Previously…at Comic-Con International

Well Junkie Nation, Christmas has come around again. That’s right, Christmas for Culture Junkies happens in July every year. That’s when the annual San Diego Comic-Con occurs over the course of 5 days, full of special guests, awesome exclusive collectibles and of course, the legendary Hall H panels.

Every year there’s also a preview night for early attendees and press. Last year’s preview night featured an awesome experience themed around Godzilla, which gave us our first view of the King of the Monsters. During preview night is also where attendees can get their hands on the hottest exclusives. It often happens that if you don’t get them at this time, you won’t be getting them at all. The items produced for this night are not mass produced and there is no chance of you getting them again, making them incredibly rare hot commodities. You’ll find SDCC exclusives on Ebay usually before the convention is over anywhere from $100 to over $1000.

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The days following preview night usually descend into a blur of chaotic bliss. Panels held all over the convention hall, retailers peddling their remaining wares, cosplayers strutting their stuff on the floor as well as at their booths, and of course the many, many artists who have helped make genre entertainment into what it is today through their creativity and imagination. Of course one can’t mention all of this without including the increasing amount of movie stars who attend the event with regularity. Often they are there in an official capacity, other times they show up unannounced as a special treat for the fans, such as Tom Hiddleston’s unbelievably epic appearance as Loki in Hall H last year.

In 2013, it was the year after the Avengers took the world by storm and Man of Steel had just debuted a month earlier. Fox came forward with X-Men Days of Future Past and The Wolverine, which was due in theatres on the same weekend of the convention. The Days of Future Past movie heralded the return of Bryan Singer to the director’s chair and also the promise of respectability for the X-Men Franchise after some less than impressive movies.

Despite the mixed reviews from fans (you either loved it or hated it), Warner Bros. capitalized on the momentum building from Man of Steel by announcing the Batman would join Superman in the sequel (that isn’t a sequel at all), now known as Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. While that dominated much of the conversation in fandom, the kickstarter-funded Veronica Mars movie previewed there, Harrison Ford finally returned to Comic-Con with Ender’s Game and we got a look at the remake of Robocop. Not to be outdone by Warner/DC, Sony showed off Amazing Spider-Man 2 footage with Jamie Foxx’s Electro, to which we were pretty excited about (too bad the final product couldn’t muster up that much excitement).

Marvel Studios nearly stole all of the momentum back from WB/DC later the same night and announced that maniacal automaton Ultron would be the villain for the Avengers sequel. That came after showing some footage for Captain America: The Winter Soldier for the first time (showcasing the drastic shift in tone for Marvel movies) as well as Guardians of The Galaxy. With more news concerning not only The Avengers sequel, but as well as Batman v Superman and the final chapter of the Hunger Games saga yet to be revealed, this year’s Comic-Con for movies should be even more explosive than last year! Oh yeah, there’s also that new Star Wars movie to look out for (Lucasfilm says they won’t show up but always be on the lookout for a surprise!), as well as rumors of the Godzilla sequel having an appearance!

Television shows have been getting even more representation in recent years at Comic-Con. The Walking Dead has been the most popular show on TV for many years, but HBO’s Game of Thrones and CW’s Arrow also garner a lot of attention. Last year was the debut of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Marvel’s first foray in episodic television. This year we’re expecting news about the previously mentioned shows, but also new shows like The Flash, Constantine, (both of which have been leaked early to positive reviews) Gotham, and iZombie from WB/DC Entertainment, on top of the groundbreaking Netflix Marvel offerings Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and the Defenders. There’s also The Legend of Korra, the Star Wars Rebels show and many more to anticipate.

Of course, what would Comic-Con be without covering comics? All of the relevant publishers will be there of course, and no one really knows what to expect in way of surprises. DC and Marvel both have their respective events going on and it will be interesting to see what exactly they have planned for the future of the brands. Rumored is that the Fantastic Four books will be somehow phased out in response to Fox’s continued ownership of the properties movie rights (which I feel would be a very stupid move on Marvel’s part.), but this seems very unlikely to happen. I find it ironic that Comic-Con is becoming more known for the movie and tv announcements than the comics on which many of those films are based. However, given the popularity of the superhero movie genre, I don’t see that trend reversing any time soon.

This next week is Christmas for all of Junkie Nation. Let see how many great gifts Santa brings us this year!