Saturday morning, I got up super early because I was a man on a mission. For the last three years now, I’ve participated in a scavenger hunt that is put on by the Peanuts booth (as in Charlie Brown and Snoopy). Every day during con, they give away free tote bags to the first 50 people that complete a scavenger hunt across the Comic Con floor. I’ve gotten bags every year since they started doing this, so I wasn’t about to miss out now.
I got to the floor at 9am and waited impatiently for the doors to open at 9:30. As soon as I was let in, I fast walked (there’s no running allowed at Con) as quickly as I could to the booth. I got my scavenger hunt sheet, which required me to acquire four signatures from different booths all around the floor. I once again busted ass (while still walking) to the different booths and got my four needed signatures. Along the way, for being such an early bird, the guy at the second booth was kind enough to award me with these sweet buttons for free.
Once all of the signatures were gotten, I bee-lined my way back to the Peanuts booth, where I found that I was the 5th person that day to complete the quest. I had attained my prize.
I couldn’t help but think though? 5th? Really? I checked my watch, it was only 9:35. How in the hell did four people finish this thing ahead of me? I was one of the first people on the floor. Who are these ninja scavenger hunters? I must be wary of them in the years ahead. Their skills are impressive indeed, but they will fall to the power of my Comic Con Kung Fu.
With the free bag safely in my possession, I looked around and noticed something strange. The hall was relatively empty. I had gotten there so early on Saturday that the giant crowds hadn’t arrived yet. I immediately realized the potential here. I could now, finally, head over to the huge movie studio booths and not suddenly find myself trapped in a vast sea of unwashed, smelly con attendees.
My first stop was the Warner Brothers booth. It was probably the biggest booth on the floor, and it was tucked in a back corner of the convention hall. For the last two days, even trying to get near this thing was damned near impossible. At the moment I got there though, it was dead. I had full access to the place, and I am so happy I did, because that was when I came across this.
This, my dear friends, is the wounded corpse of Abin Sur, as he will be appearing in the upcoming Green Lantern movie starring Ryan Reynolds. For those of you who aren’t up on your Green Lantern Lore, this is the alien that gives Hal Jordan the Green Lantern Ring. This corpse is a huge part of the Hal’s hero origin story. To stumble across it on the floor of con was pretty damned awesome.
But that’s not all. The Warner Brothers booth also had this weird display case filled with things from the new Harry Potter film. In the early morning hour we were in, it took my sleep deprived brain a few seconds to realize what I was looking at. Maybe you can figure it out faster than I did.
Yeah, those are the seven Horcruxes that need to be destroyed so that Lord Voldemort can be killed. I’m sure for you non Harry Potter fans out there, those are just a bunch of random crap, but to a Potter fan like I am, getting to see those all together in a nice little display case was pretty fucking epic.
As the hall finally started to fill up, I had to leave the WB booth as wave after wave of raging fanboys and fangirls began to fill the place up. I meandered back over to the Marvel booth. It was Saturday after all, and I was still dying to know what was going on behind those giant golden doors. When I got there though, the doors were still shut.
“Bummer!” I thought, and I began to head off. Not even 15 seconds later though, as I’ve left sight of the doors themselves, I hear a collective gasp from the crowd. I turn around and see everyone looking at the Marvel booth. Hands are flying to cameras, flashes are going off like crazy, and people from all around are joining a quickly growing mob to see what all the fuss was about.
In my eternally amazingly bad timing, I had missed the big reveal by just seconds. I ran back into the mob, got within sight of the doors, and this is what I saw.
If you’ve never read a Thor comic before, let me explain. That is The Destroyer. He’s a giant suit of enchanted armor. Forged by Odin himself. He’s super powerful and can pretty much kill gods if he wants to. In the Thor movie, he will be unleashed by Loki against Thor at some point. To use a Buffy-ism, he’s one of the Big Bad’s of the film. Marvel had just announced to the world who one of the main villains of the Thor movie would be, and there was much rejoicing. Yay!
After that, my Comic Con experience started winding down. I was exhausted. I’d been walking for pretty much three days straight. I had spent a ton of money on comics and shirts and whatnot. I had a giant stash of free stuff I’d gotten along the way. To put it simply, I was spent. I did manage to walk the floor a little bit more, and take some more pics, but shortly after the big Destroyer reveal, I decided I had enjoyed myself enough. I headed out of the convention center one last time and was about to board the Trolley when I noticed these signs at the Gaslamp station.
Those are the San Diego trolley signs . . . . written in Klingon.
Have I mentioned before how much I love the fact that Comic Con has spread out into all of Downtown SD yet? I have? Well, let me say it again. It’s little things like this that make Comic Con the best damned nerd convention in the world. Where else but Comic Con would the city hosting the event allow their own public transportation signs to be covered in Klingon script?
You rock San Diego. I take back everything I said about hoping that the convention moves somewhere else. I don’t care about the giant crowds anymore. If the Con leaves SD, it’ll probably lose awesome little bits like this that make it what it is.
I can’t wait for next year. I’m already starting to save up for a hotel.
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