End Of Line

The annual screening of Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Once More With Feeling (introduced by Nicholas Brendan) has just concluded. The main floor is closing, and SDCC 2012 is all over bar the shouting and the fuzzy, hungover flight home.

We still have a few panels we attended to report on, so our coverage of SDCC 2012 will continue over the next few days.

But for now, it’s time for a few cold ones at the Hyatt bar while we watch for celebrities. If you’re there, come look for us. We’re the ones being thrown out.

So for the next few hours at least: see you later, suckers!

Elephant In The Room: DC Comics’s Before Watchmen Panel, SDCC 2012

I expected things to be a little more contentious than they wound up being at DC Comics’s Before Watchmen panel yesterday.

After all, this is Comic-Con. It is packed to the gills with rabid fanboys and fangirls, many of whom were swirlied in junior high school (Hi, Paul Jameson! I make a comfortable living in the software industry now! How’s that A in woodshop treating you, fucker?) and now that they have strength in numbers, are itching for a fight. This convention has fundraisers for Jack Kirby, panels dedicated to pointing out the injustice of Bill Finger not getting enough credit for co-creating Batman, and a panel called The Most Dangerous Women in Comics. It is a place where a lone nut in a Batgirl suit can change the course of an entire comics company, and come back the next year bearing gifts for the creators and none for the thousand or so paying customers whose convention experience she fucked with last year in order to further a personal agenda. In short: this is Angry Fanboy Central, and if there was a place for them to show their colors, it was this panel.

But that didn’t happen. Sure, the panel started a little bit late, and the whole Quentin Tarantino announcement smack in the middle sucked up some question time, so maybe the slavering, angry, “You fucked Alan Moore!” guy just didn’t get his turn at the microphone. The people who did get a turn were generally really enthusiastic about the whole Before Watchmen project; one fan flat-out said that he was one of those “keyboard commandos” who ranted against the whole project, but wound up really getting sucked into it. Hell, the entire Alan Moore elephant in the room was only addressed once by anyone in the crowd… and it was a guy who was hoping that DC could get Moore to work on a Watchmen sequel.

How’d that turn out? Well, let’s watch!

