Welcome to my continued account of my first San Diego Comic Con experience (view day one here). My second day at the convention was full of a lot of television related panels, all leading up to the world premiere of Batman: The Killing Joke. See what I thought of each panel and my brief review of The Killing Joke below.
Read about my Day One and Day Three and Four experiences as well.
Read about my Day One and Day Three and Four experiences as well.
Friday (July 22, 2016)
Injustice 2 Sneak Peek
Members on this panel included Ed Boon (co-creator of Mortal Kombat), New York Times best-selling author Tom Taylor (Injustice: Gods Among Us), George Newbern (Scandal) as Superman, Phil LaMarr (Futurama) as Aquaman and Laura Baily (Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End) as Supergirl.
One of the more crowded panels, Injustice 2 shared a lot of news but also kept lots of secrets regarding the character roster. Some clips were shown from the video game spotlighting Wonder Woman fighting two characters new to the Injustice game: Gorilla Grodd and Blue Beetle. A lot of other characters were hinted at during the panel, including Red Hood and Suicide Squad related characters (I’m thinking Deadshot). A Mortal Kombat character may also make a cameo. Supergirl will be particularly important to the story and will have her own arc.
One of the more crowded panels, Injustice 2 shared a lot of news but also kept lots of secrets regarding the character roster. Some clips were shown from the video game spotlighting Wonder Woman fighting two characters new to the Injustice game: Gorilla Grodd and Blue Beetle. A lot of other characters were hinted at during the panel, including Red Hood and Suicide Squad related characters (I’m thinking Deadshot). A Mortal Kombat character may also make a cameo. Supergirl will be particularly important to the story and will have her own arc.
The creators also mentioned armor players can get in the game that make their characters look unique. It could even completely change your character (Supergirl becoming Power Girl was hinted at but not confirmed). However, everyone will be grounded level-wise in tournament mode so matches are still fair. Tom Taylor talked a bit about writing the Injustice tie-in comic book.Most of Boon's answers about characters that could be in the game: "It's possible." #SDCC2016
— Nicole D'Andria (@Comic_Maven) July 22, 2016
Tom Taylor, "I love these characters and to be handed them, then told to destroy them, was such a beautiful thing." #SDCC2016
— Nicole D'Andria (@Comic_Maven) July 22, 2016
Phil LaMarr talked about his character and gave some voice-acting advice:
Phil LaMarr, "What I dig most is they finally made Aquaman cool." #SDCC2016
— Nicole D'Andria (@Comic_Maven) July 22, 2016
Phil LaMarr on voice acting: "It's actually the acting that comes first.... voice second." #SDCC2016
— Nicole D'Andria (@Comic_Maven) July 22, 2016
The panel was informative and fun. I enjoyed the first game despite not being the biggest fighting game fan, so I'm looking forward to the next one.
Marvel Television: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Honestly, I went to this panel because a family member of mine is a huge fan of the show. I’ve only seen a handful of episodes and I need to try and get into it again. This panel… didn’t exactly help. They did finally confirm that Ghost Rider will be in the next season (which I assumed was already confirmed since his fiery chains have been seen in ads). Otherwise, it was pretty boring, mostly because I couldn’t appreciate the characters from the show since I’m not a fan. But I did get to see a panel full of talented people including Agent Coulson himself Clark Gregg.
iZOMBIE Special Video Presentation and Q&A
This is another series I’ve been meaning to get into but haven’t seen a single episode of. I saw the tail-end of the panel since I was waiting to see the Scream Queens panel. The future season sounds interesting. The main character, medical resident Liz Moore, eats the brains of dead people and absorbs their memories in the process. The director and actors talked about eating stripper brains in the latest season.
Scream Queens
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I mainly went to this panel to make sure I would be able to get into the premiere of Batman: The Killing Joke. I’ve seen the entire first season of Scream Queens and only the first three episodes really hit my funny bone in the right spot. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the entertaining panel. It included two surprise additions to the cast of the upcoming season, Taylor Lautner (aka Jacob take your shirt off Black from Twilight) and John Stamos (aka cool Uncle Jessie from Full House). Stamos and Jamie Lee Curtis are more than enough to get me to give Scream Queens second season a chance. Other members on the panel included Emma Roberts (American Horror Story), Lea Michele (Glee), Keke Palmer (Winx Club),Billie Lourde (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) and Ian Brennan (writer/producer Glee).
