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Just a few observations, reposted from my entry on Neogaf... but here's the trailer if you've not seen it already:
- There’s a strong visual focus on Team Cap in this trailer – perhaps Team Iron Man will be the visual focus for the next?
- As others have noted, Bucky is the emotional heart of the story,
which makes perfect sense and rounds out the ‘Cap trilogy’ while being
true to the comics (given his importance to Cap). Bucky has always been a
symbol of Cap’s greatest failure, first through his death and then
through his rebirth. This movie is about Cap redeeming himself for that
failure and Bucky redeeming himself for crimes he committed under
duress, something neither character could do in Winter Solider.
- Similarly, Bucky is the physical embodiment of the story’s moral conflict.
He represents the single surviving strand of Cap’s past, in his
present. He represents freedom of choice and new starts (thus, America’s
core ideals). He represents power without control, and the question of
what to do with it when it is eventually controlled. In short, Bucky is the
accords. Which is far easier to represent in an opening trailer than
trying to force a moral message into 2 minutes, in a movie about
superheroes. People want punching and pyro in that short time, not a
debate - and the debate will clearly come, because…
- …Steve and Tony’s friendship is going down the tubes. Rhodey’s
lack of presence bar the brief snippets is curious (although not
unexpected – given the short trailer time, there’s only so much you can
fit in). Bar Happy and Pepper, Rhodey is Tony’s closest friend and the
opposite number to Bucky. His fall (he’s blatantly not dead in that
trailer - but it’s a nice nod to the events of comics) makes things
personal. The ideological break between Stark and Rodgers has been
playing for a while in the movies, and while Civil War was never going
to be purely about ‘muh friends!’, the presence and importance of Rhodey
and Bucky are great symbols and visual shortcuts to how different Stark
and Rodgers are, and how there may well be little turning back by the
movie’s end without someone from that four either biting it or being
seriously injured.
- Spidey’s no show shouldn’t be too surprising. Save that for the
big, close-to-release trailer. People are already excited to see the
big names duking it out, so there’s no need for Marvel to blow its load
all at once. Plus, let’s face it, Spidey will be among the more
difficult to ‘get right’ in terms of CGI/technical aspects (even with
the Russo’s penchant for practical effects), and his involvement in its
production was later than most. If Marvel and Sony really want to
distance themselves from the previous movies, they need to feel
confident about what they show (people are already complaining about the
CGI in this trailer, which shows the trailer makers have probably made
the right choice).
- Black Panther’s presence and aggression towards Team Cap makes sense in this universe.
Wakanda has already been fucked with due to Klaw, and they’ve seen what
unchecked superheroics can do from Age of Ultron. T’Challa is all about
the protection of Wakanda and his interests, and hasn’t any friendship
with Cap (that we’ve seen), so purely from a political aspect he’d
likely want to stay ‘lawful’ on foreign soil, given he’s a monarch. That
said, if it’s Priest era T’Challa (best T’Challa) he’s always working
about 5 moves ahead, so working with Tony just to hack/spy on the US
government/get whatever he wants, works – either way, Based Panther
wins. I suspect he’ll be in the movie far less than we expect anyway,
acting more as a link for his own solo movie than anything else.
As I get ready to fly out to San Diego Comic Con (come over and say
hi! It's San Diego Convention Center, Small Press area, the Clockwork
Watch Films table: O-08) I realised you probably never got the chance to
read my write-up from last year. It was originally for Geek Syndicate,
but the lack of Wi-Fi put paid to that. So it'll be interesting to see
if the below observations hold true for 2015...
The SDCC 2014 hangover
This wasn’t what we planned.
The
idea was to create a video blog to give you some ‘floor show’
experience from the madness that is San Diego Comic-Con. However, a
painful lack of Wi-Fi/data pretty much drop-kicked that into oblivion.
Sorry. So, after the fact, here are a handful of observations and random
notes from our wacky trip…
In
case it wasn’t entirely obvious, SDCC is not cheap. A small press table
costs $400 (next year it will be $500) and flights to San Diego from
the UK typically cost around £800 to £1,100. Then you have to think
about accommodation (your best bet is to try AirBnB or a campground),
transport (get somewhere within 15 minutes walk to reduce expenditure –
it’s California, so generally people drive everywhere, meaning hotel and
parking prices drop dramatically even within walking distance),
printing and shipping costs etc.
