Con Report: New York Comic Con – Day 3

So day three of New York Comic Con, Saturday, was a big day for panels. That’s pretty much what I did all day, sitting through five panels in total, so I’m just going to dive right in and give some details/highlights of each panel.

Marvel Cup O’Joe

• Black Vortex – A new event that will being the Guardians of the Galaxy together with the X-Men that debuts in February 2015 with Black Vortext: Alpha. The Black Vortex is a cosmic artifact that brings out the full potential of one’s powers. This story line promises to test the strength of the relationship recently formed between Kitty Pryde and Star Lord.
• “In 8 Months… Time Runs Out” in Avengers and New Avengers. The two teams have been trying to stop incursions where two earths from different dimensions are going to collide. Apparently the final incursion leads directly to the new Secret Wars, a new event formally announced at an off site event on Friday. The new Secret Wars is a year long event that will affect the entire Marvel Universe and is being written by Johnathon Hickman.
• Thor #2 will have more clues as to the identity of the new female Thor.
• In Superior Iron Man, Tony Stark will try to “improve” San Francisco without the permission of its citizens. One of those citizens happens to be Daredevil and he will try to stop Iron Man.
• SHIELD #1 brings the Agents of SHIELD from the television show to the Marvel Universe. Issue #1, by Mark Waid and Carlos Pacheco will be released on 12/24. Waid will write the series with a rotating art team.
• Operation S.I.N. is a new series by Kathryn Immonen and Rich Ellis that follows the adventures of Peggy Carter and Howard Stark post WWII. It releases in January.
• Miracle Man Annual #1 by Grant Morrison, Joe Quesada, Peter Milligan, and Mike Allred, will be released in December.
• Maximum Ride: First Flight is a mini-series based on a series of young adult novels by James Patterson that will be released in 2015.

DC Entertainment – Batman 75th Anniversary

This panel was basically a celebration of Batman’s 75th anniversary and included panelists that have had a major influence on the character through the years. These included: current Batman creative team Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, legendary artist Neal Adams, DC Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, DC co-publisher and famed artist Jim Lee, and the voice of Batman in Batman: The Animated Series Kevin Conroy. The moderator discussed Batman’s history, beginning with Detective Comics #27 and moving forward in time to other major events. Along the way, he would stop and ask the panelists for their thoughts and opinions, and when they hit an event that one or more of the panelists were involved in, they would be asked to describe would it was like to be part of Batman’s history. Neal Adams talked about being known as one of the first artists to being a more realistic look to Batman. Jim Lee talked about the story Hush. Kevin Conroy discussed what it was like to portray the Dark Knight and what an honor it was to bring the comics to life. Geoff Johns talked about the Earth One story he worked on. Snyder and Capullo spoke at some length about their New 52 run on Batman.

• When asked who their favorite villain was, most of the panelists agreed on the Joker. Capullo joked that he liked Dr. Doom, but then admitted he was kidding and preferred the Joker. Conroy agreed that the Joker was his favorite, but specifically cited Mark Hamill’s Joker as being the best. Neal Adams’s favorite turned out to be Ra’s Al Ghul, and Jim Lee preferred Catwoman to all others.
• Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns was brought up and several of the panelists admitted to it being a great influence on them, both in wanting to get into comics and how they would eventually portray Batman.
• Two short animated films celebrating Batman’s 75th anniversary were showing. One called “Strange Days” by Bruce Timm and a Batman Beyond short by Darwyn Cooke.
• Snyder described “Death in the Family” as being a Joker story that was all about love. He says that the new story that started this past week, “Endgame” is a Joker story that is all about hate.

Powers: Bringing the Graphic Novels to Life Exclusive On Playstation

Powers creator Brian Michael Bendis, and most of the main cast of the new show, were on hand to discuss turning the comics into a tv series. They previewed the first trailer for the show. There was also an NYCC exclusive clip that will not be put up on the internet. It showed the main character, Christian Walker (Sharlto Copely) talking with his partner Deena Pilgrim (Susan Heyward) talking in a break room. He tells her how a girl once provided him with oral sex and was able to fly for a little bit. She responded by asking if he meant girls would do that just to get some powers of their own for a while. He tells her it’s not just girls; boys do it too.

The cast discussed what it was like to work on the show, and work together. Bendis talked about how the show was 14 years in the making and how he had been close to making the show several times, but things just never clicked. With Sony and the Playstation Network, things just fell into place and felt right. He mentioned that the show will not try to be exactly the same as the comic, describing it as more of an “impression” of the book. At one point later in the panel, Powers co-creator and artist Michael Avon Oeming came onto the stage. It was revealed that his art will actually be featured in the show in multiple ways. Bendis also revealed that he will be doing some writing for the show as well.

Marvel’s Daredevil, Exclusively on Netflix

Head of Marvel Television, Jeph Loeb, moderated this panel that featured the cast of the upcoming Daredevil television show that will appear exclusively on Netflix. Loeb asked each of the cast members what it was like to work on the show and had them talk about their individual characters. Throughout the panel, five clips exclusive to New York Comic Con were shown.

• An intruder breaks into Karen Page’s apartment and tries to kill her. Daredevil comes to her rescue in a thrilling fight scene.
• Matt Murdock is maskless on the couch of Claire Temple who tends his wounds.
• Wilson Fisk stands in an art gallery when he is approached by a woman named Vanessa. The two share an intimate moment.
• Karen Page makes dinner for Matt and Foggy to thank them for helping her out.
• Matt is knocked unconscious and has a flashback of his father encouraging him to make a life that is better than his own.

It was mentioned at one point that one of the major influences of the show is Frank Miller’s The Man Without Fear.

Constantine Pilot Screening and Q&A

Based on he DC character John Constantine, Constantine will air on NBC on Fridays beginning on 10/24. With only a brief introduction, the full pilot episode was shown to the audience. We first meet John Constantine as a patient in the mental asylum Ravenscar, where he had checked himself in to help forget a traumatic event where he was unable to save the life of a little girl. Supernatural events occur within the asylum that gets John’s attention makes him realize that the daughter of his friend and mentor of the dark arts is in trouble. He checks himself out of the asylum and travels to Atlanta to find the girl and try to help her evade the demon that is after her.

After the pilot completed, there was a short Q&A session with executive producer David S. Goyer, series star Matt Ryan and actress Angelica Celaya (Zed) who was only in a brief scene at the end of the pilot. Ran discussed what it was like to get into the role of Constantine, and getting to be a real jerk. Goyer talked about the making the show, some of the work that influenced the show, and hinted at some more DC characters that may eventually appear.

There were many other panels I was unable to get to, like the Walking Dead panel that featured most of the main cast and was moderated by Nerdist’s Chris Hardwick, which reached capacity before the con even officially opened for the day. New York Comic Con has a lot of programming, and unfortunately I can’t get to all of it so I mostly just picked the panels I thought would be the most interesting. I hope you guys feel the same way.