San Diego COMIC-CON 2012 Round-Up Day 1

Stewart here…

Comic-Con has begun, and with Elizabeth Ann on the ground floor doing her thing for NerdLush (and hopefully just having a great time), I’m here to recap some of the big news and events that happened today in San Diego.

First: MOVIES!

–Sigh, let’s get this out of the way.  Yes, I am aware that the Twi-hards (shudder) had their big event today with the panel for the last Twilight film, in which mopey Bella becomes mopey Bella with red eyes and fangs.  And also, the wolf boy is making moves on her rapidly growing baby (which doesn’t make that pervy storyarc any less so, by the way).  Oh, and Stephanie Meyer may be done with vampires, to which I say, thank God.  Hopefully some firebrand talent will bring back vampires pwho have some bite, and hopefully, won’t glisten like a discoball when light hits them.

–In slightly more optimistic news, the first trailer for Sam Raimi’s Oz, The Great and Powerful premiered at Comic-Con (and now is available online for everyone).  Despite the Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland vibe I’m getting from this (and seeing how I really don’t like that movie at all, that’s not in this movie’s favor), Sam Raimi is one of those directors who actually is good with stories AND visuals.  And I’m not sure about James Franco and Mila Kunis in this thing.  Guess we’ll see if I’m eating my words come March.

–If testosterone (and possibly HGH) is what you were lacking in your movie news from Comic-Con, there was also the panel for The Expendables 2.  Yes we are getting late era Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Lundgren (who all appeared for the panel) for this film, but still, this brings out the red meat eating side of me and it will hopefully be sated come August.

Second: COMICS!

–Some big panels for DC, like the Batman family of books, for example.  Besides dealing with the whole Court of Owls storyline that just wrapped up (and you may want to check it out, because its one of the best Batman stories to come down the pipe in ages), the Joker returns (with his carved off face, long story there) for a big storyarc in the main Batman book starting in October.  Also in the related DC department, Vertigo dropped a massive shock for longtime comics fans: Neil Gaiman is writing a prequel comic to The Sandman with art from Batwoman artist extraordinaire J.H Williams III.  That might be the biggest surprise of Comic-Con today hands down.

Seems the Joker’s a big fan of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil.

–Marvel spent its time today discussing its new string of books like Captain Marvel (the Carol Danvers one, not the alien one or the countless others), Hawkeye, and a solo book as well for Gambit.  I’m kind of looking forward to Hawkeye based on the team involved, not so much with Gambit.  Captain Marvel and the also announced Red She-Hulk (long story, but its Bruce Banner’s love interest Betty Ross) will be interesting to check in on, if only to see if these characters won’t be turned into chessecake for teenage male comic readers, but I’m cautiously optimistic.

–Oh yeah, did you know The Walking Dead TV show has a comic book, and it just released its 100^th issue?  But seriously, creator Robert Kirkman and artist Charlie Adlard talked about the comic as it reached its big milestone this week.  Not much dirt on the TV series though (I assume more on that later on this weekend), but they were nice enough to not spoil the big death that occurs in the 100^th issue (and boy, it’s a doozy if you’re a longtime Walking Dead fan).

There’s another among the dead by the end of this issue.

–Legendary, who you may recognize from their big movies (like say, next week’s The Dark Knight Rises and next summer’s Pacific Rim, from Guillermo del Toro) are branching out into different venues these days.  Besides partnering with Chris Hardwick’s Nerdist Industries, they’re now getting into the comics arena.  What the unusual part of this is instead of doing monthly books, Legendary is doing graphic novels (they actually started last year releasing Frank Miller’s controversial Holy Terror book) for the foreseeable future.  But with talent like World War Z writer Max Brooks, comic mainstays like writer Mark Waid and writer/artist Matt Wagner, and Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski in the creative pool, this looks like something to be paying attention to this year.

Finally: TV!

–Kinda quiet TV-wise, besides the Chuck semi-reunion and CW showing their Beauty and the Beast pilot.  Showtime did preview the new seasons of Dexter and Homeland though.  Homeland is the one I’m looking forward to in that duo, being my favorite new show last year, than Dexter, which is mercifully ending next year.

Tomorrow looks to bring us lots of TV show panels from Community, Bones, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Spartacus, Breaking Bad, and even a Firefly reunion.  And knowing Marvel’s big panel Friday, they may have some more surprises too!

So readers, chime in with your opinions below and if you got into Comic-Con, what was the highlight of the day for you?  Any big news you’re waiting to hear about?  Until then…

Tags: Comics, Conventions, FanGirl Squee, Movies, Television