5 Favorite Panels at Comic-Con 2013
This year was my first year at Comic-Con. It’s been one of those bucket list things for awhile, so I was happy I could make it work out. While it was definitely an up-and-down experience (thanks to some killer lines), there were some incredibly memorable moments I witnessed. Below are what I deem the top 5 I saw. I covered mostly film and TV panels, but this will obviously deal exclusively with film panels.
Maybe a surprise here, but Gareth Edwards (Monsters) Godzilla panel gave us a first look at the giant monster. And by giant I mean…gargantuan. We don’t get a full look at Godzilla, but that almost makes it more awesome. By only seeing his foot/leg, it is a tad more suspenseful. The panel had some good stuff, too. Edwards answered all the questions right, and whether that translates to the movie we’ll see later. But, at least he knows the movie needs to be more than a summer blockbuster. Bryan Cranston, who plays Aaron Taylor Johnson’s father, was his hilarious self, too, which always helps.
In sheer terms of footage, Alfonso Cuarón’s (Children of Men) Gravity had the best scene in my opinion. All the rest of the panels that ranked ahead of Gravity are more because of the news they dropped. However, Cuarón gave them a run for their money with an extended take of the accident scene we saw parts of in the trailer. I liked what he said about teasers and trailers because they’re made for suspense, so they don’t capture the essence of Cuarón’s extended takes. With that being said, watching the actual accident was beautifully shot and utterly suspenseful. I honestly think Gravity is in the top 3 of my most anticipated movies of the rest of the year.
I’m not really sure how to categorize this panel because Man of Steel 2 didn’t really have anything more than an announcement. Still, that short announcement almost blew the roof of Hall H. After Zack Snyder came out, the room started buzzing. Then, Harry Lennix (from Man of Steel) came on stage and read a passage from The Dark Knight Returns about Batman beating Superman. Cut to black, a Superman symbol appears, then a Batman logo fades in behind it. A Batman/Superman crossover is on its way! Negative points here for the timing because I’m a little fearful the movie is a hail mary given The Avengers. However, it can still be done right, so here’s to hoping!
Marvel, who had the final slot Saturday, had to compete with everything from Superman/Batman to The Hunger Games to the X-Men reunion. However, they killed it. Although Thor himself couldn’t be there, Loki took command of the stage in full character and costume. It was both badass and hilarious – props to Tom Hiddleston. We also got more footage for Thor: The Dark World, including quite the final shot of Loki and Thor (which I won’t ruin). Then Captain America: The Winter Soldier had a full panel with directors and stars. We also got footage the first footage from next year’s movie. The real good stuff happened with a surprise appearance from the Guardians of the Galaxy. They made a special trip from London (and left the next day) just to talk for 20 minutes. And they showed some promising footage after just 14 days of shooting. Marvel wasn’t done there, though. Joss Whedon came onstage and everyone knew something big was coming. Another teaser, this time for Avengers 2, paned around the Avengers and the new title came up: The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Now we know the villain for the Phase 2 capper. With four different pieces of movie footage and news in an action-packed hour, it’s hard to deny Marvel beat DC here. And, they beat pretty much anything else.
The traditional debate is Marvel vs. DC by using The Avengers (Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, and etc.) characters against Batman and/or Superman. However, we often forget about the other Marvel guys, including Super-Man and the X-Men (my personal favorite). The modern superhero boom arguably started with X-Men in 2000. With 2011’s X-Men: First Class, they delivered a really, really good prequel (which is hard to do) that will be followed up with X-Men: Days of Future Past. That movie will bridge the gap in a way because we’ll have all the old X-Men with the new ones (although the new ones technically were there before the old ones). During the panel, they teased that the panel table was really big that created some stir. Then, they introduced more X-Men than anyone could ask for, including Omar Sy, Evan Peters, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore, Anna Paquin, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, and Peter Dinklage. It was a packed panel with plenty of awesome questions. However, the real takeaway was the long video they showed straight from the movie. Set to the song “Time” by Hans Zimmer (used in Inception), the footage showed everyone and explained the time travel component of the film – which justifies them all being in the movie. It was a hair-raising five (or so) minutes and immediately moved the movie up my 2014 anticipation list. It was a tough call putting this Marvel panel up against the other ones, but I do think X-Men had the best footage of Comic-Con. They also had the best talent on hand, narrowly edging out The Avengers.
My first Comic-Con was an extraordinary experience. I saw some really fun stuff from Thursday to Sunday. In the film department, all the stuff occurred Thursday to Saturday. However, when compiling my five favorite panels, they all occurred Saturday, making it one of the best days of my life. Based on the footage and the starpower, X-Men: Days of Future Past gets the M.V.P. (Most Valuable Panel).
