San Diego Comicon Day 3 – Friday July 25th

This ended up being a big day overall.  I brought the kids in the morning and we got into a panel to see a clip from the new Batman animated series called the Brave and the Bold.  I wasn’t sure about another Batman cartoon, but I was pretty excited by the end.  You can’t really improve on what Bruce Timm did with Batman: the Animated Series but DC wants to keep Batman out there so they can continue to market the character.  The creators even talked to Bruce Timm about what to do next and he suggested that they do a lighter Batman series.  So they came up with this show, where Batman teams up with a new hero each episode much like the old Batman comic book.  They said they had a few rules for this show, it will not take place in Gotham and he won’t team up with Robin.  They also would try to find some unique, less frequently used villains that are not part of Batman’s rogues gallery.  Overall, it looked quite good.

After this we waited to see a Lego panel about adult lego leagues that have sprouted up around the country.  It was interesting but we didn’t stay long.  While in line for it, we did get a chance to chat with a father and son dressed up like Sean Connery and Harrison Ford from  Indiana Jones.  They looked great too.  The next day they came back as old Indy and Mutt from the new movie.  They got stopped many times for pictures.

From there, we went don’t onto the floor and the family got to see how crazy everything was.  They hung out at the lego booth while I ran up to see a Marvel panel and then Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible panel.  Neil Patrick Harris, who had just been downstairs taking pictures with people near a unicorn statue (ala Harold and Kumar), showed up to discuss Dr. Horrible and how he got involved with Whedon.  Nathan Fillion was there as well.  Between the two of them, it was a very funny panel.  At one point, Whedon pointed out that Fillion was one of the nicest, most helpful people that he knew, but at the same time, he could be the smarmiest expletive in the world.  ”Your time is done, Shatner.” were his words I believe.  Then Fillion demonstrated some of his smarm.  I had not seen Dr. Horrible at the time I went to the panel, but I was glad to see the girl from the Guild was on it.  What a great break for her.

From there I went to see Geoff Johns, a writer for DC comics who is writing most of what is worth reading at DC.  While waiting in line, I talked with a man who is a web reporter for IGN who covers comics (links to his stuff here).  It seemed like a cool job to have, to be paid to write about comics and report at conventions, but I’m sure it might take some of the fun out of it.  As for Johns, I’ll read just about anything he’s writing even if I don’t care much for the character.  He has the ability to pull past characters and storylines together so that they make sense today.  Then he puts them to use in building exciting stories.  In this panel, he mentioned that he’s going back to write the Flash.  DC has screwed up the character in the years since Johns left it and this will be a chance to get it back on track.  Though the fact that they are bringing back a long dead Flash worries me a bit since I like the Wally West Flash.  Johns also mentioned that he’s committed to DC for a long time.  He wants to write stories with these characters for years to come even though he could probably be a very successful screenwriter in TV or movies if he wanted (he has some background there).

From here, I decided to take on the biggest room, Hall H.  I got in line early and managed to get in before the panel on visionary directors started.  I caught some clips from the Clone Wars movie [yawn]. Then Entertainment Weekly hosted a panel called visionary directors with Kevin Smith [Clerks, Chasing Amy], Judd Apatow [Knocked Up, Superbad], Zack Snyder [300], and Frank Miller [Sin City].  Smith and Apatow did most of the talking, followed by Snyder and then Miller.  Frank Miller seemed to be on another planet through most of this panel, though he occasionally had some interesting things to say.  Smith was self-deprecating most of the time, saying that he really didn’t belong up there with all these artists.  Smith was clearly excited about the Watchmen movie that Snyder is making.  He said that when he met Snyder back stage, he gave him a long man hug because he was so happy someone was making a Watchmen movie the way it should be done.  He joked that Snyder asked him to back up a little when the hug got a little too personal.  Apatow mentioned that he was treading on similar territory to what Smith had done before him and gave him some credit for that. When asked about  whether indy filmakers should cut corners and put their films on TV, there were a wide range of answers.  Snyder said that he wants to have his mind blown when he goes to a movie theater, so he is reluctant to cut corners in that way. On the other hand, Miller said that from an artistic point of view, you should do whatever you have to do to get your story or vision out into the world.  Snyder also told a funny story that when he was working with Harrison Ford on a commercial or music video, he disclosed something to him that he probably shouldn’t have.  He mentioned to Ford that he had a life-sized replica of Han in Carbonite at home, to which Ford responded, Yeah, you probably shouldn’t have told me that.  It was a strange panel, but interesting none-the-less.

Finally, Smith came back for his own panel at the end of the evening.  I thought it would just be him riffing on audience questions but he brought a clip from his new movie, Zack and Miri Make a Porno.  He asked the audience not to video tape it, then the first 90 seconds of the clip were just a black screen with white type, telling the audience not to tape the screening.  It was pretty funny.  It even referenced something that happened at last years convention.  Fairly inside baseball I guess, but pretty funny regardless.  The clip looked good.  It follows two friends at their 10 year high school reunion as Miri (Elizabeth Banks) tries to come on to a former crush (Brandon Routh – Superman!) only to find out that he is gay when Justin Long comes over and gives him a big kiss.  Zack (Seth Rogan) is there for comedic and moral support.  Oh yeah, and we learn the gay couple are involved in the adult film industry.  Where the movie goes from there, your guess is as good as mine.  Smith then brought many of the actors out, including Rogan, Banks, Long as well as adult film stars like Traci Lords.  We learned that Smith is fighting the Ratings Board to get an R, not an NC-17.  He has resubmitted it a couple of times but they still want more cuts and he doesn’t want to do more, so he is appealing.  The trend of painfully self-indulgent fanboy questions continued, but Smith handled them well without destroying anyone too badly.  At one point, two fans came up to ask a question (a good one) dressed as Jay and Silent Bob, to which Rogan said, How great is it that those two are the ones that come up here with a good question.  Overall, this was the best day that I had at Comicon.  I got into a lot of panels I wanted to see and had a good time listening to the actors and filmmakers talk about their projects.  Onto day four!