SDCC 2010: The Recovery

 

"So, that happened."

I trust you already got the news from Comic-Con here at iFanboy (from the hardest working man in comics journalism, Paul Montgomery), but I figured I would discuss a little of what I saw at Comic-Con and get your reactions to the news that Marvel and DC announced this year.

Now, to be sure, I did not make it to all of the panels. I mean, I did not make it to most of the panels that I wanted to attend, just like I did not get a chance to meet most of the folks that I wanted to meet.  This show…if there was a theme to this show, it wasn't Scott PIlgrim Takes Comic-Con (which it did), it was, really, There's Too Much To See, Too Much To Do, and No Time To Do It.  Con.

As I write this, yesterday was the first "last day of Comic-Con" when I truly felt–really felt–that I wasn't ready for it to be over. Like, seriously, this time last year, I was dead. Sick and dead.  This year? Well…I am certainly not well, but I definitely feel like I could stick it out at least one more day.  

One thing I keep forgetting about San Diego is just how truly hardcore the lines are. Like, if you want to see the 10am panel, you need to get to the 10am panel at least an hour and a half early, if not two.  If not three. All this is well and good if you get to bed at 11 after a nice warm glass of milk and being tucked in by your mommy, but clearly unrealistic (though, I suppose, not impossible) during Comic-Con. Maybe I am getting old, but when I am in bed at 4am, I can't get up at 8. Every morning for four days straight?  I can't do it, captain.

Every morning this year, I started out with clear disadvantage of having woken up just a bit too late to get my con in gear. I had a blast, to be sure, but I failed to get into the more high profile panels, though I did see Warren Ellis gloat about how much money he made for the rights to his story during the Red panel, which featured Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Mary Louise-Parker and Karl Urban, which was pretty cool, I guess. I am fan of the book (reminds me more than a bit of Destroyer), but it is clear that this movie was basically inspired by the story, which is fine. The panel was kind of a snore, to be honest, especially when you compare it to getting a chance to see the entire Avengers cast get up on stage.    Damn.  (Incredibly, Ellis didn't stay for any other panels…maybe that's not a surprise, but still, please provide us with a break.)

Sadly, I was only able to eek out one update during the con, and while I did record a few video segments, I wasn't able to post them during the convention itself. Remember that one SDCC when the guys did an iFanboy Mini episode every day during the con?  There's a reason this hasn't happened again.  There just isn't enough time, folks, to participate in the con, cover the con, write about the con and post about the con more than a few times. [Editor's Note: Well, that, and the iFanboy Minis were canceled.]

But all is not lost.  I went to a few comic book panels, and, while most of them were basically ten minutes of news most of us had already heard followed by 50 minutes of mostly awkward Q&A sessions, I did have a few items I wanted to share with you.

As Paul posted, Grant Morrison was at Comic-Con this year (Conor got an interview with him. I can't wait to see it) and there was much ado about Batman in the DC panels. I was there when they discussed Bruce's return, and the whole Batman, Inc. situation that is coming in the months again.  I don't have much to say about this–it seems like the only real way to keep the Dick/Damien dynamic in the books while getting Bruce back into the picture.  Truly, this is an interesting dilemma, this tension of the seemingly obvious choice to bring Bruce back in, but at the cost of having Dick wear the cowl, which, seemingly, readers are not really ready to pay, you know?

Grant was asked about Mr. Pig several times after the main presentation, mostly along the lines of, "Where did he come from?" and "How did you think of him?"  Grant used these questions as a way to discuss the challenges of creating characters who will stay "alive," who will be available for future creators to bring into stories "years after everyone on this panel is dead."  He reminded the audience that The Joker came out of nowhere, that it was 50-60 years before anyone attempted to provide him a real backstory and how when you provide a backstory when you introduce a new character that you deny the audience the opportunity to imagine one on their own, you deny the magic of mystery to happen.  Mr. Pig comes out of nowhere in Batman and Robin, and he is all the more terrifying because of this sudden entrance.  Grant was strongly of the opinion that it was best not to explain at first, "let creators and fans fill it in later," he said.

Mr. Pig, by the way, was apparently inspired by the song "Pygmalism" by Momus, which is told from the point of view of a transformed girl, like Eliza in the play Pygmalion, later made in the musical My Fair Lady.  He wanted a real deranged villain, one that was, I guess, obsessed with forcing transformation on his subjects.

Other jots I got from the Batman panel: