by Kim Filchak, Lead Reporter

UPDATED 08/04/2014 because I found way more pictures of the ridiculousness and I want your SDCC 2014 virtual experience to be as immerse and complete as possible for someone who was not actually there. 

So SDCC 2014 was a thing that happened. I sadly did not get to go, weep for me, but thanks to the miracle of the internet I have been able to get as close to getting the full Comic Con experience as you can get without actually getting off of the couch or putting on pants. Plus? All the white wine and pizza I could consume before passing out! Even though my life is intent on distracting me with the chaos, paper work, and strange beeping noises I am ready to devote hours to slavishly obsessing over all of the mythic and world shaking revelations that burst forth from Hall H, like the chest burster from John Hurt. Because Comic Con.

There were some pretty awesome panels going on this year, the next Mad Max film looks freaking amazing and the DC television event actually played the pilots to a few of thier shows, and of course Avengers: age of Ultron and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice did thier due diligence in marking thier territory. Honestly though? SDCC seemed a little short on earth shattering revelations this year. We really did not get anything that we did not already know, there was no word on the Fantastic Four, no Star Wars and no new announcements of future films from either Warner Bros or Marvel Studios except for Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and most tragically of all no mention whatsoever of any appearance of Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel at all. Not even a sly hint or vague tease. Nothing…

What does all of this mean for Rampant Speculation? Nothing really, my game stays the same as always. I just wanted to whine. And so without any further sullen complaints or sad Zoe gifs from me, your emotionally immature author, let’s get to it!

Ant-Man- Marvels little movie that could was at SDCC 2014 with all of the bells and whistles they could rummage up, including some footage of the brave little toaster of the Marvel Cinematic Universe which I have a description of courtesy of ING.

“The sequence starts in an empty lab as we hear the voices of Douglas’ Pym talking to Rudd’s Scott about how “superheroes are a goddamn joke” that just cause a lot of mayhem and destruction. But he needs Scott to take on the mantle of Ant-Man to handle “a small job.” The camera snakes through the lab over all this until it finds the silver Ant-Man helmet on a table.

We then cut to Lang in the Ant-Man suit in miniature form running through an alley as he tries to elude his pursuers (possibly the police). He ends up on a ledge where an unseen Pym, via radio headset, instructing Scott what to do. That’s when the cavalry shows up: a fly, which at that tiny size sounds like an incoming helicopter and dwarfs Lang. Pym tells Scott to instruct the fly what to do but Scott doesn’t yet know how to communicate with the insect.” The fly buzzes away when the pursuers’ helicopter hovers into frame. Scott must leap off the ledge, falls out of frame, and then resurfaces on the back of the fly. He makes a quip about it not being all that tough and they fly offscreen.

Marvel also revealed that Evangeline Lilly (Lost) would we playing Hank Pym’s daughter, Hope Van Dyne, and that Corey Stole (House of Cards) will be playing Darren Cross, a man who goes by the name Yellowjacket when he’s doing the super villain thing. The Yellowjacket news is not a surprise but Hope Van Dyne is new. With the last name I am assuming she is the daughter of Janet Van Dyne, fashion designer and founding member of the Avengers Wasp. Fun fact, she is also responsible for this list which pretty much makes her the patron saint of fan-fiction.

Suffice to say she is kind of a big deal in the Avengers comics and is one of only two founding members of the Avengers who has yet to make an appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the other one being her husband Doctor Henry “Hank” Pym. Hank Pym is the original Ant Man and will be making his MCU debut in the film Ant-Man. Which begs the question. Where the heck is Wasp?

 

 

 Entertainment Weekly was at the Ant-Man panel and got this from a clearly miserable Michael Douglas (Romancing the Stone, Wall Street, Behind the Candelabra), who will be playing Doctor Pym in the film, about the fate of his better half.

Michael Douglas: I’m f–king melting. I’m f–king melting. All right, here we go. Let’s try to make this as concise as possible. My name is Dr. Henry Pym. I’m an entomologist. I’m also a physicist and I discovered in 1963, a way, a serum to reduce a human being to the size of ant maintaining the strength. Not only that, but I was able to find a way to communicate with the ants. But unfortunately during this process, a tragic personal accident happened with my wife, my daughter, Evangeline, Hope. So I’ve had to pass my powers and strengths onto a mentor. Because my partner, my partner, Corey over there, f–ked me good.

Wait. They fridged her? They @#$%  fridged Wasp before the film even begins?

