10 Things We Learned At New York Comic-Con 2011

Similar to the migration patterns of the majestic Canadian goose, once a year comic book fans from all around the country make a beautiful journey to the Jacob Javits Center in New York to dress in ridiculous-looking costumes, scarf down questionable hot dogs, and buy page-turners in bulk. That’s right: We’re talking about New York Comic-Con.

This four-day mega-event may have started in San Diego, but it's now a yearly fixture in the Big Apple, as well. Unlike most geek gatherings, there's more to this convention than the ability to purchase Vulcan ears autographed by Spock himself, or watching overweight fangirls attempt to boost their self-esteem by dressing in skimpy outfits.

Like any comic convention worth its weight in stale nachos and buckets of soda, the New York Comic-Con is the place to be for comic book companies and movie studios looking to push their upcoming projects on one of the most temperamental fan-bases in all of pop-culture. But with so many big announcements and exclusive footage being shown at all times, it’s tough to hear about everything that went down.

That’s where we come in. For three days, we braved the stifling heat and eclectic aromas of the Javits Center in order to bring you all of the latest news from the convention. So if you weren’t lucky enough to be there, we’re here to inform you with 10 Things We Learned At The New York Comic-Con.

With Marvel announcing a new live-action Incredible Hulk television show coming out in the next few years, IGN is reporting that the character will be the same one we'll see in next year’s Avengers movie. Not only will the characterization and back-story stay the same, but apparently they will be reusing (re: recycling) a lot of the CGI models and shots for the show. This will cut costs while giving the illusion of a bigger budget.

Of course, Mark Ruffalo won’t be reprising his role as Bruce Banner, but that shouldn’t be a problem for Marvel because the character has already been played by three different actors since 2003. There's no word yet on if Marvel’s other tentative TV shows, such as Cloak And Dagger, A.K.A. Jessica Jones, and Mockingbird, will also directly tie-in with the movie universe, but IGN is saying that Marvel Studios President, Kevin Feige, said that it could essentially happen.

[Via IGN]

Directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor raised expectations for Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance with the over-the-top debut trailer that was released a few months ago. Now, at NYCC, the directors showed some new footage (this time in 3D) that revealed more about the plot and characters in this Grindhouse-esque comic flick.

Right away, it's evident that the movie will ratchet up the action to about an "11" compared to the first Ghost Rider, but it’s the darker tone of the movie that will either make or break it. There's a clear horror vibe to this new footage that fits perfectly in-line with the comics, and the location shooting in Romania adds a classic gothic visual that goes a long way towards making the setting of the movie a character itself.

Neveldine and Taylor both waxed poetically about how much riskier and darker this new Ghost Rider really is, all while taking shots at Mark Steven Johnson’s 2007 attempt at the character. The directing duo is hoping that innovative, practical stunts, location shooting, and a more hardcore tone will make up for the PG-13 rating, which they claim is more like "PG-16." Either way, a Ghost Rider that pees flames and vomits fiery bullets already sounds like a win in our books.

With Marvel’s relaunch of The Incredible Hulk set for release later this month, Marvel is hoping to push the character into the spotlight before he appears in The Avengers next summer. But, according to Newsarama, instead of focusing on blockbuster action scenes and a trite supporting cast like recent Hulk books, writer Jason Aaron told the Incredible Hulk panel at NYCC, “I just wanted to focus in on that Hulk/Banner dynamic that's driven the character for decades, but do a twist on that."

The new Incredible Hulk is aimed to be accessible to longtime fans of the Jade Giant, as well as new readers gearing up for The Avengers.

The Hulk will also return to the main team of the Avengers in a new title called Avengers Assemble, which will reunite the original Ultimate Spider-Man creative team of writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mark Bagley. To celebrate the Hulk’s return to the team, Marvel will also be putting out a weekly mini-series titled Hulk Smash Avengers in February. Each issue will take place in a different decade of the Avengers history and recount their battles with the Hulk throughout the years.

[Via Newsarama]

Even though Superman is undoubtedly the posterboy of DC comics, the character’s books have been an absolute chore to read over the last decade. From nonsensical plots to flat characterizations and B-list villains, Superman has just been floating along, surviving off of name recognition alone for a while now. But in an attempt to freshen up the Man of Steel for a mainstream audience that might not read the monthly books, DC revealed the cover and some plot information for the much anticipated sequel to the hit one-shot graphic novel, Superman: Earth One, at NYCC, and the result is nothing short of badass.

This newfound attitude and edginess is exactly what Superman needs to become the top character in mainstream comics again. At the Superman panel at NYCC, Shane Davis, artist on Superman: Earth One, said that the sequel will focus on “sex and violence,” according to Newsarama. This is something that modern Superman fans have been waiting decades for.

Presenting Superman as a big blue boy scout is all well and good, but the character is supposed to represent modern times, and today’s society isn’t exactly bright and sunny. The sequel to Earth One paves the way for a much more down-to-Earth and pissed off Man of Steel that has to deal with ruthless dictators and moral ambiguity. DC’s Superman panel is making us believe that Clark Kent’s world will once again be worth visiting.

