Writing With A Broken Pencil: ComiCon Wrap Up

Kumi here. While my partner has been attending a sneak preview for an awesome summer flick, yours truly has been languishing in obscurity going through the news from ComiCon trying to sort out this media overload. Anyway, ComiCon 2010 has come and gone, so now is the time for a best and worst list from this year's event.

Best Upcoming Comic: Strange Tales II
This isn't your father's Strange Tales. In what looks to be Marvel's next sleeper hit, Strange Tales II features some of the industry's premier independent talent taking a stab at some of Marvel's most iconic characters. If this sounds strangely familiar to DC Comic's "Bizarro" Anthology series...well it is...
The cast of luminaries remains almost unchanged from DC's version, including Harvey Peakar, Tony Millionaire, Terry Moore, and the ubiquitous "and more!"

Worst Upcoming Comic: More Deadpool than anyone can stand
After Marvel had milked the cash cow known as Wolverine completely dry, they turned to another Canadian government experiment in Deadpool. In addition to appearing in the upcoming Marvel vs Capcom 3, The Merc with a Mouth stars in no less than three of his own series' (Deadpool, Deadpool Team-Up and Deadpool Corps) also look for the upcoming Deadpool movie slated to be released in 2012, as well as a bevy of guest appearances in Avengers, Spider-Man, X-Men and Fantastic Four.
Sometimes there is such a thing as too much of a good thing

Best Upcoming Video Game: Street Fighter x Tekken and Tekken x Street Fighter
In what had to be one of the most bizarre moments of ComiCon, Street Fighter Producer Yoshinori Ono was answering questions in the "Street Fighter and More" panel when suddenly out of no where Tekken Producer Norihiro Hamada appears and challenges Ono to a fight. After a short skit, the pair announced Street Fighter x Tekken and Tekken x Street Fighter. The former to be made by Capcom in the Street Fighter style and the latter by Namco in the style of Tekken.
Here's a sample of the gameplay from Capcom's version

Worst Upcoming Video Game: Gran Turismo 5
Now...I loved the Gran Turismo games. The series is the be-all and end-all for car and racing enthusiasts world wide. And GT5 doesn't look to disappoint on that end. But the reason why this game gets Worst Game is it's coming too late. Five. Years. Too Late. GT5 was originally promised to be a launch title for the PS3 and it never came. Fans have waited and waited but no news had come. Finally at this year's ComiCon it was revealed that GT5 will come out sometime in late 2010 or early 2011. Will it be worth the wait? Yes. If you're willing to spend the money. Sony is planning to release, along with the game, a special driving controller. Unlike other driving controllers which feather a simple wheel/pedal set up, this one will feature a whole God Damn Chair AND Sony plans to make the game 3D, for those of you lucky (or stupid) enough to have purchased a 3D TV. Yes, for the price of an actual high performance sports car, you too can have the most immersive driving experience available! Unless of course, you actually spend that money on a real car...
And if you don't want to drop all that cash? Well it's just another Gran Turismo game

Best Upcoming Movie: Thor
Kenneth Branagh tries to prove that he can direct a movie, without casting himself in the lead role in Marvel's upcoming Thor movie. A five minute trailer was shown exclusively at ComiCon and as luck would have it, it got leaked online.
What follows are scenes of Thor being interrogated by a government agent and flashbacks of Thor bickering with his father Odin (played by a cyclopian Anthony Hopkins) and being banished to Earth
See the full trailer here

Runner Up: Green Lantern
Pictures were leaked of Ryan Reynolds sporting the Green Lantern suit in the upcoming film. Directed by James Bond mainstay Martin Campbell and featuring Mark Strong as GL's nemesis Sinsestro, it looks like it won't disappoint

Worst Upcoming Movie: Sucker Punch
Okay, I'm a little biased here, but I've never really been a big fan of Zach Snyder. In his latest "Comic Book Movie" not based on any particular comic book, Snyder tells the story of a young girl who is institutionalized and beings to halucinate (or does she?) a fantasy world for herself in which she fights samurai and dragons and various other fantasy villains. Snyder calls it "Alice in Wonderland with machine guns." The trailer makes this movie look good, but Snyder has never skimped on the visuals. But I'm calling it now: This film will be all flash and no substance

Best Cosplay: Sasquatch (Darkstalkers)
Anyone who is willing to wear this in SoCal in the dead of summer gets my vote