In
relation to the above, if you come to SDCC looking for mega sales, then
dial back those expectations unless you want to go home brutally
demoralised. Virtually everyone we spoke to said last year’s sales were
higher than this year’s, even though the days were almost equally busy
(even the usually timid Sunday was full of people). The sad fact is,
most of the attendees are coming to SDCC to see their favourite movie/TV
stars in Hall H or buy exclusive toys/comics. Small press is
incidental, and we’d hazard a guess that around less than 5% of the
130,000+ attending fans are even slightly interested in seeing anything
which they’re not already aware of. In short, SDCC is a money-pit.
So
why should small press attend? Simply put: audience reach, contacts and
networking. There’s a reason why the small press area is among the
friendliest places in the show (along with Artists’ Alley), as creators
swap contact details, help each other out and generally widen each
other’s pool of resources, as well as form friendships. Further to that,
press and professionals – in both the movies/TV and comic book sphere –
are very welcoming to the small press whenever they get time to engage
with them. You get the chance to meet and talk with retailers,
journalists and creators who you may not ordinarily catch at another
convention, and in turn there’s a greater chance of you selling to
people you may not otherwise reach. On top of that, everyone is aware of
Comic-Con and respects it, even if they don’t necessarily have a deep
interest in attending. Using that brand recognition when selling your
books during the year is remarkably effective.
Unlike
last year, where MTV’s Teen Wolf hosted free, if unreliable, Wi-Fi,
this year there was a noticeable absence of anyone willing to provide
such a service. Which only left the official convention Wi-Fi as your
main option. $80 for the day, sound good? What about $150 for a few
days? No? Nope.
For
all the talk as to whether a female Thor is a good thing or not, there
was a wonderful number of cosplayers dressing as this new thunder god.
Taking in mind that in previous cons we’ve rarely seen female Thors
(Lokis, the occasional Sif and Valkyrie were more likely), it shows that
– on a surface level at least – it was a savvy and well received move
by Marvel.
The idea of being drawn into a comic book remains a great pull, as we discovered with Vampire Boogie
(we offered the chance to become a character in the mini-series if you
purchased a physical copy). However, it didn’t come without its own
irony. The first person to buy a copy was sold on the pitch of a
youthful vampire using social media to save her undead life, however she
admitted she didn’t own a Facebook account or actually like social
media. Go figure.
The
steampunk community is growing at a fantastic pace, with many more
‘steamers’ dressing the part. In turn, our steampunk series Clockwork Watch
was very well received, even to a point where a young grandmother
ditched her husband at the end of Sunday to come back in and buy a
virtually sold out copy of Tick Tock IPA #2. Bless her.
Despite
the launch of a blockbuster movie there were surprisingly few Guardians
of the Galaxy cosplayers, barring the odd (but exceptional) Rocket
Raccoons. If we’re not flooded with Star Lords, Gamoras and Draxs this
time next year, we’ll eat our toy Groot.
Jimmy Aquino
is both a scholar and a gentleman, being wonderfully helpful on many
fronts. And he carries good bourbon in his hip flask. Very good
bourbon.
Line producer and talented photographer Nicci Freeman
made a few stops by our table, dressed as a magnificent steampunk style
Mad Hatter-White Rabbit. Among the many great stories she told us, a
standout was how she observed a couple engaging in a full-blown argument
outside the convention centre. Upon seeing the couple, a man dressed as
a demon wandered up to them and suddenly burst into a stirring verse of
Let It Go, the lead song from Disney’s Frozen. Naturally, the couple were too stunned to continue their fight. Comic-Con summed up in one, mad moment, ladies and gentlemen.
There
are few things as rewarding as saying hi to someone who was going to
walk by your table, and then one 60-second pitch later they buy a copy
of your book.
Conversely,
there are few things as crushing as someone coming to your table of
their own accord, you giving them a 5 minute pitch/question and answer
session and them not saying a single word to you in response.
No
one can ever deny Hall H attendees aren’t dedicated. After we staggered
out of a hotel from a post 2.30am drink up, we were stunned to see a
massive queue of sleeping people wrapping around a quarter of the
convention centre. Tents, sleeping bags, foil wraps… these people came
prepared.
We
may complain that not enough kids read or are interested comics, but
the large number of families all cosplaying together or just attending
the convention with their wide-eyed, kids was heart-warming.
One of the reasons I've been off the radar is due to the sheer amount of work I've been doing of late - helping the (successful!) Clockwork Watch: Tick Tock IPA 3 Kickstarter and editing the book, dealing with Magic of Myths: Faerie, writing secret things which I can't mention and also something new: editing a children's book by new publisher, Butterfly Books.