Yesterday’s SDCC Live Tweets: 2012-07-15

• #DC New Wave – Tony Bedard: "I'm more excited to work on Beowulf than I am to work on Green Lantern!" #SDCC #
• Dan DiDio – "Now is not the right time to bring back Superboy Prime." But open to bringing him back eventually. #DC #SDCC #
• Fan just donated to http://t.co/Lse6F4dg at #DC Next Wave panel. Dan DiDio just matched it! Yay! #SDCC #
• Last year's Batgirl stalker of #DC panels just showed up and thanked panel for steps to increase female contributions to titles. #SDCC #
• But Batgirl stalker still doesn't feel there's parity. #DC #hearditbefore #SDCC #
• Dan DiDio – "greatest successes of new 52 are Swamp Thing and Animal Man." #DC #SDCC #
• James Tynion IV -no current plans to crossover Nightwing and Talon immediately. But Batman's feelings on Talon will be made clear. #DC #SDCC #
• OMAC's origins will be in DC Universe Presents issue 0. #DC #SDCC #
• Will Team 7 book tell origins of "skinny Amanda Waller"? Nope. In New 52, she's just thin now, says Dan DiDio. #DC #SDCC #
• Scott Snyder – Look to Gail Simone's Batgirl for stories with James Gordon, Jr. #DC #SDCC #
• Panel will neither confirm nor deny New Gods popping up in New 52. #DC #SDCC #
• Scott Snyder – "I can't promise" Tim Drake won't die. He will play a big part in Bat Family/Joker storyline. #DC #SDCC #
• Bobbie Chase says Team 7 will explore Black Canary' origins in New 52. #DC #SDCC #
• Sitting in Room 6DE getting ready to live tweet #DC Original Graphic Novel panel (phone permitting) at 11:15am PDT. #SDCC #
• We Can Be Heroes – how to give to the cause: http://t.co/c7E7UGV2 #
• #DC OGN panel is opening with Anthony Bourdain summarizing #GetJiro and how book came to be. #SDCC #
• Not sure why Bourdain keeps getting his panties in a bunch re: Monterey Jack on tacos. I've seen Rick Bayless do it. Settle down. #DC #SDCC #
• Geoff Johns has just learned that some restaurants have dedicated wine rooms. Johns-"Are they like this?" Bourdain-"Drunker." #DC #SDCC #
• Geoff Johns would like to see Batman fight a sushi chef. #DC #SDCC #
• Geoff Johns – "We didn't want to see a Batman who can do everything" yet. It was liberating. #DC #SDCC #
• Johns -summarizing Batman: Earth One. Also says he's begun work on sequel w/ Gary Frank for end of next year. #DC http://t.co/j5iZDryW #
• JMS – now discussing how a young Clark Kent makes a life for himself in Metropolis in Superman: Earth One. #DC #SDCC #
• Superman! #DC #SDCC http://t.co/AocKq6qU #
• Shane Davis – design of The Parasite in Superman: Earth One was influenced by examining mosquitoes and other insects. #DC #SDCC #
• JMS – "The world isn't sure what to do w/ this Superman." Some think there needs to be a way to kill him. Sets up later events. #DC #SDCC #
• Panel has now gone to fan Q and A. #DC #SDCC #
• JMS – Happy working on Superman: Earth One in current GN format. Geoff Johns agrees. Enjoys lack of constraints. #DC #SDCC #
• I would lay even money Bourdain is doing this panel under the veil of a giant hangover. Very sedate and staring blankly. #DC #SDCC #
• Bourdain says, yet again, that his favorite part of San Diego is…Mexico. #DC #SDCC #
• J. Michael Straczynski has given the whole room permission to call him "Joe". #DC #SDCC #
• JMS and Shane Davis having excellent debate about whether Superman would fight dirty if the fate of the world is at stake. #DC #SDCC #
• Geoff Johns – Riddler story for Batman: Earth One sequel is influenced by Zodiac killer. #DC #SDCC #
• Ok. Reached the end of #DC OGN panel. Stand by for live tweets from Before Watchmen panel, starting at 12:45pm PDT. #SDCC #
• @markeithhost I don't think he's here. Coward. #
• Dan DiDio on Before Watchmen – There is something about it that attracts attention and conversation. Quality has exceeded expectations. #DC #
• Dan DiDio – Before Watchmen work "isn't a sprint; it's a marathon." #DC #SDCC #
• JMS – Twilight Lady in Nite Owl book works in "underground sex industry". Will hook up w/ Dreiberg. #DC #SDCC #
• David Finch variant Nite Owl cover. #DC #SDCC http://t.co/0ePVib3Y #
• Quentin Tarantino showed up to announce Django Unchained comic book, with story stuff he didn't get to include in his movie! Woo! #DC #SDCC #
• Darwyn Cooke – "I'm now working in an area I've never worked before…challenge is driving me." #DC #SDCC #
• Darwyn Cooke on Minutemen – "Read it carefully and don't jump to conclusions." #DC #SDCC #
