Jun. 20, 2012 - Issue #870: Food Trucks
Comic-Con Episode IV
Geekin' out over here
Not since last year's Justin Bieber "documentary" have I seen anything as disingenuous and hypocritical as Whedon, soon-to-be director of the $1.4-billion-grossing (and counting) The Avengers, noting that Comic-Con's become a big target for Hollywood, interested in "dig[ging] into this love and get[ting] the money out." One toy-collector's storyline lasts as long as you'd expect of a mini-drama involving one man's race to get his 18-inch Galactus figurine. Actual details—what makes this artist's work interesting? Why do white males seem to make up 90 percent of the fans? (and noting that "chicks" are coming now, Kevin Smith, only makes your overgrown white boy-ness more obvious)—are lacking.
There are interesting plotlines that could've been pursued. The illustrators and the designer are emulating and simulating those who've made it big, drawing on characters (commercial properties, really) that already exist—so does originality matter any more? What's art, what's entertainment, and what's fantasy-overidentification here? And what does it mean that Comic-Con has mutated so monstrously beyond comics (a concern the movie raises but drops)? Most amusingly, in a kind of domestic-comedy subplot, after their relationship began at the 2009 event, James has a plan to propose to Se Young, but he can't get away from her long enough to get the (fanboy) ring—what really holds this relationship together, apart from clinginess to a mutual obsession? We never find out. Instead, we're put in the bleachers to watch a field of American pop-cult dreams, and told to cheer.
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Comic-Con Episode IVOpens Fri, Jun 22 – Wed, Jun 27
Directed by: Directed by Morgan Spurlock
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