're the best I've seen committed to any sized screen. All that from a shaky cell phone video. And since AMC has a great storyteller behind it all in Frank Darabont, we're guaranteed quality. So long as the show follows the comic's character-based format, and don't get carried away with zombie-killing, I'm all in.

Next up:

This is the only DC book I'm still on, and with good reason. Geoff Johns is doing a hell of a thing with Green Lantern, namely in expanding the world with all the other Lanterns, and now the White Lantern, too. That said, I'm excited about the movie. I was less excited when we got the costume reveal from EW. Many a nerd typed their disdain in the forums, and the movie folks noticed. At the Con panel, the director reassured that what we saw was (hey! those words reflect each other!) not the final costume design. I hope so, and I'll believe it. Recently, at least, Warner Bros. has been giving their superhero flicks the proper attention. That they'd listen to their fanbase could be great or terrible. In this instance, I think it's smart.

Of course, they brought footage with them, and I've only heard good things. Also heard this may be DC's start to expanding their movie universe, like Marvel's been doing. Hopefully that means a Flash movie, and a Wonder Woman, a Superman and Batman that live on the same planet.

That's a beautiful thing. Also beautiful? From more than one review, the footage shown was compared to Indiana Jones. And said footage also helps connect The First Avenger: Captain America with Thor, as the pre-Red Skull Hugo Weaving is searching for a couple of items, namely the Cosmic Cube, said by him to have been in Odin's possession. Tying the mystical into a World War II flick is all right with me, thanks to the Indiana Jones movies and the start of Hellboy. So long as Joe Johnston doesn't bungle it, I mean. More than anything I've heard about the movie, he worries me. I'm worried because of Jurassic Park III, which was worse than the Jurassic Park-inspired stories I wrote in the fourth grade. And then there was Wolfman...Yikes. But again, the footage looked good, especially since it came after only eight days of filming.

More than any other Marvel movie, I've felt Thor would have the hardest time fitting in. Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk did wonders creating a realistic world. Or as realistic a world can be with a 7-foot green monster and a man in a metal suit. But I'm also looking forward to it more than I am the Cap movie. I'm a fan of Kenneth Branagh, and I like that Natalie Portman is involved. But the big question has always been how will the Asgard-side of the story fit in? We saw Mjolnir at the end of Iron Man 2, and it looks like the Cosmic Cube will have some ties to Odin in the Cap movie. And from the descriptions of the footage, I'm excited.

There are two parts to the Avengers I want to talk about. I'll start with the less than good:

Looks like Red Hulk is joining the ranks of Marvel's elitest. That announcement was met with polite applause. Why? Because it's not a good call. Most of you know that I'd love to have a job at Marvel. As such, I hope they never see what I'm going to say here. The Brian Michael Bendis/John Romita, Jr. run on Avengers, so far, has been lackluster. It doesn't feel big. It doesn't feel important, despite having the biggest names in heroes grace its pages. The problem is two-fold: Bendis is great at fast, witty dialogue. That was probably the greatest part of the entire original New Avengers. New Avengers has been my favorite book for the last 4+ years. The man's run on Daredevil was nothing short of bad ass. And it looks like I'm not the only one in love with Spider-Woman. So I know he can write. We all do. He's been writing Marvel's major storylines for nearly a decade! (Avengers Disassembled, House of M, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, Siege, etc.) But now he's on both Avengers and New Avengers, and they all act the same, it's just that one group has Thor and Iron Man, and the other has Luke Cage. It doesn't make sense to me. They both feel like street-level teams, which is what New Avengers has been since Luke Cage's been in charge. But that's not the Avengers. They're higher brow. Yes, Spider-Man will always crack stupid jokes. But he does more than that too. Thor will likely seem out-of-place around some of the newer Avengers, but how about we explore that, not crack a joke? And I think Maria Hill ought to be a bit more professional in the field than we've seen so far. It's about appearances. The Avengers are IT: the best of the best, the most prestigious in Marvel. Write them as such.

The other half is literally appearance. I'm not a fan of JRjr. I read over and over again that he's a legend. That he's a master. But where is that, then? It's not in this book. That cover to #1? Jake was right when he said that's not a cover that sells. I get that no one works on just one book anymore, and I know I'll sound like a broken record, but this is supposed to be Marvel's best. I'd like to SEE that. Now maybe I just don't get his style. But I don't think that's it. I don't care for his character designs. I don't like the way he draws a face, or a lady's neck. I think a lot of his body designs are unnecessarily rounded—there's no hard lines. Look at Big Daddy in Kick-Ass. Look at Apocalypse in Avengers. Limbs don't bend, they curve.

The addition of Red Hulk seems par for the course, that is to say, below par for what ought to be amazing.

Now for the good:

That's the Avengers cast. All of them. Righteous. Left to right, we have Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), Nick Fury (Sam Jackson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Hulk (newly cast Mark Ruffalo), director Joss Whedon and head of Marvel Studios Kevin Fiege.

Here's video of the announcement, with Robert Downey really being Tony Stark:

I'm holding off on writing about Scott Pilgrim since the movie is coming out soonish. But they screened the movie for lucky attendees, which is always one of the coolest things people can do. Edgar Wright even brought out Simon Pegg and Nick Frost for a hot second. Combine that with Michael Cera on stage in a Captain America costume and you've got a hot panel.

Other tidbits: Robert Rodriquez said Fox has given him the go-ahead to start developing a sequel to Predators, Warner Bros. pissed off a bunch of fans by showing very little new footage and only having Tom Felton (Draco) show up, Green Hornet is NOT impressing, Grant Morrison will be writing Batman, Inc., which he said was like Brave and the Bold combined with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Carnage is coming back, but without Cletus Kasady.

I'd love to be able to do a live-esque blog from San Diego next year, so I'll start accepting donations now. It's much appreciated.