Panels Part 1: Soska Twins, Bones, and SHIELD

I went to tons of panels this year, mostly due to the fact that my boyfriend and I got 4 day tickets with preview night. Before, the time seemed much too precious to waste standing for hours in line just to get into a panel. I still like to stick with the smaller panels, but I did get into one or two popular ones.

1) The Soska Twins

The Soska Sisters, twin directors extraordinaire, were in 2 panels. The first was on Warp Comics, an indie company actually called First Comics that published comics from 1983 to 1991. They are reopening and publishing new material. The majority of the panel was Ken F. Levin talking about the history of the company. While interesting, no one else on the panel really got to say anything. The time could have been used more effectively and even having the audience ask some questions would have been nice too. It was just kind of dull and sad.

The other panel was called Horror on the Panelled Page. In this one, all of the panelists, which included Mark L. Miller, the Soska sisters, Tim Seeley, Brandon Seifert, Matt Pizzolo, Mark Miller, and Adam Egypt Mortimer, were asked questions about their opinions on horror and there was time for questions from the audience. The most memorable question was one from a woman asking how they felt about violence in the real world, heavily implying that it was at least partly their fault for creating horror fiction. Some said that making horror helped them cope with horror in the real world. It allows the viewer to get close to something they normally would not be able to walk away from and leaves them unscathed afterwards. I really enjoyed the panel and I want to read more of some of the panelists' work, such as the Hellraiser graphic novel and the Witch Doctor comic books.

2) Bones

I waited in line for Ballroom 20 for about 2 hours to see Agents of SHIELD and got in just in time to see the Bones panel. I don't watch the show, but I'm a fan of David Boreanaz ever since he was Angel in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so I figured it would be cool anyway. It turned out to be a blast. The two stars started out by reading scenes from the last season finale, but reading as the opposite character. Deschanel as Booth had a deep, surfer dude kind of voice and Boreanaz as Bones was super high and squeaky. There were spoilers galore. Booth and Bones will finally get married and Boreanaz showed what a proper proposal to Bones would look like. Most of the fan questions were directed at Boreanaz and mentioned his previous Whedon work like what kind of character would Deschanel be. The panel was awesome and hilarious even though I have never once seen the show.

3) Agents of SHIELD

I purposefully avoided any sort of spoilers involving this show so I would be surprised if I somehow made it into the panel. So the panel started with a Q&A, which I thought was odd since they hadn't talked about the show at all yet beyond introducing those on the panel, which were Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Clark Gregg, Ming Na Wen, Iain DeCaestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, Chloe Bennett, Brett Dalton, Jeffrey Bell, and Maurissa Tancharoen. The last question asked about a clip. Joss Whedon mentioned some legal difficulties with Disney, but said we would then watch the whole first episode. It was amazing! There were lots of Whedon alums, such as J. August Richards, Ron Glass, and Colbie Smulders. The writing makes the characters come alive. Each of them has their own flaws and fully realized personalities. Of course there is the trademark Whedon humor and rapidfire dialog. The episode introduces SHIELD outside of the Avengers, some sort of nefarious and unscrupulous organization, and a conspiracy theorist that lives out of her van. I can't wait to see the rest of the show, which premiers September 24 on ABC. Because it isn't FOX, maybe the show will last more than a season or two.

More panels to come!

The Avengers

Asgardian Loki breaks in to SHIELD headquarters uses the Tesseract, a cube of pure energy that can destroy the world, and plans to conquer the world using it to open a portal to let an alien race called the Chitauri. No one on Earth has the power to fight these extraterrestrials, so Nick Fury in desperation, calls in Bruce Banner (the Hulk), Tony Stark (Ironman), Thor, and Steve Rogers (Captain America) to band together and stop Loki. However, they are a volatile, unruly group that simply don't get along and don't trust SHIELD's motives. Can they put aside their petty differences and distrust of SHIELD long enough to save the world?

I was very excited to see The Avengers because I enjoyed all of the films leading up to it and their characters, but especially because Joss Whedon was directing. I think this is one of the best comic book movies I've ever seen and I believe it is thanks to Whedon. He brought a lot of humor throughout the film, even during the most heartbreaking moments. I don't remember ever laughing so hard in any superhero movie. There were even moments when dialogue was unintelligible because the whole audience was roaring with laughter.

He also fleshed out the minor characters wonderfully. In the previous movies, I couldn't care less about Hawkeye and Black Widow. Hawkeye had a super small part in Thor and did practically nothing. Black Widow in Iron Man 2 was super flat and only really there for eye candy and cool fight scenes. In The Avengers, Hawkeye is instrumental to the story and he updates the bow from a practically obsolete relic (compared to guns and other firearms) to something useful and dangerous. His sense of loyalty and justice really made him a cool character, as well as his relationship with Black Widow. Black Widow is also very important to the plot. She gets to show off how she is actually a good spy by playing the victim and getting those who would think themselves above her to reveal their plans. She is much more than just a pretty face and we get to see how is she is underneath her strong exterior. I liked that these two characters aren't marginalized because they are weaker than the other super heroes. They prove to be important in their own right and are allowed to actually develop as dynamic characters.

One of the things I was afraid of was one superhero or another dominating the movie. This film masterfully balances each hero. Each make mistakes and look silly at one point and they also all have great, shining moments of heroism. They all bring something that the others don't have and make this disparate, hodge podge group into a real team. Captain America is a great tactician who sees each person's strength and how best to utilize that strength on the battlefield. Iron Man thinks outside the box and has incredible intelligence beyond that huge ego of his. Bruce Banner is also extremely smart, but also turns into a huge, strong rage monster when he transforms. Thor is practically immortal with a powerful hammer, the ability to fly, and power over thunder and lightning. These larger than life characters are lot to stuff into one movie, but they end up being a well balanced, powerful team.

The last act of the film is the giant splodey extraterrestrial battle for New York. The comparisons to the Transformers are cringeworthy, but not complete unfounded. There are a few key differences, one being that The Avengers is actually a good, coherent movie that doesn't entirely rely on special effects. Another is that while the Transformers movies have cool shots of buildings exploding and falling down and CGI fight scenes, but the human element is lost. In The Avengers, the people running and screaming from the attack are a focus in the middle of this battle. We even follow a particular waitress as she runs from location to location and is finally saved by Captain America. This makes the audience care about the civilians and actually worry when buildings collapse and debris is falling everywhere.

The Avengers is a spectacular superhero film that takes the characters we know and gives them portrays them in a much deeper way and keeps that human element in a huge, epic fight. I also really liked the banter between the characters, the humor throughout, and especially the deviously manipulative, sinister Loki. I have seen it 3 times so far and wouldn't mind seeing it again. If you want a truly enjoyable film with action, adventure, aliens, and superheroes, The Avengers is definitely for you.

My rating: 10/10 fishmuffins