I think my favorite moment of the panel was when each member of the panel answered the question: “If you could be any character on television, who would you be?” Some stand outs were Jamie Lee Curtis who picked Nico Robin of One Piece; Billie Lourd said Walter White from Breaking Bad; Taylor Lautner picked Uncle Jessie; John Stamos said Fonzie from Happy Days; and Abigail Breslin said Tina from Bob’s Burgers.
I think my favorite moment of the panel was when each member of the panel answered the question: “If you could be any character on television, who would you be?” Some stand outs were Jamie Lee Curtis who picked Nico Robin of One Piece; Billie Lourd said Walter White from Breaking Bad; Taylor Lautner picked Uncle Jessie; John Stamos said Fonzie from Happy Days; and Abigail Breslin said Tina from Bob’s Burgers.
World Premiere of Batman: The Killing Joke (SPOILERS)
This was the main event of the day: the premiere of the Alan Moore adapted comic book Batman: The Killing Joke. The R-rated animated film certainly caused a lot of discord among DC fans. Many are saying the Batgirl story arc further demeaned her character, rather than empowered her.
SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH! The first part of the film, new material not in Batman: The Killing Joke, felt rather disjointed from the second half. One especially polarizing scene features Batman and Batgirl having sex. This scene… didn’t really surprise me actually, though I’m not a fan of them together. Many fans were upset because of Batman and Batgirl’s father-daughter like relationship. However, I always thought Bruce Timm wanted something more between the two of them, especially after Dick Grayson quit being Robin in the show. It even seems to be hinted at in the animated film Batman: Mystery of Batwoman (2003) that there is a romantic attraction between them. So while I wasn’t surprised, I wasn’t a fan of the scene. Especially since this in part leads to Batgirl giving up her cowl.
The second half of the film that took material right from Batman: The Killing Joke was much more interesting and by far the better part of the movie. I especially appreciated the scenes having read the source material. Too bad they apparently wanted a feature film length movie, because this would have been much better if it were just the last 30-40 minutes.
SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH! The first part of the film, new material not in Batman: The Killing Joke, felt rather disjointed from the second half. One especially polarizing scene features Batman and Batgirl having sex. This scene… didn’t really surprise me actually, though I’m not a fan of them together. Many fans were upset because of Batman and Batgirl’s father-daughter like relationship. However, I always thought Bruce Timm wanted something more between the two of them, especially after Dick Grayson quit being Robin in the show. It even seems to be hinted at in the animated film Batman: Mystery of Batwoman (2003) that there is a romantic attraction between them. So while I wasn’t surprised, I wasn’t a fan of the scene. Especially since this in part leads to Batgirl giving up her cowl.
The second half of the film that took material right from Batman: The Killing Joke was much more interesting and by far the better part of the movie. I especially appreciated the scenes having read the source material. Too bad they apparently wanted a feature film length movie, because this would have been much better if it were just the last 30-40 minutes.
While the film may have been a disappointment, I’m not going to deny that getting to be the first audience to see the film felt like a pretty cool achievement. I was also able to see Batman’s voice actor Kevin Conroy, Batgirl’s voice actress Tara Strong, Commissioner Gordon’s voice actor Ray Wise and the directors of the film, writer Brian Azzarello, Bruce Timm and Sam Liu. But the film was a disappointment. Plus the moderator got a call from Mark Hamill during the panel. You know, Luke Skywalker and, more importantly, the Joker himself!
Overall, my second day was packed with some entertaining as well as boring panels. But Saturday would prove to be the day taken over by all things… miraculous. Until next time!
Overall, my second day was packed with some entertaining as well as boring panels. But Saturday would prove to be the day taken over by all things… miraculous. Until next time!
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