C2E2 is already over and it’s been a long weekend. I’m going to be combining my details of days 2 & 3 into a single post for a couple reasons, first is that I did not get home from day 2 until rather late at night and I basically went straight to sleep, and second is that I did not spend very much time on day 3 so there’s not too much to report there. Overall, it was a lot of fun. I’ve got tons of pictures which will show up as their own post tomorrow and I’ve got a little video project that I’m working on and hope to finish within the next few days so I’m excited about that. Enough chat, let’s get onto the show!

So day 2 once again started fairly early and most of the time during the early portion of the day was once again walking the floor and getting pictures & video before heading up to the main stage once again where I caught the tail end of “Fierce Females of TV” where I was only familiar with one of the panelists: Jewel Staite from Firefly. The others were Leah Pipes from the Originals, Maria Doyle Kennedy from Orphan Black, and Neve McIntosh from Doctor Who. There were several questions about sexism and feminism. One of the ones that was the most interesting was a movie that Staite worked on. It was a small production and they were working long hours, but she got a continuously bad vibe from the director. At one point she asked to see the time cards and noticed that they had used white out to alter her time cards so they wouldn’t have to pay her overtime. In response, she went to the union and now that director is barred from hiring union actors.

Jason Momoa in his silly hat.

After that panel was a Q&A with Jason Momoa who will be Aquaman in Batman vs. Superman and beyond. I was personally only familiar with Momoa from seeing a bit of a Game of Thrones episode where he ripped a guy’s throat out so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Especially when he comes out wearing a striped shirt and ridiculously large hat. But over the course of the panel, he completely won me over. He was very funny, charming, and a great storyteller. He completely worked the audience, and even though he wasn’t really able to say anything about the upcoming DC movie, he made it feel like he really wanted to. He also came off as an extremely loving family man, when talking about his role as Aquaman, he mentioned that he was thrilled to be able to finally have a role that he can let his children see, as his son is a huge fan of Batman and his daughter is a fan of Wonder Woman, but it’s not like he can show them an episode of Game of Thrones, or Conan the Barbarian. He also is a big fan of the character of Conan, but accepts that the film was not as good as it could have been. He referred to it as “Conan the improv” as the script was more of an outline of what fights they wanted to do and they just filled in the blanks from there. Another great little quote was when someone asked him about the new promotional picture of Jared Leto’s Joker, he shrugged and said “some people like my hat, some people don’t like my hat. I have to see him talk, see him in action before I make my judgement.” He’s also a big Star Wars fan, he mentioned that when he saw the end of the new Star Wars trailer, he literally squealed on stage like a little girl saying “Chewie!!” He also would love to play Lobo or the Crow some time in his career.

Tank Girl!

Next panel was the Kick Ass Women of S.H.I.E.L.D. with Ming Na Wen and Hayley Atwell. A fun bit at the beginning was the DJ played a bit of the Carmen Sandiego theme song, they also brought up several Agent Carter cosplayers for a giveaway and right as he had them doing their first pose, Hayley Atwell rushed the stage and gave them all hugs. Similar to the Fierce Females of TV, there were a lot of questions about Women in comic book and superhero roles. When asked what women they would like to see in future movies and TV, Atwell said perfectly “All of them, they deserve it.” Of course, there was also a lot of talk about season 2 of Agent Carter, Atwell basically said that she won’t know for another three weeks or so when the network makes their decision, but it seems hopeful based on fan responses. She would like to see Angie become more of a confidant in season 2, she felt like Angie could be someone that Carter could confide in. Ming Na weighed in on the live action Mulan in the works, saying that she’s obviously too old to play the role of Mulan but she would love to have a cameo, and please, please, please cast an Asian in the role. Ming Na also talked briefly about how when she played Chun Li in the Street Fighter movie she swore that she would never do a role that required that much action ever again, and yet playing Melinda May now, she is having the best time of her life and is in the best shape of her life because of it. Ming Na also recalled a role back when she was in college for a production called the Majorettes that read like a lonely guy’s fantasy with a lot of nudity and gore, and she turned it down face to face. In response, the director said “how are you ever going to make it in this industry if you don’t do nude scenes”, and look where it’s got her now. Finally, I’ll mention one last question that asked about their favorite undercover missions, and Atwell mentioned her Veronica Lake inspired look, and Ming Na mentioned the silver dress. And the reasoning behind it was that May’s wardrobe consists of nothing but black, and that silver dress was one of the only times that she got to wear something besides black (or very, very, dark grey (not said by her but thought by me)).

Me and Shyaporn

The last panel I attended that night was a much smaller one, I got to see the Nerdnite panel which is something of a growing trend. It’s basically a nerdy discovery channel style presentation with a more humorous slant to it that takes place in a bar with drinks and a DJ. Since this was a comic con, there was no drinks or DJ, but both of the presentations were quite interesting and entertaining. The first one was basically the science behind Faces in Things, while the second one which was the main reason why I went to the panel in the first place was Shyaporn’s discussion on the “science” of Godzilla. It was a very funny scientific lecture on his history, biology, and physiology based on information gleaned from the movies. There was a lot of seemingly real facts and research used to try and explain this fictional creature, and it was done in a completely deadpan manner. And after it was done, I got the chance to talk with Shy for a bit and he was a really nice guy and I was glad to have the chance to meet him in person as I have been watching his videos on YouTube for years. Here’s a promo for his talk.

Stan Lee, of course.

And as for Sunday, it was a much shorter day that I kicked off by doing a podcast at home in the morning which will show up over at the Lamb in a few days time where we did a superhero movie draft (be sure to vote for my team when it does!). And when I got to the con, more or less the only thing I had time to do was see the Stan Lee Q&A panel. I’ve seen quite a few interviews with Stan Lee and it was very much similar to see him live. He really is a born entertainer and kept the crowd going whether it was from his characteristic ego stroking, or his old man mannerisms, or his often told stories about creating some of the well known Marvel heroes. He went through the origin of Spider-Man where he got his inspiration from seeing a fly crawling on the wall that started the gears turning in his head, but when he pitched the idea of a teen superhero with personal problems named Spider-Man, his publisher said “nobody likes spiders, teens are only sidekicks, and heroes aren’t supposed to have problems!” But when he was asked to write the final issue of a failing comic called Amazing Stories, he tossed his Spider-Man idea into it. It ended up being a big seller and the rest his history. He was also amusingly fascinated with seeing himself on the big screen, though he was disappointed that when he looked at himself on the screen, he could only see the back of his head, until he eventually discovered the large TV monitors at the foot of the stage where he could actually see himself on screen. There were a couple interesting tidbits he shared, first off was that he did a series of one-off stories for DC a while back called “Stan Lee’s What If…” where he re-imagined some of DC’s biggest heroes with a new origin. And now, there’s a chance that one or more of those What Ifs will return in a short comic run. Also, there’s a new show that will be premiering in England called “Stan Lee’s Lucky Man” although he initially wanted to call it “The Devil’s Luck”

And that’s about it for my experience at C2E2, I hope I get the chance to return next year. Make sure you share this post to help let C2E2 know that it’s worth it to give me press credentials again next time around. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.