I know, I know, I am putting down the high powered rifle even as you alert the authorities. Cooler heads than I tackled me to the ground and calmly suggested that this is a “lab accident” and if science fiction has taught us anything it’s that a “lab accident” often means someone is coming back with superpowers, and in the case of the Marvel Cinematic Universe it could also mean that Nazis broke in to steal all of the things or some dude with the last name of Stark got bored. Since there are neither Starks nor Nazis in this film I am hoping we can go with the remaining option.

All that said if Wasp ends up being fridged just to be fridged? Expect as firmly worded letter to be on its way to Marvel from one annoyed writer. And ninjas, I will totally send ninjas after them.

 

Avengers: Age of Ultron- The Avengers came, saw, and goofed around like a herd of kittens whose keeper sadly could not make it to SDCC 2014 due to knee surgery.

They sauntered around, quipped, Robert Downey Jr threw roses. I shit you not, dude actually brought flowers

Image via uproxx.

The mood has been described as giddy and the internet is seriously awash in gifs and pictures of the whole thing. No, seriously, do a Google search. I’ll wait. Actually here, let me do the hard part.

Image via GrantLand.

Image via HitFix.

Bet you didn’t know that Avengers 3 is going to be a love story.

image via colider.

image via uproxx.

 

Image via HitFix.

Presenting the SDCC 2014 Memorial- Chris Evans is Handsy Gallery.

Images via Tumblr.

Images via Rebloggy.

Gif comes to us via hitfix and if you want to know what is up with the adorable interview drive by you can find it here along with a massive gallery of photographic evidence of Avengers shenanigans.

Here are some videos of Marvel Entertainment Presents: The Hall H Marvel Happy Fun Time, Staring the Avengers. First up the kids make thier big entrance.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPihX5UxeAo]
Then Thanos enters the building.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4k_PtQY1uQ]

And here is the Cast Signing Video if you want to get the true scope of the giddy.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g83RTXyWPf4]

Geeky Tyrant was also at there and you can see their video coverage of the Avengers: Age of Ultron here.

Also on the offer from Avengers: Age of Ultron was the ubiquitous SDCC exclusive footage, a tradition that offers a glimpse of magic in the making to those chosen few present for the panel but cruelly denied to those of us unable to make the pilgrimage, as well as those unwilling or unable to sleep in line overnight to get into the infamous Hall H, aka the Geek Event Horizon. Lucky for us IGN was there and have posted a description.

The footage that screened was pretty great in that Marvel way, but also interesting tonally in that started out light and fun and got darker as the reel went on. It opened with the Avengers (and War Machine himself, Rhodey) all hanging out in Stark Tower, dressed up and enjoying a few drinks. We’d heard reports of this scene previously, but seeing it in action was something else entirely. The ease and fun of this group, which has clearly become a tight-knit family since the first film, is obvious. But that doesn’t mean that they’re not going to give each other a hard time, as each one takes a turn at trying to pick up Thor’s hammer. Tony Stark and Rhodey use their gauntlets to no avail, Bruce Banner practically hulks out but has no luck, but Cap… well, did the hammer just move a tad when he pulled on it? The look on Thor’s face for a moment says yes!

But the fun is disrupted by a very creepy moment as a broken-up robot suddenly enters the scene. Barely able to stand, almost hanging in mid-air like a marionette, it tells the team that they are all killers. We see that it is one of Stark’s Iron Legion… but one clearly gone wrong. All of a sudden more ’bots crash into the tower and attack.

From there we get quick glimpses of action from the film. Cap in uniform is bursting through the doors of some kind of compound… possibly Baron Von Strucker’s headquarters, where we saw Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch imprisoned at the end of The Winter Soldier? And we see those two in action too briefly, with Quicksilver running at super speed and leaving a bluish trail in his wake while the Witch did that wavy-handed thing she does so well. Iron Man’s Hulkbuster armor faced off against the Hulk, as we’ve seen in concept art already, though why the two are fighting isn’t clear. We do see Banner huddling in a blanket at one point and apparently having some kind of inner turmoil… and we also get a quick shot of Black Widow lifting her hand up to the Hulk’s, which seems to imply that only she can sooth the savage beast. Which actually ties in nicely to the first film. We also hear a reference in Ultron’s voiceover to a “vision,” though we didn’t actually see the character in action. And we got a glimpse of Andy Serkis himself… as a human character and not in a performance-capture role.

It all culminates in an apocalyptic moment with a stricken Stark finding Captain America’s shield… which is broken! And as the camera pulls back, we see an array of bodies — Cap’s, Thor’s, the Avengers’? Is it a dream or something more? Whatever it is, it seems clear that the film is going taking the characters to a darker place. The last thing we see is Ultron in a new, shinier body. It’s on!

