San Diego Comic Con Recap – Day 3
Written by Landen
Posted on July 30, 2009
Filed Under Reviews | Leave a Comment
This was it. The big guns. The day that all of the vendors at Comic Con pulled out all of the stops. Saturday, day 3.
It has been well documented that aside from “preview night,” Saturday is the biggest and busiest day of Comic Con. The crowds balloon, the freebies increase, and the attractions grow. And in addition to the back to back to back schedule of fantastic panels (including DC’s Green Lantern, Marvel’s Dark Reign, The Simpsons panel, the Iron Man II panel, The Boondock Saints II panel, a Kevin Smith panel, and events put on my Adult Swim and Blu Ray featuring the new Watchmen release), tonight was also the night of the infamous Masquerade Ball.
Today all bets were off. Every man for himself. Do or die.
Very quickly, I became impressed with the quality of the hand-made costumes that scattered the exhibit hall floor. Thousands upon thousands of people dressed up as their favorite characters of pop culture. Star Wars fans clad in stormtrooper attire marched through the hallways to the beat of the Darth Vader’s theme from the movie. Literally dozens of different variations of stormtroopers, royal guards, and yes, even a few Darth Vaders marched side by side as if it were a military exercise. Quite a sight. Not to be outdone, a few hours later, about 20 or so Predators marched in a funeral-type dirge to the comic book booths. Their costumes, much more elaborate than the stormtroopers, had to be both heavy and hot for the wearer. But man oh man were they cool.
The big winner of Saturday was undoubtedly Iron Man II and the Marvel comics booth. The talk of the Con had been buzzing with excitement on what may or may not be shown at the panel and the fans who were luckly enough to snag a seat were not disappointed.
Jon Favreau, the director of the new movie, teased the audience with a low-par greenscreen clip that looked like a high schooler made it. The fans booed and hollered, but Favreau just shrugged and said that was all he had. Then, like a superhero, Robert Downey Jr. appeared and convinced Favreau to show the “real” footage. And so it was.
What followed was a series of clips that were just as good, if not better than the teasers for the first film. These clips had everything; Sam Jackson, Mickey Rourke with electro-whips, Gary Shandling, and yes, they even showed War Machine! Yes!!!
The other panels of the day couldn’t really compete with the powerhouse that was Iron Man II, but if any of them tried, the Boondock Saints panel got the closest. A swarm of loyal fans flooded the panel (a sight not seen since the Twilight panel a few days before) and free seats were scarce. I must have been wearing my lucky underwear, because I was the VERY last person let in. No joke. The panel was great and the teaser trailer that was premiered was awesome. The crowd really got into it.
After the Boondock’s panel, I took a breather and walked downtown again. To my surprise, the folks at the popular Heroes show decided to throw a free carnival!! There were games, a few freak show people running around, and plenty of free swag to promote the show.
If that wasn’t cool enough, just a few blocks down there were two ice cream trucks giving away FREE ICE CREAM. You read right. FREE ICE CREAM. I got me a Ninja Turtles sherbet ice cream on a stick and walked to my car as I ate it. It was delicious.
I returned to the Con not long after and made another round of the exhibit hall. It didn’t take long to fill up another two bags of swag. Just under 30 minutes, I’d guess. Never the less, I shlepped around, checking out the celebrities. I saw the guy who plays Freddy Kruger, the old guy from the Saw movies, Elvira, a few women from Star Trek TNG, and a couple of guys from Rob Zombie movies.
A few hours passed and I felt it was time to go. I had accomplished a lot on this day, and needed some rest before the next (and last) day of Comic Con. On the way back to the car I was handed a free energy drink and a giant tote bag from the show Mythbusters. I then went to a nearby pizza place and got two slices of pizza and a coke for six bucks. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Back at the hotel, I put on HBO and the new Hulk movie with Edward Norton. A good ending to a good day.
Comments
Leave a Reply