Comic-Con 2012: The Superlatives

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Well, I'm home from Comic-Con 2012. As I continue to catch you all up on the fabulous things that I saw and heard while there, I wanted to go ahead and give a little run-down list in the meantime. I imagine that those who also attended will have some strong opinions as well, so sound off below. If you didn't make it there this year, let us know what you thought of our picks - would you have guessed they'd go this way? Are there other superlatives you'd like to hear me rant about?

Best Panel: "And Then What Happened?" This Friday night panel had some fabulous writing talent there to talk about how some great shows (like Dollhouse, Firefly, Sarah Connor Chronicles, and FlashForward) met their demise. We learned about how storylines changed to fit cancellation in some cases but not others, and heard about what was planned to take place next, should a miracle-save have occurred.

Best Screening: Elementary, screened Thursday afternoon in Ballroom 20. I was pleasantly surprised.

Best Swag: Game of Thrones! they loaded us down with TONS of goodies! 

Photo: Amy K. Bredemeyer

Photo: Amy K. Bredemeyer

Best Poster: The four in the Lionsgate plastic win this one. The Hunger Games, Expendables 2, Dredd, and Possession were all nice.

Best Booth Experience: Going to the Falling Skies booth and having a Skitters harness nearly put on you was a lot of fun. Not only did you get a photo of the experience, but you also got a set of light-up spikes that attached to the back of your lanyard.

Best Downtown Option: Giving blood at the Omni netted you a True Blood shirt, an extra swag bag, various other goodies, and a Brave print. Though the C-Net party was a lot of fun in a short period of time, complete with free food and drinks!

Best Costume: I saw two very good Trons. One used light-up wire and the other looked so realistic, complete with the ring that came off the back! also, what was with all of the stormtroopers this year? I feel like there were WAY MORE than last year! Brave was also everywhere you looked.

Photo: Amy K. Bredemeyer

Photo: Jonathan Bredemeyer

Worst Panel: The Big Bang Theory. Johnny Galecki wasn't there. Only children were asking questions. The cast didn't know the answers to anything. The surprise astronaut thing confused Simon Helberg and pissed off a good portion of the audience. AND there was no "special screening" of any kind.

Worst Screening: Aside from the fact that The Big Bang Theory lied in their description about having a screening, I'd give this one to The Walking Dead. Who shows the same two-minute clip twice within an hour? We weren't looking for Easter Eggs, guys.

Worst Swag: aside from the panels where one might expect swag that wasn't delivered, I'd have to say Falling Skies. I couldn't believe that we got zip-up hoodies last year and bracelets this year! Psych is a close second, though... plastic sunglasses were weak, especially compared with last year's t-shirts! oh, and Revolution giving out the same pin you could get other places was junky, too.

Photo: Amy K. Bredemeyer

Worst Poster: Oz! I couldn't believe that the swag ticket was for the same mini-poster that you could get elsewhere at the Con!

Worst Line: Overall, it was probably for Firefly. I had a couple of close calls, but the only time a line seriously pissed me off this year was Hall H on Sunday afternoon. I didn't get in it until after Doctor Who had started, as I wanted to see The Cleveland Show and Sons of Anarchy. Well, nobody was updating us on the situation, but we saw people pour out after Doctor Who was over... yet we weren't being let in. Twenty-three minutes after Doctor Who ended (and eight into the time allotted for The Cleveland Show), we still weren't even moving, though we had easily seen a thousand people exit Hall H. We eventually walked into a very-nearly-empty room (which I hear never filled up after that), but the schedule was hugely thrown off and The Cleveland Show began about half an hour late.

Funniest Panel: The Cleveland Show. The singing and voices were great, and the questions led to some fun answers from the panel. I almost said Psych, though. The chemistry on that cast and the humor in the questions from the audience made for an entertaining hour.

Most Surprisingly Good Panel: The Cleveland Show. I wasn't expecting too much, so the live songs and tons of voices on-the-spot thrilled me.

Most Surprisingly Bad Panel: Again, The Big Bang Theory just disappointed me all over the place.

Biggest Regret: not going to the Lynn Johnston's panel. It conflicted with The Big Bang Theory, and probably would have kept me out of that room for the rest of the day. I saw tweets about how awesome that hour was.