• Amanda Conner – says she's done a lot of research on Haight Ashbury and 60s rock and roll to prepare for Silk Spectre. #DC #SDCC #
• Amanda Conner has just thanked Darwyn Cooke for giving the audience the mental image of Jimmy Palmiotti showering right now. #DC #SDCC #
• Darwyn Cooke – says Amanda Conner's work on Silk Spectre has "elevated it". #DC #SDCC #
• Just noticed the Darwin Cooke is wearing a Ferris Aircraft baseball cap to this panel. #DC #SDCC #
• Dan DiDio on whether there'll be an "After Watchmen" – fan reaction and reception will determine if that would happen. #DC #SDCC #
• Darwyn Cooke – "it took me two years to commit" to Before Watchmen. #DC #SDCC #
• The #SDCC Center does not have enough spare internets to Tweet our Tarantino pics. #SanDiegoInternetsFamine #
• Getting ready to live tweet #Marvel #AVX panel in room 6BCF at 2:45pm PDT. Hopefully, I'll have good internets! #SDCC #
• Already Arune Singh has gone out of way to put down Batman movie over Avengers movie appro po of nothing to open panel. #Marvel #SDCC #
• Only actual writer present at #Marvel #AVX panel is Christos Gage. Everyone else is editorial. #SDCC #
• Christos Gage refuses to take sides in #AVX so he can more clearly get in characters heads as a writer. #Marvel #SDCC #
• #Marvel says you can play as the Phoenix Five on Facebook's Avengers Alliance game now. #SDCC #
• Well, Phoenix Five except for Namor. I guess he's not on Facebook. #ImperiousGuess #Marvel #SDCC #
• Rehashing #Marvel #AVX Babies announcement from yesterday's Cup o' Joe panel now. #SDCC #
• Now reannouncing #Marvel #AVX Consequences by Kieron Gillen. Will be five issues w/ different artist for each issue. #SDCC #
• At end of #AVX Axel Alonso says one of the teams will need new leadership. Please be a hint that Cyclops dies. Please! #Marvel #SDCC #
• #Marvel NOW will be Augmented Reality equipped to work with any device connected to internet. Also, not a reboot. #Marvel doesn't reboot! #
• Wow, I really wish this @Marvel #AVX panel was actually about #AVX + not a State of the #Marvel Union panel. We heard this stuff yesterday. #
• And now we kick over to fans and their questions at the mic. #Marvel #SDCC #
• Axel Alonso – "Death + resurrection are some of the most exciting things to explore in (cont) http://t.co/d1RmVYxd #
• Domino and Deadpool will be active in #Marvel NOW. #SDCC #
• Uncanny X-Men 19-20 will focus on Colossus. Script described as "chilling". #Marvel #SDCC #
• Fallout for kid/teen characters post #AVX will be found in Wolverine And The X-Men. #Marvel #SDC #
• #AVX 5 will be important to the story of Storm and Black Panther. #Marvel #SDCC #
• Where are the #Marvel architects at these panels? No Fraction,Gillen,Bendis,Aaron, etc.Most #Marvel panels staffed by editors. Infuriating. #
• Kudos to Christos Gage, Nathan Edmonson and Sam Humphries for being writers that have come to #Marvel panels. #
• Other #Marvel writers are sending the message that they can't be bothered or don't care about fans by being no shows. #
• @Comicverses Think he's still on Winter Soldier. Bummer, though. I meant to get to @ImageComics panel. #
• @Mother_Box ping. ping. ping yourself! #

Unchained Doggerel: Marvel’s Avengers Vs. X-Men Panel and Quentin Tarantino’s SDCC 2012 Announcement

We’ve seen a lot of cool things at San Diego Comic-Con over the past couple of days, but the Marvel Comic Avengers Vs. X-Men panel held this afternoon wasn’t one of them. Iron Man’s new armor from the upcoming Iron Man 3 movie was, so here it is. Get a good look? Good. Now let’s get back to the bad news.

Avengers Vs. X-Men is Marvel’s marquee summer event for 2012, and we are at about the midpoint of the story, and shit is heating up. We’ve got five X-Men possessed by the Phoenix Force, Hope is being trained by Iron Fist’s sensei to learn to repel the Phoenix, Tony Stark is working with Black Panther to find a way to defeat the Phoenix Force with a combination of science and magic, and Spider-Man is getting at least one of the best moments in a comic set in the 616 universe he’s had in years. So while the event isn’t perfect, there’s a lot of fan excitement around the event and what it has in store for us for the rest of the summer.

So it was with a palpable sense of excitement that we filled the third-biggest room at the San Diego Convention Center at 2:45 this afternoon to discover some tidbits about what the Marvel House of Ideas might have coming up for the fans.

Turns out? It’s hats.