Convention Ramblings...

Okay, I guess I should actually talk about cool things that happened at the con, right? :-)

Of course my definition of cool might not match other folks, but there you go. The DCU panels were rather fun and got to tackle some interesting questions. Cassandra Cain, for example (I know some of you folk are fans) will be in Gotham Underground. Kimiyo Hoshi and Firestorm were heavily implied to appear in McDuffie's JLA. (Which would be AWESOME, especially if one or both get to be long term members) That sort of thing.

The one fun part was on the second day when someone asked if Kyle Rayner were going to die. (Yeesh, guys, you always think he's gonna die. Rebirth=>He's gonna die. Ion=>He's gonna die. Personally I think he's safe. He's a popular character who sells books, and even more importantly, there's really no storyline gain to his death. Since Lanterns are built in with their own heroic cannon fodder, death stories involving the main characters don't have as much impact. The grief and guilt can be explored using less popular character's deaths. And Kyle having a villain-redemption death like Hal's is silly, since Hal WAS a villain. Kyle, we all know, is just possessed. Yeesh. Pessimists!)

Anyway, Dan Didio took it to the panel. It was Saturday, so it was a big panel. "Should we kill Kyle Rayner?" Van Sciver was first and said emphatically "No!" Then two yes votes (Starlin, Calafiore), two no votes (Bob Wayne and Jann Jones), then Paul Levitz said no. Thus Didio didn't even bother asking the rest of the panel. Because well, he's the president and had spoken!

Admittedly, I suppose they could still kill him if they really want to and be lying about it. But I figure that's a good sign. <3 Also I figure one of the primary artists of the Sinestro Corps storyline being aghast at the thought of killing him is probably a pretty good sign that he makes it out of the storyline in tact. (As are his future appearances in Countdown, but in a multiverse-centered story, it's true that you don't necessarily really know.)

The real highlight though was the Dark Knight panel. We had to wait in line real early Saturday morning to get wristbands for it. The line was incredible! To be fair though, once they actually let us into the building it went by pretty fast. We were pessimistic about our chances to get a band, but we did, and it looked like they weren't in danger of running out anytime soon.

Panel was made up of Goyer, the Nolan brothers, Gary Oldman, Christian Bale, and Aaron Eckhart. It was neat. Largely Q&A. Questions about writing, production, preparing for roles. The usual sort of thing.

The big deal was the little teaser-preview-trailer thing they showed. Which was great. I won't spoil anything, since I don't know how you folks feel about that sort of thing, but I'll just say that there were explosions and violence (Yay!) and that I actually wasn't terribly enthused about the movie before going into the panel, but I left really excited. They were very adamant about no one bringing in recording devices, but I'd still be very surprised if it isn't already up on YouTube or something.

My goodness though Aaron Eckhart makes a pretty Harvey Dent. I'd really like to see his whole storyline done well. I remember I was first introduced to the character through the cartoon (which wasn't bad, but hadn't in the episodes I saw, really delved into him beyond quirky chance-obsessed criminal) and the Batman Forever movie, so I'd been very surprised to see how interesting and involved the story was in the comics. Especially the friendship between Harvey and Bruce. It looks like this movie might be exploring the whole Bruce-Harvey-as-friends angle, so that excites me.

Also Aaron Eckhart is pretty. And I'm shallow. :-)

The Joker, though I don't recall hearing him speak on the preview, looks pretty awesome and definitely scary. I remember thinking Ledger, while a very good actor who I don't doubt can pull off the role acting-wise, might be too handsome and wholesome looking for the role. The still shot helped with that, but the footage really showed how it worked. (Summation: Clown make-up can make everyone look scary)

Also, explosions and violence. <3 It was definitely worth getting up early and waiting in lines for god knows how long. (It was awesome to watch the reactions to Ragnell in her costume then too. She's convinced me to try to clamor together a costume and go as Guy to her Hal next year. So we'll see how THAT goes. On the plus side, the costume shouldn't be that hard to assemble.)

So yeah. The con was fun! :-) Now I just have to seal myself into a hypoallergenic (sp?) bubble before the con next year so I don't get a damn cold again. I enjoyed the con, but I was also cranky, jittery, irritable, and constantly stuffed up. Definitely not good company. (I don't even want to THINK about how many people I may have gotten sick. I tried very hard not to breathe on anyone, but still... If anyone ends up with an awful cold right after convention, it's my fault! I'm sorry!) So yeah, next year, pre-con bubble!