I sat through over a dozen panels during my time at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, and though they were all a lot of fun, certain moments will stick in my mind forever. Attending the convention is like getting a chance to sit in a room and chat with all of your favorite celebrities. On one level you can’t believe you’re so close to people you’ve only seen on screen, and on another level it all seems perfectly natural. No matter how much you worship a particular actor or creator, Comic-Con helps to remind you that they’re all just regular people. It’s oddly comforting, and it makes even the biggest of stars seem more relatable.
After thinking back over the many panels I attended, I chose five of my favorite moments from the convention. It wasn’t easy to narrow down, but these are the things that I’ll definitely never forget.
5. Costumed Crusaders Appear at the Smallville Panel
In my article about the Smallville panel, I wrote about how hilarious it was to have Batman stand up to ask the final question during the Q&A. Even before the Dark Knight arrived, an audience member dressed in a surprisingly spot-on Green Arrow outfit wowed star Justin Hartley. Hartley was so impressed with the guy’s costume, and the bow he had to go along with it, that he called him up to the stage so he could see if it was made of real leather. The costumes at Comic-Con are always memorable, but it’s rare to see a “real” superhero be amazed by a fan.
4. First Hour of the Heroes Season 3 Premiere Revealed
I wasn’t a big fan of Heroes season 2, but there’s no denying that series creator Tim Kring created big buzz by unveiling a brand new episode at the convention. Most TV panels consisted of trailers or a few minutes of footage, but Kring screened an entire episode and encouraged fans to get out there and talk about what they saw. For the record, it was much better than season 2. You can read all the spoiler-filled details here.
3. Legendary Comic Book Creators Discuss Their Work
Before TV shows and blockbuster movies started bringing big Hollywood stars to Comic-Con, the convention was mainly about one thing: comic books. I only had a small amount of free time at the Con, but I was lucky enough to catch Entertainment Weekly‘s panel featuring visionary comic book creators. The group consisted of Grant Morrison, Robert Kirkman, Mike Mignola, Jim Lee, John Cassady, Matt Fraction and Colleen Doran, all of whom gathered together to discuss their work and the state of the industry in general. These may not be big names to the average individual, but to a comic book geek such as myself it was like witnessing some sort of holy alliance. No one should be allowed to visit Comic-Con without paying tribute to the comic creators that the convention was originally centered around.
2. Eric Kripke Shows First Five Minutes of Supernatural Season 4
The Supernatural panel was the final thing on my schedule for this year’s Comic-Con, and I can’t think of a better way to cap off the entire experience. Instead of showing a trailer for the upcoming episodes, creator Eric Kripke unveiled the first five minutes of the season 4 premiere. What I saw was spooky, unsettling, funny and unforgettable. You can read all about it here.
1. Joss Whedon Appears with the Cast of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
Joss Whedon is my favorite television writer of all time, so it’s possible I’m a tad biased on this one. Even if I didn’t think of Whedon as a writing god, this would still be the funniest, most entertaining panel I saw in San Diego. Whedon was hilarious, but it was the banter between stars Nathan Fillion, Neil Patrick Harris and Felicia Day that really brought the house down. Some of the funniest moments included the mockery Day received after she revealed that she was “Twittering” under the table, Fillion’s numerous penis jokes, Harris pulling Fillion’s chair out from under him, and the How I Met Your Mother star dropping f-bomb after f-bomb while discussing the frustration he felt while learning one of the songs. This group has serious chemistry together, and we can only hope that they reunite for another Dr. Horrible act.
Read More Comic-Con Coverage
Five Things I’ll Remember About Comic-Con 2008
Ten Memorable Sights from the Comic-Con Exhibition Hall
Ten Crazy Costumes from Comic-Con
Smallville
Supernatural
Chuck
Fringe
Lost
Pushing Daisies
Heroes
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Prison Break
24
Family Guy and The Cleveland Show
Bones
TV Visionaries: Creators of Lost, Chuck, Pushing Daisies and Terminator
Dexter
True Blood
The Middleman
Knight Rider
Kings
– Don Williams, BuddyTV Staff Writer
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
