The big shocker at Comic-Con in San Diego was that American studios don't like American actors. No, we're not talking about Olivia D'Abo. The British actress is best known for The Wonder Years but her voice over work also includes Black Widow in Ultimate Avengers II: The Rise of the Panther and she'll again be the Justice League's Star Saphire in the upcoming animated film Justice League Doom.
Though we're not talking about her, she was at Comic-Con on Thursday, meeting fans, signing autographs and either having the time of her life or just acting like she was. She was a huge hit. So was another person and that's who we're talking about. Henry Cavill showed up Saturday with footage from the upcoming Superman flick and director Zach Snyder.
It was sometime after the weeper and the man with the fake mustache and others asked questions that actor Cavill was finally asked a question. He babbled on, "It is pretty intense. I'm not going to lie."
And you sort of just stared.
The too-old and too-tired stand-up comic Chris Hardwick was m.c.ing and he rushed in to insist, "It's the face and the voice that gets you. ' Hey! Hey! These damn Brits are coming over and taking superhero jobs from Americans!'" He did the last part in a mock southern accent that only made Hardwick sound stupid.
And though others fawned (including a young woman who asked for Cavill's name card on the table), the mood of the room really didn't recover. After, as people filed out, you could hear the carping. "Batman's British" (Christian Bale), one said with another rolling his eyes and nodding before a woman noted Andrew Garfield (the new Spider-Man) was British (he's also American).
Batman and Spider-Man? Who really cares? But Superman is supposed to be the red-white-and-blue, the American superhero. It would be like casting Tom Hardy as Captain America. We like Tom Hardy, he's a great actor. And we wouldn't mind him playing any Marvel superhero except Captain America or any DC hero except Superman.
If that was the shocker, the big stand out was TV. Or rather, how many TV shows were represented. Everyone wants to promote their shows. Some did better than others.
True Blood was more of a thank-you to fans and less of a promotion. It was also a very genteel or dull event. Creator and show runner Alan Ball was game and tossing around the f-word while discussing sex scenes on the coming season. Maybe following The Vampire Diaries on Saturday sucked out the energy. Or maybe sex really isn't a fun panel subject in a roomful of people? Or maybe teases who won't even flex their muscles bring down the energy of the room?
Once Upon A Time had the perfect fit of panel and audience -- both were boring. But that's to be expected of the Richie Rich of sci-fi shows. The crowd appeared to have wondered in from a Peter, Paul and Mary concert and they all showed appropriate concern as child actor Jared Gilmore emoted in a clip of the coming season. Breaking Bad was also a case of panel matching audience as the small story-ied show congregated with its small-minded viewers to the point that we feared that they might all start chanting, "'One of us. One of us."
The two clear winners were Nikita (CW) and ABC's upcoming 666 Park. Nikita found the show ready to hint about the future and a panel that was relaxed and ready to have fun. 666 Park showed their entire pilot and then started the panel. Vanessa Williams received a thundering ovation which was all the more surprising since she's not done comics or sci-fi. Consider the actress and singer to be the genre cross-over actress and she had the best smile of anyone at the convention.
TV-Con, er, Comic-Con had little to do with comics unless you counted all those how-to seminars (Marvel had the worst). In fact, the only thing really putting the comic into Comic-Con were the fans.
We saw ninjas and turtles, Batmans and Black Widows, Green Lanterns and Iron Mans, Supergirls and Spider-Mans. And tons and tons of Wonder Women. Wonder Woman easily remains the most popular dress-up choice for the convention. It's worth remembering that NBC -- attempting to sell Grimm and a new show Revolution this year -- shot down a Wonder Woman pilot.in 2011. If only half those Wonder Women were to watch an NBC show of their favorite comic book hero, the show would easily outpace Awake and 30 Rock in the ratings.
Comic-Con concludes today in San Diego but the convention's best panel took place Friday. Hasbro put on a a one hour panel about their Star Wars toys including an advanced look at some upcoming toys.
