Biggest News From Comic Con 2013

As so many people on the internet already know, this past weekend was Comic Con International, in San Diego California. At this point, it’s really not a Comic Convention anymore, it’s a pop culture event. TV shows premiere pilots, movies show off new trailers, comic publishers reveal new books, it’s pretty much everything a nerd could want! Unfortunately like so many of you around the world, I wasn’t there. But like previous years I watched everything flooding out of southern California wishing I were. On the positive side though, the internet really shows us almost everything we could want without waiting in lines for days on end! And that my friends, is what we’re here for, to show off all the fun stuff that got revealed this weekend in one easy to find place. Oh and a little speculation to go along with it, because what kind of website would this be if we didn’t make wild accusation about what might be happening!

Before we really get started, check out the Marvel Cinematics Panel which had a special guest!

Now lets get started with probably the two biggest reveals, both movie related, and both due out in 2015.

Movies &TV

1. Batman/Superman THE MOVIE

   
   Not a lot is known about the movie, but we did get some great news to go along with it. Henry Cavill will be portraying Superman again, as well as a lot of the supporting cast from Man of Steel like Amy Adams and Laurence Fishborne. Aside from actors though we found out Zack Snyder and David S. Goyer are going to be writing and once again Christopher Nolan will have a part to play, this time as an Executive Producer. The big question still, who will be Batman? I suppose with Nolan’s name attached to the film, even in a smaller role it’s always possible that Christian Bale could reconsider. The other big name I’m sure people will throw around is Joseph Gordon-Levitt, well the people hoping for the Dark Knight Trilogy to be represented here anyway. The problem with that is there are also some rumor that Gordon-Levitt may be headed to Marvel to star in the Phase 3 film version of Doctor Strange.

   As cool as it would be to see Christian Bale back as Batman, that version of the Dark Knight just doesn’t seem like he’d work out well in a world with Superman. Now this wasn’t on Nolan, no one really gets this right in the movies. Batman is suppose to be the worlds greatest detective. He’s not just a scary guy in a black suit that knows how to kick ass. He’s a genius, that’s how his dynamic with Superman works. Without that quality there really isn’t any reason to have him in a world with Superman. No matter how many thugs he can beat up, Superman can do it better. I do want to step back for a moment and throw out there, Nolan’s Batman wasn’t completely without his intellectually qualities. he was a cunning dude, but not on the level that we’d need for it to be reasonable that Superman would want his help.

   As I’m typing this I found out David S. Goyer let slip the working title of the movie at the Superman 75th Anniversary panel. Looks like WB is going to be rolling with either Batman Vs. Superman or Superman Vs. Batman. Personally I like the first one, but this hints at some much bigger things happening in the movie than we could have hoped for. It does make sense though, apparently at the panel that announced the movie a excerpt from Frank Millers The Dark Knight Returns was read, which if you never read that book, features a pretty epic battle between the older Dark Knight and Man of Steel. This could all be done really well, they could go for the older feel where these two have known each other already, which would lend better to the Bale era Batman coming back. Alternatively they could do something similar to the first issue of Justice League where they started adversarial but became good friends. I see that way happening more in this film than the former, it just fits more while trying to develop a continuity. Oh this also probably means we’ll get our first looks at Kryptonite in this movie, Batman is famous for having. . . Preventative measures in case Superman needs to be stopped. Regardless of where they plan on going, I’m now extremely excited to see Batman kick Superman’s ass, because we all know that’s what happens!

2. Avengers 2 Officially titled Avengers: Age Of Ultron

   
   Next up, and for some way probably even more exciting than a Batman Superman team-up is news about Avengers 2. And as you can tell by the tagline, we’ve got the official title, and it’s pretty damn exciting. This one is still very much like the previous bit of news, we just don’t have a lot of details. Fortunately what we do know, is kinda big deal stuff. First and foremost, it’s been stated that Henry Pym/Ant-Man will not be the creator of Ultron. This is pretty big news, especially since a few months after this movie, Ant-Man will be released. Hell from what’s been released so far, Pym isn’t going to be part of Avengers 2 at all. Now I’m sure nerds are going to rage about this for quite some time, but it looks as though Tony Stark may be the movie version’s creator of Ultron. Which really does fit pretty well with the way things were left off at the end of Iron Man 3. Spoilers if you haven’t seen Iron Man 3 yet, but Tony destroyed all of his Armor’s at the end. While we know this isn’t the end for Iron Man it makes sense that he would be looking into alternate ways to save the world. He was already doing pretty well with remote controlled suits, so why not try and make them suit controlled suits. On top of that, the teaser shown at Comic Con actually showed an Iron Man mask being hammered to reveal the Ultron face, so really who else would it be?

