Toaster's Ramblings - San Diego Comic Con Edition

So the San Diego Comic Con has ended. What was once an actual convention involving comic books has now become little more than a pop culture drive-by shooting. Its like Cannes for geeks, except instead of showing films, we get clips and Q & A panels. Once upon a time Jonny Prophet and I wanted to attend SDCC, but now it seems like a clusterfuck... nothing but crowds and lines and the desperation to be part of something limited to a few hundred seats or a few thousand exclusive copies. Not really our cup of tea.

As with any SDCC season, we are left with lots of news and trailers and such. I figured I would touch on a few tidbits and highlights that stuck out to me this year.

- Bryan Cranston is a freakin' genius! He attends the convention dressed as his character Breaking Bad Walter White! Nobody is going to expect the guy wearing the Bryan Cranston mask to actually be Bryan Cranston! But now that this trick was revealed, I just fret that future attendees doing cosplay might be assaulted by ravenous fans. Remember, just because he's wearing the Spider-man outfit doesn't mean its actually Spider-man.

- In speaking of Spider-man, Fox is just pumping out those films, aren't they? As long as they are as good as Amazing Spider-man, I'm okay with them squeezing out every last drop of life before they lose the franchise to "the Mouse."

- I call bullshit on Hasbro releasing the first of their 6 inch Star Wars figures (something I have wanted for years) as a SDCC exclusive. I call even bigger bullshit that its Boba Fett! WTF?! Okay, sure they said Fett would be re-released in the exact same colors in Wave 2 of the actual set, but come on! Plus, I doubt that one will have Han Solo in carbonite! Now I just have to wait for Wave 2 and not give into the temptation to drop a hundred or more on the exclusive. (I'm not that strong, dammit!)

- DC comics is apparently dropping 4 comic lines from its 52 line-up. They claim to be unable to support that many lines at once (Jonny and I think that number to be a lot lower... like around 30, but nevertheless). So now they can't be the New 52 anymore. Now what do I call them? How about the "Oh, Great... 48"? I think it can catch on.

- So the Thanos clip at the end of Avengers was for Guardians of the Galaxy? I guess that's cool. Kind of an odd cast. We have buff Andy Dwyer as Star-Lord, Batista as green Batista... I mean Drax the Destroyer. (Oh, Mr. Bautista? I'm sorry, Drax might be able to take Thor, but no way he can beat Hulk. Not gonna happen.) Michael "Merle Dixon" Rooker as Yondu? Yondu was part of the future GotG team! Lee Pace, the pie maker from Pushing Daisies, is Ronan the Accuser? That's just weird to me. Benicio Del Toro is awesome, but I don't know about him as the Collector. The whole time I'll have "flashbacks" to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. (As your attorney I advise you to take a hit out of the little brown bottle in my suitcase.) Zoe Saldana as Gamora is probably the best casting I have heard for the flick.  

- So GotG is going to have the team itself along with Ronan the Accuser, another Kree Accuser (whose name I forget and don't feel like looking up), Nebula, The Collector and Thanos? I hope this doesn't get too bogged down. Hmmm. I wonder if Fox has the rights to the Shi'ar since they were affiliated with the X-men?

- BTW, Karen Gillan with a shaved head? Still hot.

- I'm cool with Avengers 2 being 'The Age of Ultron', but I've heard that Dr. Henry Pym is not Ultron's creator. Considering that Pym is getting his own movie soon (Ant Man) that's just stupid. Why not introduce him early on? Please don't tell me Tony Stark made Ultron. Iron Man does not have to be the center of the Avengers universe you know! Wait, do you think the dunce cap wearing robo-arm that Stark has evolves into the human hating Ultron all because Tony was an asshole to it? Now that would be karma!

- I'm glad that Warner Bros. is not releasing Justice League in 2015 like I had heard, but 2017 isn't that much better when (unless they plan to count the Green Lantern flop) Man of Steel is the first movie leading to it! And Superman vs Batman in Man of Steel 2? I'm not sure how that will work, both in making sure Batman doesn't come across as a villain and him actually fighting the most powerful man on Earth. It does seem desperate, though. Sad that the only DC Superhero movie currently planned between 2015's Man of Steel 2 and 2017's Justice League is The Flash. I guess Wonder Woman and Aquaman will have to pop up real quick in Justice League. I'm sure it won't take long to explain the Amazonian warrior princess demigod and the half Atlantean king in a 120 minute movie... just so long as there isn't a villain. (The first movie is about them becoming a team. You'll have to wait for the sequel for them to fight anyone.) 

