OUT OF THE SHADOWS
Lesser lights shine at this year’s Comic-Con
SAN DIEGO Comic-Con fans know one thing: Where there is fun, there’s usually a line that precedes it. And hours before the annual pop culture convention officially kicked off Wednesday night in San Diego, there were lines everywhere — to get onto the convention floor to buy merchandise at the stroke of 6 p.m., to have the life scared out of them at the DC Universe Swamp Thing “experience,” to gaze at pretty Laika characters, to get into a Hall H panel Thursday morning and even to take a photograph with a look-alike Andrew Lincoln from The Walking Dead.
More than 130,000 pop culture devotees are expected at San Diego’s Gaslamp District for the annual four-day comic book convention Comic-Con (it runs until Sunday), the big, bright and very heavily branded confab of costumed superfans and the corporate sponsors vying for their attention — and dollars.
Interested in dining at a working replica of the Demolition Man Taco Bell for the movie’s 25th anniversary? Or witness a mock courtmartial of Star Wars’ Poe Dameron for leading a mutiny in Star Wars: The Last Jedi? How about a wine and beer tasting with Neil deGrasse Tyson? Or a Ready Player One experience with retro gaming stations and re-creation of Room 237 from The Shining? If you like pop culture, it’s highly likely there is something tailor-made for you.
“I’m blown away by everyone, everything,” said first-time attendee Jeffrey Potts, of Los Angeles. “It’s like an amusement park in the middle of town.”
Right outside the convention centre, DC Universe has set up a massive space with props and costumes from various movies and TV shows in DC history, like the giant rubber ducky cart from Batman Begins, and some elaborately staged “experiences” like a menacing Harley Quinn-themed escape room in a paint-splattered asylum.
What started as a 300-person event in 1970 has evolved into a massive operation with events year-round. But San Diego Comic-Con is the marquee occasion. Tickets for four-day access plus preview night can set attendees back US$276, before hotel, travel costs, food and any souvenirs.
As it has grown, attendees have come to expect a lot from ComicCon, like exclusive merchandise on the convention centre floor, newsy announcements from some of Hollywood’s biggest studios, and screenings of anticipated films and television shows.
This year Warner Bros. is coming armed with stars and footage from Aquaman, Shazam!, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and The Lego Movie 2; Sony is hyping its Spider-Man spinoff Venom; and Universal Pictures will be teasing Halloween and M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass. On the television side, fans will get a glimpse of new Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker and have a chance to check out Star Trek: Discovery and Riverdale. And streaming services like Netflix and Hulu will be back with properties like Marvel’s Iron Fist and the new J.J. Abrams produced Castle Rock, based on Stephen King stories.
But a few of the major players are conspicuously absent from Hall H, the 6,500-seat room in the San Diego Convention Center that boasts the highest-profile presentations and attracts an enthusiastic fan base willing to camp out overnight in line to secure a coveted seat — on midday Wednesday there were at least 300 people already in line for panels that didn’t begin until Thursday morning. Those skipping this year include Marvel Studios, HBO (Game of Thrones) and Star Wars.
“It’s a huge deal when major properties like Marvel, Star Wars or HBO don’t show up,” says Germain Lussier, an entertainment reporter for io9/Gizmodo who has been attending the convention for 15 years. Production schedules are more to blame than anything else, however. Lussier notes that each of the absent brands has a big (and intensely secretive) instalment coming in 2019, including Avengers 4, Star Wars: Episode IX and the final season of Game of Thrones.