SDCC: other media

While a lot of coverage is about the television shows, movies, and video games that have sucked the “comic” out of Comic-Con to many, I decided to focus on comic news. That doesn’t mean I’m going to ignore the other media, although I will be focusing on comic-related (mostly superhero related) news. For this I’m not going to stick with Comic Book Resources but check out other sites for the latest news.

While I already discussed the DC Universe Online game because of all the comic professionals working on it, and the upcoming movies based on their properties, there are other video games coming out as well as a couple of TV shows and movies that I didn’t go over.

• CBR spoke with WayForward, the creative group behind the video game version of Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
• The trailer for the Shattered Dimensions game. As I mentioned in the Weekly Wrap-Up, the final voice actor, Neil Patrick Harris, and the final dimension, Ultimate Spider-Man, were announced. My question is why USM has the symbiote suit, or will I have the answer if I stop webswinging long enough to finish that game? Seriously, I haven’t finished the Ultimate Spider-Man game because webswinging around New York is just too much fun. That’s pretty sad. Anyway, I may do an article about the voice actors next week.
• From video games to a movie set in a video game world, the theatrical trailer for Tron: Legacy premiered. I have to admit, that looks pretty awesome. Interesting that the Tron 2.0 video game starred the son of one character from the movie, and the movie sequel features another.
• One thing bothers me, though. In the article for the movie panel, we get this line:

The 8-minute preview was an extended scene of Sam (Hedlund) entering the world of Tron. He’s carried away and outfitted for his suit. “What am I supposed to do?” he asks one of the women who outfits him. “Survive,” she responds.

Now we saw this in the trailer along with the Flynn duplicate. But what is this “outfitted for his suit” thing? I thought that the glowing bits were the program’s bodies. Don’t they get that when the laser’s done scanning them into the computer? Flynn and Jet weren’t “outfitted” although Jet did have to get his disk, partly to train the gamer in using the controls.

• Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams shared a panel. They discussed their past and future TV and movie plans, and Whedon announced that he was making the Avengers movie.
• The Scott Pilgrim panel was a discussion of the upcoming movie adaptation of the popular graphic novel series. (And yes, I mean “graphic novel” as that’s the only format the comics were released in.)
• There was a Doctor Who screening but thanks to my cable company being more interested in airing BBC World than BBC America, I haven’t seen past the first episode, and I had to go online to find that. And I’m talking a fan upload on Veoh, because the BBC hates foreigners.
• At the Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 panel, a few new characters were announced.
• I just skimmed the The Cape panel article because of the spoilers, but now I really want to see this show.

• If you’re a gamer, you understand why that teaser is news.
• The final Family Guy/Star Wars parody (unless they decide to do the prequels, I imagine) was announced. The obvious subtitle for anyone on the internet who who watches any internet review show these days, It’s a Trap!, is used.
• Not exactly Comic-Con, but Disney has indeed bought Playdom. During the convention, this was a mere rumor.

I have to end this on a somewhat disappointing note. If you haven’t heard, there was a stabbing at the convention.

Shortly after the incident, CBR News was on the scene to capture a photo of the stabbing suspect in police custody and to speak with Sergeant Gary Mondesir of the San Diego Police Department about the incident.

“Basically, inside of Hall H during Comic-Con, prior to one of the showings, two males got into a dispute,” Sergeant Mondesir said. “One male attacked the other male, stabbing him on the side of his eye with a pen. Officers were relatively close by. Citizens within the hall detained the person. Officers came and arrested him, and right now we’re processing the scene inside.”

What did the victim do “wrong”?

“Two males in their mid 20s attending Comic-Con in room H at the San Diego Convention Center got into a verbal argument. The room was very crowded and the males argued over one male sitting too close to the other. The males got into a physical altercation and one male struck the other male near the eye with a pen.

Seriously, dude? Thankfully this act of rank stupidity and self-importance didn’t ruin the convention. At the Marvel Movie panel, Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark, Iron Man and The Avengers) joked about it, asking the audience not to stab each other during the event. (The incident had delayed the Movie panel.) But it’s still a dark moment (avoided an accidental eye pun) in an otherwise well-received convention.

Thankfully, there shouldn’t be another convention to discuss for a while, so it’s back to normal articles, starting with tomorrow’s Friday Night Fight Bonus Round.