[Via Newsarama]

Comic book sales have been sluggish to say the least over the past decade, thanks in no small part to inaccessible storylines and poor editorial decisions. Now it seems like Marvel is taking the logical step of reaching outside of the superhero realm in order to drum up sales. At Joe Quesada’s panel at NYCC, the former editor-in-chief announced that author Jeff Lindsay will bring an ongoing Dexter oseries to the House of Ideas set in the same universe as the novels, as opposed to the TV series.

Unlike what DC does with its Vertigo imprint, Marvel very rarely steps outside of the cape and mask genre, and that often leads to companywide stagnation with little variation. Not only does this keep the company from getting any audience outside of the nerd herd, but mainstream entertainment critics rarely cover or review its books.

This new Dexter comic will definitely garner tons of mainstream press attention, and hopefully bring in new readers for the company. But with Marvel’s embarrassing past experiences with self-promotion and shoddy cross-marketing, it’s only a matter of time before we see Dexter team-up with Spider-Man to take on both the Green Goblin and good taste.

[Via Newsarama]

The project that George Lucas has been tinkering with since the ‘80s is finally upon us, but up until this weekend, there hasn’t been much in the way of footage available for his WWII flick, Red Tails. That all changed at New York Comic-Con after Lucasfilm showed off some never-before-seen video from the film’s dogfight sequences.

The aerial footage evoked the same warm, fuzzy feelings that we get after every time we watch the Death Star trench scenes from the end of the first Star Wars movie. The special effects, courtesy of ILM, look spot-on, but unlike the lame Star Wars prequels, the focus is still on character and adventure, rather than cartoony CGI. The scenes were action-packed and full of tension, which is rare when dealing with digital effects.

It’s still firmly entrenched in history, but writer Aaron McGruder (The Boondocks) stressed that the film will be more focused on the Tuskegee Airmen as heroes, rather than victims of racism. Hopefully Red Tails winds up taking more inspiration from Raiders Of The Lost Ark, rather than making a historical misfire like Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor.

When you take Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy out of the equation, DC’s live-action films have completely missed the mark in recent years. Green Lantern was a computer-generated bored, Superman Returns turned the Man of Steel from Earth’s savior into a deadbeat dad, and Jonah Hex is one of the worst uses of celluloid since Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever.

Thankfully for fans of the DC Universe, producer Bruce Timm has been pumping out animated perfection featuring some of the company’s greatest heroes for decades. At NYCC, Timm showed off the first episode of the CGI Green Lantern animated series (you can see some footage at Super Hero Hype), as well as a trailer for Justice League: Doom. Both projects bring the tone and spirit of the comics to life without ever changing any of the fundamentals about any of the characters.

It's only a matter of time before DC and Warner Bros. smarten up and hire Timm to completely reconfigure their live-action movies. Then again, that would be the logical thing to do and we all know how much DC hates logic.

[Via Super Hero Hype]

The first season of AMC's The Walking Dead started off with a Frank Darabont-directed (and written) premiere that could easily rival any big screen zombie flick. It was emotional and visceral, without ever feeling constricted to a TV budget. But after that initial gem, the rest of the season was a mixed bag. The underwhelming plots and inconsistent tone made fans wonder if the show’s second season would be a full-on disappointment.

After The Walking Dead panel at NYCC, though, fans should be happy to hear that the show is primed to regain some of the magic from its pilot after AMC screened a clip from the new season (seen above courtesy of IGN), taken from last night's knockout of a season premiere. An intense sequence involving Rick and company being confronted by dozens of walkers on an abandoned freeway, this expertly directed footage is filled with the same type of suspense that fans of the show expected from the beginning.

By getting back to its roots as an unpredictable and dramatic horror show, rather than focusing on the soap-opera drama, The Walking Dead could easily regain its swag over the next 13 episodes.

[Via IGN]

While the recently released trailer broke all sorts of iTunes records and was an instant hit amongst the hardcore fanboys, a lot of people were left cold after seeing the first footage from The Avengers. Sure, there were tons of explosions and mouth-watering glamour shots, but it was also two minutes' worth of clichés. Cheesy poses, cars blowing up, and little in the way of character moments made the whole thing reek of Michael Bay.

There was hope that the Avengers panel at NYCC would alleviate some of those fears, but, unfortunately, it only highlighted them. The studio showed a never-before-seen clip featuring Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), but the footage never reached the necessary level of intensity. This problem could have been solved if Marvel retained Ed Norton as Banner, instead of replacing him with the cheaper, and much more compliant, Ruffalo. The House of Ideas may soon find themselves regretting the decision to recast the only actor that could compete with Tom Hiddleston (who plays the now-villainous Loki) in terms of being able to elicit gut-wrenching emotion from an audience.

Being that The Avengers will be the sixth film in this connected Marvel universe, it's hard to not get an overwhelming "been there, done that" feeling from all of this footage. There was nothing shown that really separated the clip from Marvel’s other films, which also sorely lacked in terms of real emotion and intelligence. When compared to the surprisingly stylized X-Men: First Class, and the sheer epic scope that The Dark Knight Rises is sure to bring, The Avengers is in danger of feeling second-rate.