I’m back from my first day at NYCC and here’s what I saw. I started by walking the (always crowded) show floor, picked up a bunch of free swag (mostly pins, comics and posters, no bookmarks this year, sorry library!), and then I headed to the IGN theater for my first panel of the day:
WATCHMEN/FRIDAY THE 13TH/TERMINATOR SALVATION
So they started with Watchmen, thankfully, and artist Dave Gibbons came out to introduce some footage. It turned out we were going to get to see the first 18 minutes of the movie!!! Followed by an exclusive clip not yet seen anywhere. If you’ve read Watchmen, none of this will be spoilery, if not, you may want to scroll past all of this.
The film opens with yellow and black logos for the production companies and then we head into the Comedian’s apartment. While he smokes a cigar, a fairly old, broken-down Comedian watches television. The TV programs offer exposition as to what’s going on in the world of Watchmen. Dr. Manhattan is mentioned on what looks like a Sunday morning round table show. There’s a clip of Nixon as President in his 3rd term. A shadowy figure busts into the Comedian’s apartment. A smackdown commences. The fight’s much more involved that what’s on the page in the comic book, and you can tell both these guys can throw down. Eventually, the Comedian loses the battle, gets tossed out the window and we’re headed into the title sequence. There’s some slo-mo used here but it’s not on the level of 300, and I didn’t find it distracting. The title sequence is used as another opportunity to offer details about the Watchmen world. We see clips of super heroics throughout the years (good and bad). After the opening credits, we head back to the Comedian’s apartment where detectives are investigating his death. When they leave, Rorschach uses his grappling gun to enter through the window. (If you can’t tell from my descriptions, a lot of the cinematography is panel for panel from the comic book.) Rorschach offers some narration while he searches the apartment then he discovers the Comedian’s costume and that’s basically where the clip ended.
The previously unseen clip they showed next is where it gets extra-spoilery! It opens in a prison cafeteria. Jackie Earle Haley sporting Rorschach’s red hair is in line. One prisoner comes after the unmasked Rorschach attempting to attack him. Rorschach grabs a thing of boiling fry oil and dumps it on the prisoner’s face. The guards grab Rorschach and he starts yelling, “I’m not locked up in here with you! You’re locked up in here with me!”
The audience goes nuts. A Q & A follows. Nothing really revelatory comes out of it. The Friday the 13th section of the panel begins, I watched the trailer (which showed just about everything in the movie) and then I left for other panels.
MARVEL’S CUP O’ JOE
No major announcements made here. I think Joe Quesada casually mentioned Jonathan Hickman would take over Fantastic Four after Mark Millar finished his run. That makes me happy. The Ultimate line will end after Ultimatum and be replaced with “Ultimate Comics.” Have no clue what that means. The good news is Stuart Immonen is leaving Ultimate Spidey when it switches to Ultimate Comics, so I can finally drop that book. Sorry Bendis! The panel was boring me, so I left.
I walked the show floor again. Mark Sheppard from Battlestar Galactica (as Romo Lampkin) and Firefly (as Badger) was just sitting around near the SEGA booth. Sadly, I could not remember his name or either of his characters names at the time. Yes, deduct some of my fanboy points. I just totally blanked. So, ultimately, I didn’t say hello or anything. I guess I could’ve said, “That was a great episode of BSG last night.” As he was actually in last night’s episode…. Enough about my brain fart and onto the next panel:
MARVEL ANIMATION
Panel started by showing off ratings numbers for WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN on Nicktoons. Apparently, it’s that network’s biggest hit ever. Yay! The show is great if you haven’t seen it. Then a clip of the HULK VS. dvd was shown. That looked quite bad ass. Then we got to see some concept art for the new SUPER HERO SQUAD show. (I don’t know if that’s the exact title.) It looks very kiddie, but it could be a fun show. It’s the first cartoon to feature the entire Marvel Universe. Nerf Herder, who did the Buffy theme song, did the theme for this show too. It sounded quite catchy. They showed a short clip, it was cute but forgettable. Then we got to see a full-episode of the new IRON MAN cartoon the premieres in April. It looks like a mix of computer animation and anime. It’s definitely not my thing. It’s follows a teenage Tony Stark, Rhodey, and Pepper. Next panel:
DEAD LIKE ME
So there’s going to be a Dead Like Me direct to DVD film. I had no idea. Basically, the whole cast was there. Honestly, it wasn’t the greatest panel. It was cool to see the actors from the show but they didn’t have a ton to offer.
TORCHWOOD
This may have been panel of the day. Or as I will to refer to it the EVE MYLES IS THE NICEST, FUNNIEST, MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN ON THE PLANETpanel. Eve stole the show here. She was so charming and so nice and cordial to everyone who asked a question. She seemed genuinely disappointed when the panel had to end. Her little giggle is hilarious. And she said the word “cheeky” more times than I could count. A friend came to the panel with me and after it was over I said to him, “I am now in love with Eve Myles.” And he said, “Yeah. So am I. And I’ve never even watched Torchwood.”
Sadly, we couldn’t go to her signing because our parking ran out before that. So we left. And that was my Saturday at Comic Con. Also, I saw the hottest Asian Wonder Woman ever.