There were also more tangible things to ooohhh and aaahhhh over as well, like a bunch of props that fans could get up close and personal with.

Image via Flixist.

Image via Geek Tyrant.

Image via Flixist.

Photo via Cosmic Book News.

Photo via ComicBook.com.

If you are interested in more than recaps, props, or games of ass grab the clever people over at i09 were savvy enough to not be distracted by the shenanigans and managed to get a few answers. Here is some of the words that fell out of Robert Downey Jr’s (Iron-man, Avengers, Tropic Thunder) mouth on to the waiting microphones.

“How is Tony Stark as a boss?

If you’re living rent-free in an $8-billion tower in New York, how bad can that be?

Until he starts messing it up. How high are the stakes in this movie?

These are about as high as they’ve been. But the nice thing in Age of Ultron, what Joss Whedon has done exceptionally well — I’ve never really seen it done like this before — [is that this movie] really is a Swiss Watch of character and action and stakes. It’s easily the best bad guy plot I’ve ever read in a script, let alone gone out and shot.

Tony had a lot of issues in Iron Man 3. Where do we find him in the beginning of the Avengers 2?

Tony is kind of OK. They’re wrapping up some old business and it seems like everything is fine. The problem is, it’s always that thing where Tony says, “I have a really good idea.”

What’s Tony’s relationship like with Vision?

All I can think about is Paul Bettany. I could go out to dinner every night with Paul Bettany for the rest of my life. He is the most charming, funny, cool guy in the world. And his relationship to Vision, I can’t really disclose too much. But I want to say that the way that Vision occurs is absolutely astonishing. And what I saw, because I was in close proximity to Bettany, everybody feels like they have a sense of him from playing JARVIS, and Vision isn’t JARVIS. When you see what Bettany does with Vision, I think you’re going to really dig it.

Letting AI in the world, how do you think that would really play out?

Well, it could be the Singularity or it could be Terminator 9. It’s a big question mark. And fortunately that’s addressed in this. All your questions about existence will be addressed.”

I love how so many horrible disasters in the Marvel universe start with Tony having an idea about how to make things “better”. There is more of the interview here, along with words from Chris Evans (Captain America: The Winter Solider, Snowpiercer, Not Another Teen Movie), Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene), and Aaron Perry Johnson (Kick Ass), as well as videos of said interviews for those too lazy or stoned to read. No judgments, it’s been a long week for us all.

Avengers: Age of Ultron News Addendum- Look, you know I love you guys more than I love my luggage right? So I say this with that love in mind. Did you honestly think Thanos would be making an appearing in Avengers: Age of Ultron? Really? Come on kittens, we knew it was probably not going to happen and to act like it was ever seriously in the cards is disingenuous at best. But still, the inter-webs is alive with stories breaking the news that Thanos will not be in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Even the International Business Times is reporting on the MCU’s Big Cheese Kevin Feige’s news on the subject which he revealed in an interview with Comic Book Resource.

“Are we going to get any Thanos in “Avengers 2?” There was some of him in “Guardians in the Galaxy,” and it was clear that when he gets a movie, it’s going to be a big deal.

Right. I’m glad it feels that way. That’s the idea. He’s not a part of “Avengers 2.”

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice- On the list of most talked about movies at SDCC 2014 Batman v Superman:Dawn of Justice was at the very top, at least on Twitter. That said from what I gathered during my in depth and rigorously academic research on Comic Con 2014 via the reading of winners and losers list and going on Tumblr, reactions were not all “shock and awe”. The comments about what was revealed to the hordes in Hall H ran from the expected “That was Awesome!”, “I am so excited”,  and pants wetting joy, to reactions like “Really? She’s wearing @#$% heels?” and “Wow, that there is a marked lack of chemistry between the Trinity.” (Apparently the Avenger’s near constant game of ass grab spoiled people.) Don’t take my word for it, here is some evidence to back up my thesis. I literally spent an hour looking for cute adorable photos of these guys. This is what I found.

Image via Empire.

Image via The Movie Pilot.

Image via The Fame Driven.

Image via Business Insider.

Image via Cult of Mac.

Image via Heavy.

Image via HenryCavill.org.

While the presentation may have been lacking that special something, or even a Q & A session with the stars, nothing even remotely less than full on fan-gasim was the response to the footage they showed which Batman News has a description of.

