Day 1 at SDCC: Batman, Cosplay, & Frozen oh my!
Friday, July 25, 2014 at 8:00AM Anne Marie is reporting from Comic Con in between her weekly A Year With Kate postings. And all with sprained shoulder. What a trouper. - Nathaniel
Anne Marie, Her Sling, and A DragonGreetings from San Diego! Comic Con officially started yesterday morning, and despite absolutely massive crowds, I managed to squeeze myself (and my sling) through the convention center floor and into a few panels to pass the good news on to you. Pro tip for first time congoers with sprained shoulders: A sling does not work as a well as a handicap sign. I got jostled and outright pushed until (no joke) a man dressed as Superman yelled out, "Step aside, citizens! This woman is injured!" He really is a boyscout after all.
Here are a five things I learned at Comic Con today...
1. Marvel dominates the movies, but DC has its eye on TV
DC has five different TV shows on network television this season: Arrow (3rd season on the CW), The Flash (CW), Constantine (NBC), a midseason replacement called iZombie (CW) that was pitched by DC's VP of Marketing as 'The Walking Dead meets Veronica Mars,' and Gotham, the much-buzzed-about police procedural/Batman prequel for Fox. Once again, DC is splitting its properties between different networks (as opposed to its competitor, which is keeping it all under one studio/network), which means that the only shows with a chance of creating a crossover universe are The Flash, Arrow, and iZombie on the CW. The Flash and Green Arrow fight zombies. That would be weird.
2. DC is riding Batman's cape-tails as long as possible...
This is the 75th Anniversary of the Bat Man, and DC is doing everything it can to capitalize on Bruce Wayne's popularity. Two new videogames are coming out in the next nine months: Lego Batman 3 and Arkham Knights. A cartoon based on the Arkham videogames will be released in August. One Batman comic is ending while another begins. Oh yeah, and the complete Batman '66 is being released on Blu Ray. To celebrate the Bat-Legacy, Adam West, Burt Ward, and Julie Newmar made their Comic Con debut, and the DC booth showed off several decades of Bat Cowls from the films. No word on Warner Bros's plans for the film yet, though.
Love is an open do-oohhh-oooohh-ooor ♫ love is an open door
3. Frozen is hands down the most popular cosplay of the year.
There are Elsas and Annas as far as the eye can see. There was even one group that brought its own karaoke machine and performed the entire score to a line of people waiting in front of the convention center. Lucky us.
4. Betty White is delightful.
I mean, the world had already agreed on this, but she really turned on the charm at the TV Land panel (Side note: TV Land has a panel? Comic Con is officially old). Ms. White was joined by Donald Faison (Scrubs) and William Shatner, and she teased both constantly. My favorite was the following:
Shatner: Everything with you is sex. Sex, sex, sex!
White: You got a better idea?
5. You can cosplay as anything you want.
Even half naked Rescue Rangers.
Don't forget to follow me on Twitter for live updates!
Batman, Betty White, Comic Con, Frozen, TV, superheroes
Reader Comments (5)
Keep the report coming, anne marie! And get well soon for that sprained shoulder.
As a foreigner with no chance whatsoever to visit SDCC, you're giving me heaven here.
And more near-naked cosplay please..
1: Only one of those shows seems anywhere NEAR interesting (iZombie), the others all varying degrees of WHY. Constantine: Characters can't smoke on big networks these days? Ply HBO, AMC, Showtime or F/X. I'm sure one of those would love having the Hellblazer to have a run on their network. Arrow: Started off with terrible dialogue, manipulative pacing, heartless derivative of the Nolan aesthetic and a generic vigilante central character. Not ready to catch up to when it gets "bearable." The Flash: Loose, ready to catch on stuff costume for a guy who's entire concept is "runs uber fast." Yeah, no. Gotham: (Sigh). If you want a cheaper Bat-adjacent show, give me a kind of Batfamily show before you give me this stupid high concept in an over exposed format. At least that would be INTERESTING.
2: Yeah, and they're still not, based on all the currently announced casting for that Dawn of Justice movie, going to even try to redeem the Robin concept yet. Callan Mulvey and Scott McNairy are both a decade decade off of the casting that would make those earlier "Robin is in this" rumours hold any muster.
3: That's awesome.
4: Again, cool.
5: Ah, the guy on the right is awesomely not self conscious. Good for him.
1-I've never seen a single episode of Arrow and there are too many shows I need to catch up on, so I don't think that will change. I will, however, give The Flash a chance (added note: there's already talk of a crossover episode between Arrow and The Flash). I'll also be giving IZombie, Constantine and Gotham a chance but I can't say I'm extremely excited for any of them.
2-At Volvagia: I wouldn't count on WB ever re-introducing Robin in a Live-Action film. However, if the leak Nikki Finke released is correct, there should be a new solo Batman film in the next few years and they just might decide to explore the Robin/Nightwing storyline. Anyway, I don't blame WB for riding the Batman coattails because he's their most profitable superhero at this point.
3-I'm probably one of twenty or thirty people in America that hasn't seen Frozen but it being the most popular cosplay at SDCC this year isn't too much of a surprise. The film seems to be growing in popularity and with the use of the main characters in the upcoming season of Once Upon A Time, I think the audience will expand even more.
4-Cool
5-That girl in the middle is incredibly cute/hot/strangely alluring(?).
Anyway, that Superman story was great Anne but I hope you get better soon. Thanks for the coverage!
Daniel Armour: Yeah. However, the problem of how they presented him last time was in actually going over the origin even though the actor they had at their disposal just flat out looked way too old for them to do that. I want the Robin character legacy re-introduced, but I want them to know this: If you're unwilling to cast an actor who can pass for a minor? Have most to all of his history be off-screen. The basics: He's been doing this for a decade or so, he's worked with a team called the Titans, formerly the Teen Titans, and he's back in town for a Holiday (how great would a Batman 4th of July movie have been), but will be gone soon. Instead, we get a production that forced the square peg of an actor who's 25 years old and looks it through the round hole of The Dick Grayson Origin. Which is just DUMB.
Those Frozen cosplayers must be theater people. And thanks for sharing our Rescue Rangers photo!!!