   Something that a lot of fans have been wondering about now though, where does Thanos play into this whole thing? Well honestly no one but the big wigs at Marvel know at this point. And they aren’t sharing anything! But keep in mind, just because we saw him at the end of Avengers doesn’t mean he has to be in Avengers 2. The ending for Iron Man 2 set up Thor after all, so why couldn’t Thanos be a setup for Guardians of the Galaxy next year? It was after all revealed at the Guardians panel that Thanos will play a part in it, we just don’t know how big yet. Regardless Joss Whedon didn’t do us wrong with the first Avengers, and he’s a pretty awesome guy so it’s safe to say whatever his plans are for Ultron and Thanos and all these other characters, we’re going to be in store for one hell of a spectacular ride.
   
   Now with Ultron information out of the way, there’s still the case of a certain pair of Mutants that are making their debut in this movie. We haven’t heard much about how Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver will be utilized in the film, but Whedon did confirm in an interview over the weekend that they aren’t going to show up, shake hands with the Avengers, and become BFF’s. Well not right off the bat anyway, considering Marvel/Disney doesn’t own rights to all mutants so they aren’t currently able to cross over with the X-Men, this makes a lot of sense. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch started out as villains after all, having them just show up and be part of the team would just feel to forced. I’m hoping we get some nods towards the X-Men franchise with the two of them also, maybe it will get Fox to want to play ball when it comes to licencing the characters out for team up movies. Perhaps Sony too, then we could get a real New Avengers movie with Wolverine and Spider-Man, or even a proper Civil War adaption.

3. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Cameo’s And More!

   
   We’ve known pretty much from the begining that Coulson would live again in the TV series that premieres this Fall. But we don’t know how that’s going to happen, people have been throwing around ideas since he ‘died’ in Avengers. We never saw him get declared dead, Fury just tells us he didn’t make it. We get our first hints not all is true with the story when Maria Hill confronts Fury about where he found Coulson’s Captain America trading cards. Well rest assured we’re going to find out more about what really happened to Coulson during the first season of the series. Now I don’t think this is 100% confirmed but actor Clark Gregg, who is Coulson, said he would be stunned if we didn’t find out what really happened.

   That’s not all the news we got about SHIELD this week. Maria Hill will be appearing in the Pilot portrayed by actress Cobie Smulders. This is great news for fans, as it leads to a good chance of Hill becoming a character in future seasons after Smulders is done with How I Met Your Mother this year. And just one more bit of cameo news, again from Clark Gregg, he said it just wouldn’t be SHIELD if Commander Fury didn’t pop up at least once. This was followed by the man himself, Samuel L. Jackson saying he’d do just about anything to be part of this show. So we might not have the heroes on the small screen, but it’s looking like we’ll Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is going to have no shortage of amazing characters on board.
   

Movies and Television have become such a big part of comic con, it’s become almost tradition that the biggest news coming out of the convention has to do with some of the bigger movies and shows expected soon! But that doesn’t mean comics are forgotten, so lets get onto them.

Comics

4. The Return of BAMF! In Amazing X-Men

   
   I’m not talking about those little blue fury dudes in Wolverine And The X-Men, no I’m talking the long awaited return of Nightcrawler! He’s been gone since Second Coming, and as such missed out on a lot of major X-Men related stuff. It’ll be interesting to see Kurt come back into a world where Scott Summers is a criminal, and mutants are once again begining to appear all over the world.

   So far from the teaser information we’ve seen, Nightcrawler has basically been trapped in hell since he died. His dear old pop Azazel isn’t making matters any better for him either. So now he’s some how calling out to his friends, and they’re getting ready to answer. The downside to this news is we’re getting yet another X-Book. And while X-Factor is almost wrapped, and some others, like Gambit are on their ways out soon, it’s still another new book in the family. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m excited for the return of Nightcrawler, especially after seeing creators play with alternate universe versions of the character recently. The problem is this book has some many factors kind of working against it, well for me anyway. The big one is the sheer number of books on the stands, and as this will be a Wolverine lead team that makes 4 or 5 titles with him as a main character, not including Avenger titles, add those in and it’s 6 or 7.

   For arguments sake lets round down and call it 6 books with Wolverine, there are about 10 books total in the X-Family. Sure at least 2 of them are ending, but now we’re adding a new one in with Amazing X-Men. That’s just to much happening in one corner of the Marvel U. The X-Men are giving the Bat-Family books a run for the most books on the shelves.