It starts off with Ben Affleck’s Batman in a suit that we haven’t seen yet. It’s big and bulky like the armor he wears in “The Dark Knight Returns”. His eyes light up solid white as he pulls tarp off of the Batsignal. Superman appears in the spotlight and his eyes light up red with heat vision as he glares down at Batman. Then the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice logo appears.

Sounds awesome, right? Well sadly unless you were in crammed into Hall H like a t shirt garbed and hopefully less oily sardine or manage to find a bootleg by someone who broke the sacred covenant of no filming you are out of luck. Worldwide marketing and international distribution for Warner Bros Sue Kroll had this to say about it when she spoke to Variety “That’s just going to live in that hall. We’ll post extended trailers and stills, but that presentation, that was just for those fans.”

So, yeah.

A mind melting trailer that the bulk of us will never see  was not the only thing reveled by Warner Bros, we also go a first look at Gal Gadot (Fast Five) in her full Amazonian glory as Wonder Woman.

It looks like they took little bit of (Or a lot of) Xena and ruthlessly cribbed off of the many fan works that have been made in anticipation of Wonder Woman finally making her way on to the big screen and then muted the colors until practically unrecognizable. And added wedges, because um… Yeah I got nothing. Still it’s not horrible and while it is not as armored as I would prefer and I think the skirt is too short–I don’t hate it.

Flicks and the City took part in a round table with Batman Prime himself Adam West (Batman) and he had a few thoughts on the latest incarnation of the character he first brought to Batusi-ing life in 1968.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoXmqXX4bLQ]

 

Daredevil- The people behind the nascent Netflix series were not at SDCC but there is some news to report. Daredevil has been given a release date of May 2015 and has already begun filming on location in New York. The Latino Review has some set photos as well as a video of them filming a scene.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3G8qn1_j6A]
Daredevil show runner Steven De Knight (Angel) was as the premiere of Guardians of the Galaxy and talked to Marvel Entertainment about the street level feel the series is aiming for.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS2VHi_zz6w]

“We’re going for a kind of very gritty, 1970s New York feel for the show. We love the idea of beauty in the decay of the city and Hell’s Kitchen being a place that is both horrible and beautiful at the same time. That’s why Matt Murdock loves it and wants to protect it.”

 

Deadpool- Finally. After how many years? Dudes. How long have we been waiting for this? An eternity right? I should probably clarify what I am talking about shouldn’t I? The Deadpool test footage of course! A week or so ago something purporting to be test footage of Ryan Reynolds (The Proposal, Blade Trinity) for a Deadpool movie moseyed its way into our lives via the internet. Initially there was a ton of nay saying, because come on, no one ever expected that to happen. Ever. We had all buried our dreams of a an actual Deadpool movie in the fetid, rank, CGI carcass of Green Lantern and then salted and scorched the earth on which it lay. Little did we know that much like the character Deadpool himself, Deadpool the movie is apparently immortal.

The footage has since been forcibly removed from the premises of the internet via studio demand which pretty much confirms its legitimacy. Regretfully this means that if you did not catch this rarest of geekdom flowers in bloom you have missed your chance forevermore. Though if you are brave and true I am sure there are gifs and screen grabs of it out there that a crafty and obsessive fan could seek out and meticulously piece together bit by bit to create some sort of moving storyboard to get an idea of what happens. Or you know, find someone who downloaded it and get them to send it to you. Whichever works for you. What all of this means for an actual solo outing by the “merc with the mouth” remains to be seen.

 

Fantastic Four- The Fantastic Four has wrapped according The Wrap. The cast of the film based on the science adventures of an atypical family and the Eastern European techno magician despot obsessed with destroying one of them specifically and the rest in general have posted a celebratory selfie because kids these days. Right?

I am trying to keep a positive outlook. No really! I am! But seeing them together like this…. I just don’t see it. They are just too young and obnoxious to be the first family of Marvel. They all look barely legal, if Namor were to show up now and put his patented d-bag charm moves on Sue? It would no longer be soccer mom has a sexy fling and instead it would be something you called the cops on because 15 will get you 20.

Also in Fantastic Four News- Here is a photo of what may be the Thing, aka Ben Grimm, via i09. Actor Jamie Bell (The Adventures of Tintin) does not look to be present and it doesn’t look like a costume, so I am really curious how that is going to sort out when the finish the special effects on the film.

 

Gotham- Gotham just got another bad guy, which is not surprising as bad guys are Gotham City’s primary export along with grime, gothic architecture, and daddy issues. According to Deadline David Zayas (Dexter) will be joining the cast as Mob Boss Salvatore Maroni. You may remember Zayas as Lt Angel Batista, the one likable human being on Dexter who was not either a child or the titular serial killer.

