A few Comic-Con 2008 highlights ... and Robot Chicken

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

A few highlights (just things that stood out) from this year’s Con:

• Standing ovation for entire ‘Heroes’ cast, and their enthusiasm (and videotaping the crowd) when they entered the room.
• Marky Mark himself, Mark Wahlberg, seemed to be a real genuine guy face to face, and his acknowledgment of Ludacris’ (Chris Bridge’s) work as a hip-hop artist-turned-actor on the ‘Max Payne’ movie confirmed that.
• The ‘bigness’ of ‘Twilight.’ The squeals of girls, the likes of which I hadn’t heard in a panel as far back as I can remember, and listening to my blogmate Denise squeal over it as well eradicated any doubts I had about this being a blockbuster movie and possible franchise.
• Standing ovation for ‘Battlestar Galactica’ cast after the panel was over. Kind of a ‘job well done’ and a farewell from many in the crowd.
• Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku (with Tahmoh Penikett) at the ‘Dollhouse’ panel. Funny, smart, down-to-earth group. Eliza’s feistiness and defense of Joss and the show, even to a fan, was a cool thing to see.
• Whenever the ‘Watchmen’ trailer played. In different halls, in front of different panels, whenever the trailer played, huge applause usually followed. Not hype, just a lot of anticipation is being built up.
• The Masquerade. The fervor to dress up and/or perform, the craziness to possibly make a fool of yourself, the naivete to think that others are just as obsessed about your obsession as you are, the skill and dedication to put on skits with choreography, and the imagination to pull it off.

• A guy had a seizure next to me while I was in the ‘Heroes’ presentation. I was pretty scared for him. He luckily dropped out of it on his own as his friends and I tried to keep him from falling to the ground. After drinking water for a few minutes, he declared himself OK, but paramedics with a stretcher were still nearby after the panel to ask him a few questions. It apparently hadn’t happened to him before.
• Hugh Jackman’s unexpected appearance and the ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ footage/trailer that he brought from Down Under. A great tease and wonderful kick-butt action. Just as cool was Jackman acknowledging Wolverine creator Len Wein in the crowd, running down from the stage to shake his hand and telling Wein that he wouldn’t have a career without him.

Hollywood could learn from Hugh.

-- Jevon Phillips
For the record: An earlier version of this post had Ludacris’s name as Chris Brown. He’s obviously not! It’s been changed to read Chris Bridges.