   The massive amount of existing X-Books isn’t my only hesitation with this title, the core team doesn’t really pique my interest either. So far it’s set to include Iceman, Storm, Beast, Northstar, and for the first time as part of an X-Men team Firestar. That’s along with Wolverine leading and I’m assuming Nightcrawler after they save him from Hell. Luckily since their are so many mutants out there, the team that starts the book isn’t necessarily going to be around for long.

   Lets change focus now and talk about the good, aside from the return of Nightcrawler, the book has a pretty good creative team. Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness are teaming up for the book, so at least we can expect entertaining story and beautiful art. A lot of fans are probably worried that the book will have the same quirky feeling as Wolverine and the X-Men, luckily Jason Aaron already said this is going to be a more traditional X-Men book. He wants it to be like a monthly X-Men event, where the whole world is at stack and only the X-Men can stop it.

   Amazing X-Men is set to debut after the big Children of the Atom event, so keep an eye on One-Quest for details!

5. Steve McNiven on Uncanny Avengers

   I’ve been enjoying the Uncanny Avengers for the most part, it’s a bit hard to follow at times, especially with some of the early delays in issues, and having not read Remenders previous Uncanny X-Force books. Regardless it’s been a good ride so far, my only consistant complaint has been the art. Some issues like when Olivier Coipel jumped on for an issue, have been great. Now though, we’re getting a super star in what I’m assuming is a regular role. McNiven has done some of the best books released in recent years, and really don’t see his name thrown around nearly enough. I really don’t have much else to add to this other than I’m definitely excited for it!
   
   The only downside, we’re going to be waiting until November for Steve to get started!

It’s funny, a Comic Convention did really have a lot of ground breaking comic news! Regardless, lets move on to just some of the other cool, funny, or awesome stuff that came out of this past weekend in San Diego.

Other Fun News!

6. Robocop Reboot Footage Shown To Fans

   There have been quite a few reboots of these popular ’90s action movies lately. We had Total Recall and Dredd, and still yet to come is the above mentioned Robocop. So far these reboots have been hit or miss, Dredd was a hit, even if it was a sleeper one, and Total Recall was just a boring miss. Based on the recap of the footage shown for Robotcop, I’m leaning towards it being a bit more of a miss. It just feels a little two different and in the wrong ways. From what I’ve read Alex Murphy isn’t killed by criminals, he just gets hurt pretty bad. And instead of letting him mend some crazy scientist basically put his head onto a robot body, and bring his hand along for the ride. Now you’re probably wondering why his hand, well it’s so he can shake hands and not freak people out, because a dude who’s over 90% robot isn’t already going to freak them out.
   
   Basically what I’m getting at is, I’m fairly hesitant about this movie, and until I actually get to see something from it I’m going to keep any excitement down.

7. Coulson Probably Isn’t Part of Avengers: Age Of Ultron

   Yes it is awesome that Coulson does in fact live, but writer/director/man of awesome Joss Whedon more or less indicated it’s unlikely he’ll be part of the Avengers sequel. According to Whedon there is just too much happening in this movie, and having to throw in everyone dealing with the revelation that he’s alive would be a wasted B story. At least we get Coulson in the upcoming Agents Of SHIELD that I talked about earlier!

8. Guardians Of The Galaxy

   Up until this weekend there wasn’t much to be said about the upcoming Marvel Phase 2 film. But now I’m actually pretty damn excited. The cast seems awesome, and the recap I read of the footage shown (It feels so lame to say that) makes this sound like it’ll definitely be one of the better Marvel films. It sucks that we have to wait a whole year to find out! At least there’s till Thor 2 this year, and the Captain American sequel still to come.
   
   Oh and for any Doctor Who fans, in case you missed it, check out Karen Gillan without any hair!

9. Speaking of The Doctor

   The insanly popular BCC show made an appearance, and even showed an exclusive trailer for the 50th anniversary. A trailer that I’m said to report, probably won’t be made available to the rest of us any time soon. On the bright side there were a ton of great interviews and such with Matt, Jenna, and (Steven) Moffat. In fact here’s a link to one of the best courtesy of NerdHQ.

I’m sure there were a ton of other fun stuff happening at Comic Con this past weekend, so much so that I don’t think I could cover half of it! But at least now you, the reader, have a better chance of reading half of it.

As always let us know what you think in the comments below!

Chris talks a bunch on PodQuest each week. He's also been known to write about stuff from time to time. You can Email Chris or follow Chris on Twitter @Just_Cobb or Facebook

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