A very busy day at the Comic-Con. A lot of “first looks” and a very ugly incident. Let’s get that out of the way first.
ITEM!: There has been, as far as I can remember, no major act of violence at Comic-Con. That changed Saturday. Reports say that an argument of taking up seats during panels in Hall H resulted in one fan being stabbed in the eye with a pen and one man leaving the facility in handcuffs.
Comic Book Resources has as good a run down on the developing situation as you are going to get, including a statement from the San Diego Police on the matter. Apparently, the fight broke out at the end of the Resident Evil: Afterlife panel when the attacker confronted the attackee, saying that if he was there for a later panel, that he should leave.
The situation is a developing one. It will probably be days before we know all the facts and even longer before we know how this will effect San Diego Comic Con and reflect on comic fans.
My knee-jerk reaction? It’s a wonder that this didn’t happen sooner. The SDCC policy of letting people stay through one of more panels so they can have the seat they want leads to the people camping out over night just to get a prime seat. There is a certain cache built up around this practice, almost as if it was a selling point for the con. But it also results in the fair share of disgruntlement and anger amongst fans. Granted, no one would ever go as far as stabbing another person, and that behavior in never acceptible under any circumstances, but there were signs of resentment yet SDCC seemingly put no effort into finding an acceptable alternate plan.
ITEM!: The logo from the Green Lantern movie was unveiled.
ITEM!: Destroyer robot from Thor revealed on convention floor.
ITEM!: First image from Cowboys & Aliens unveiled.
ITEM!: Logo for The Avengers film released.
ITEM!: As per CBR’s live blogging from the Marvel panel, they showed some brief clips from the first eight days of shooting on Captain America: The First Avenger. They also made mention that Frank Castle, a.k.a. The Punisher, is now back under the auspices of Marvel Studios, so expect yet another revamp of that franchise (I, for one, liked the last go round). And at the end of the panel, to the surprise of no one who has internet access, they brought out the cast of The Avengers film, introducing Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, and Joss Whedon as the director. The one piece of information that everyone was waiting for (okay, maybe just me) was who would be playing Ant-Man, but this didn’t get answered at the panel.
UPDATE: According to Bleeding Cool, Whedon was quoted as saying that Ant-Man wasn’t in his The Avengers movie.
What alternative plan could there be when dealing with that number of people? You either clear rooms between panels or you don’t. The ones camping out are doing so outside of the hall and believe me, it doesn’t look comfortable. I figure if they’re that serious about it that they’re willing to be that uncomfortable, let them have the seat. Blame the attacker, not the situation.
There have been a number of alternate plans suggested. Torsten Adair over at The Beat comes up with a handful that covers a number of suggestions that have made before–like making the panels ticketed events, clearing out the room after every panel, etc. And, as I made note of in the original post, I AM blaming the attacker. I said that stabbing a person because he disagrees with you is behavior that should never be acceptible. But the incident came as a direct result of the SDCC’s policies regarding panels in this room. Every year the compaints are aired similar… Read more »