- X-men: Days of Futures Past looks more and more like it will be a train wreck. Jonny and I both cringed at Right after Bryan Singer took over for First Class director Matthew Vaughn, he made Jonny and I cringe upon saying "Days of Futures Past is going to fix the problems with First Class." What problems, Bryan? Okay, there was a little bit of continuity problems like Alex "Havok" Summers being Cyclop's younger brother who was in the 60's before Scott was born or Emma Frost being an adult in the 60's and a kid in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But beyond those, First Class was the best of all the X-men films as far as Jonny and I are concerned. Honestly, Mr. Singer, I would be more concerned with fixing the problems of X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Those movies had real problems.

And now I will leave you with this simple message from your lord and master... Loki.

All hail Loki.

Toaster's Ramblings - The High Price of Autographs Edition

What the hell is going on with the price of autographs? When I started going to comic book conventions in the mid 1990's, celebrity autographs were about $20 each. Back then I thought that was a bit expensive. After all, what are we really talking about here? Your paying for a name on a piece of paper. That said, for an opportunity to meet the right celebrity twenty bucks wasn't completely unreasonable. But in the past five years I have seen many of those prices more than double.

Celebrity 'meet & greets' and autograph sessions are nothing new to comic book conventions. In fact, they have become something of a fixture and are prominently advertised as the big draw to attending such a show. It seems like every convention is trying to be its own little San Diego Comic Con by featuring "big names" in pop culture, which usually amount to "random Imperial officer in a scene from The Empire Strikes Back" or "guy from early 80's action show." As of late though, bigger names have been making appearances at various conventions in cities not named San Diego, New York or Los Angeles. Maybe this is the problem. If the guy at the next table over is charging $40 for an autograph, why would you only charge $20?

I place a part of the blame on Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior. A few years ago, these legends of professional wrestling decided to go to a few conventions and sell their appearances for extraordinary sums of cash. I don't remember the exact amounts, but I seem to think Warrior wanted around $150 per autograph and Hogan charged about $300. Apparently if you want to meet your childhood wrestling hero, be prepared to take out a second mortgage! I don't remember there being such a high price for an autograph session at a convention prior to that. An obvious reason for such a price tag is to keep crowds to a minimum. The Hulkster probably doesn't want to shake hands and sign for a few thousand fans at $20 a shot, which is a realistic scenario. However, I can't help but think like Hogan and Warrior should feel a little ashamed for their actions. It's excessively greedy considering how rich they already are. There are better ways to deal with crowds without gouging their fans, such as selling a limited number of tickets.

The true reason for paying for such an autograph is the guaranteed chance to meet and talk to your favorite actor or wrestler (though I don't think Virgil was anyone's favorite wrestler). But this isn't really much of a guarantee. Some celebs can be cool, but others are more concerned with getting you out of the way for the next buck. For instance, a few years back I had the chance to meet WWE star Chris Jericho. I paid around $25 for an autograph and like when I meet any celebrity I try to have a question ready. I asked "How do you feel about being the cause of the hatred of John Cena?" (For those who don't know, it was in a match against Jericho that fans started to boo the top good guy John Cena because of his inferior wrestling skills.) Jericho's reply? "Yeah, we were just talking about that." That was it. I was ushered aside for the next customer. That was lame. To be fair, this isn't necessarily the norm; I have had some great experiences meeting people like "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, George Lowe (the voice of Space Ghost), Malcolm McDowell and Ron Perlman (who I can't stress enough how cool he is).

I guess the biggest problem I have is that most of those asking $50 or more are not out of work. Many of these celebrities are in movies or get steady work in television, making hundreds of thousands if not millions. Do they really need their incomes supplemented by donations from their working class fans? I get that they don't want to deal with throngs of fans and high autograph prices can help limit those lines at around the same cash intake. I also understand that they deserve something for the time and effort involved in traveling to conventions and spending several days conversing and signing and such. But do they really need $50 from everyone who wants to talk to them? Most fans who attend these conventions are working class, middle class at best... yes, they have enough disposable income to go to a comic con, but $50 is still a lot of money when you remember this is all for a 2 minute encounter and a name on a piece of paper. Should only the upper class be entitled enough to meet their celluloid heroes? My feeling is if you don't really want to meet your fans, don't come to the convention. These people are celebrities because their fans have made them so. It would be nice if their fans were actually appreciated instead of being viewed and treated as walking wallets.