In the comics the character Maroni is just one step behind head Mafioso Carmine Falcone on the Gotham PD’s flow chart of evil scumbags who operate on the other side of the law. They have a different flowchart for the corrupt scumbags that operate on their side of things and a Venn diagram for where they overlap. Currently it is one big circle but that may just change when police detective Jim Gordon enters the field of battle, but I digress.

The thing Maroni is most well-known for is making the epic mistake of trying to take out Harvey Dent with a surprise acid attack and triggering the birth of Twoface. I mean yes, Harvey will never fully recovered, even when he is working on redemption he is always one bad day from hitting up his coin jar and making some mayhem, but dudes I would gladly take one determined DA instead of the odds obsessed murderous sociopath with a love of violence they ended up with, but again I am digressing.

Additionally in Gotham News: New Trailer!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S_bodvIBG4]

 

Interstellar- There is a new trailer for Interstellar and it continues the trend of everything I see of this movie legitimately giving me goose bumps.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt2LHkSwdPQ]

 

Jurassic World- Director Colin Trevorrow has proven himself an consummate Twitter Tease (Twiease? Twit-Tease?) time and time and time and yet still time again. So it should be of no surprise that with the release of Chris Pratt’s (Everwood, Parks and Rec, Zero Dark Thirty) new film Guardians of the Galaxy Trevorrow is up to his teasing ways again and capitalizing on Pratt’s sudden star status.

Image via SlashFilm.

He is lovely and so is Star Lord but this will always be my favorite Chris Pratt.

 

Mad Max: Road Fury- Last but not least I give you the most talked about trailer to premier at SDCC 2014 by far, Mad Max: Fury Road and dudes, it looks awesome.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO0jUAzOsV8]

 

And my hand just cramped up so you know what that means kids, this Rampant Speculation must come to a close. I know I whined about SDCC’s lack of awesome this year up top, but as I sit here reflecting on things with the newly gained perspective of someone who has just spent several hours of her life wading through the Comic-Con spill off I think I have changed my mind. Sort of. Yes there were some miss steps, and roads not taken that fill me with nerd rage, but I think that I go into this weekend every year with my expectations set too high.

SDCC has become an entity in and of itself, for many it is more myth and legend than an actual attend-able event at this point. It is an event to hype things that itself has become so hyped that it seems like the geek end all be all, when really in the end it’s just a comic book convention. Over the years it has grown beyond that original definition to include movies, television shows, and gaming  but in the end it’s still what it is. As great an opportunity as SDCC presents for studios to show us their goods and get fans excited about those goods, it is just one convention with a single, admittedly huge, audience. Even with all of the media coverage an audience that is primarily limited to those who are able to attend means limited impact. Remember when Snakes on a Plane hit SDCC like fist to face and then died upon release? You may not but I can bet the studios do.

I sometimes forget that for much of the mainstream audience the San Diego Comic Con is about as relevant as Burning Man. Back when the whole geek renaissance was gaining momentum it worked great because it was something of a symbol for that renaissance, which desperately needed a “cool” public face that, but that is no longer the case. Geek culture has gone mainstream in a big way and in order to not alienate that massive mainstream middle America and worldwide audiences who are forking over mountains of cash for the merchandise and tickets the studio’s perhaps not going to pander to the Geek Elite quite as much anymore. When they have something to announce it will be to as massive a consumer base as they can muster and that means outside of the doors of Hall H. If you will forgive me a lame metaphor, the geek elite have lost control of the bus and at this point who even knows who is in the driver’s seat anymore. Just pray it’s not Tumblr. (I kid! I like Tumblr, I am even on the Tumblr! Just don’t ever let Tumblr run a con again.)

Will SDCC and other cons become irrelevant? No, but because geek culture has become popular culture it is no longer possible for it to be as special as it once was. The system is evolving and changing even as we speak, or type as the case may be. Who knows what next year will hold? Maybe it will be overcrowded and lame or maybe it will filled with big reveals and surprise announcements. Maybe Chris Evans will pole dance at the Marvel Panel, maybe Ben Affleck will actually crack one, single, genuinely happy smile, or maybe the starship NSEA Protector will crash though the wall of Hall H, skid to a stop, and the original cast will emerge led by Jason Nesmith to announce that they are doing a reboot of the series. Anything can happen and that to me is in of itself worth the price of admission.

 

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