Comics/Graphic Novels

Convention Diaries: C2E2, Saturday March 19, 2016

C.P. Hoffman

Staff Writer

By day, C.P. Hoffman writes about digital accessibility and the law; by night, they write about comics, pop culture, books, and gender for Book Riot and other sites. They have lived across North America (Indianapolis > Chicago > New York > Montreal > Indianapolis again), but now reside just outside of Washington, DC. C.P. has a particular affinity for Spider-Women, but also loves Wonder Woman, comics about witches, and stories about time travel. For inexplicable reasons, they also tweet a lot about the Fantastic Four. Twitter: @CPHwriter

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I started off Day 2 of C2E2 by waiting in line at Skottie Young’s booth. It had been swamped the few times I passed by on Friday, and I made the educated guess that it would be even worse on Saturday. The line was only(!) about thirty people deep when I got there, so it wasn’t too long a wait until I got to talk to Skottie about I Hate Fairyland (and have him sign a bunch of his Young Marvel variant covers). I also picked up a print of his The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl cover for my daughter.

Next up, I tried to make my way through the main floor for a bit. My two exciting morning finds: the booths for the Comic Bento and Blindbox Comics subscription services. Both are mystery box subscription services along the lines of Loot Crate, with Comic Bento focused on themed collections of graphic novels/trades and Blindbox Comics focused on single issues. Both looked pretty interesting.

After a quick break for lunch, I was off to the awesome Women of Marvel panel, featuring Marguerite Bennett, Stacey Lee, Annie Wu, Judy Stephens, Katie Kubert, and Emily Shaw (Vanesa Del Rey, who was scheduled to be there, was MIA). It was an excellent panel, and they promised a recording of it would be put up on their podcast, so go check that out if you’re interested. (In the meantime, I created a storify of my live tweets.) The big announcements included a forthcoming graphic novel, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Beats Up the Marvel Universe, by the existing team of Ryan North and Erica Henderson (and it looks like colorist Rico Renzi, though he wasn’t named during the panel); a guest appearance by Jessica Jones in the June issue of Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat; and a new superhero costume for Lunella (designed by Amy Reeder) in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #5. Some great questions during the Q&A, including whether we might see a Carol Danvers/Jessica Drew team-up book (a very positive response from both the panel and the crowd, so hopefully soon!); when we’ll see Jessica Jones in another solo comic (a pause, then a statement that it depends on when Brian Michael Bendis has some free time, but that Jessica will have a big role in Civil War II); and my own question of whether anything is being planned for Carol Danvers’ 50th anniversary in 2018 (hopefully, and called on Marvel VP of Digital Ryan Penagos, who was at the edge of the platform, to make sure the website side of it happened). I seriously loved this panel and everyone on it. I really got the sense that while some powers that be in the comics industry (and at Marvel specifically) don’t quite get it yet that there are issues with representation, at least these panelists did.

I then went back out on the floor for a little while, where I visited the Independent Publishers Group table and picked up this awesome notebook promoting Tim Hanley’s Investigating Lois Lane: The Turbulent History of the Daily Planet’s Ace Reporter.

Then, a trip back to Artists’ Alley, where I finally met up with Annie Wu, fresh off the Women of Marvel panel and looking badass.

I then finished my day (more or less) at the Civil War II panel, where Marvel announced a number of event tie-ins, without revealing too much information. The more interesting reveals: a Choosing Sides miniseries that would feature a Jessica Jones story (unclear if this was the “major role in Civil War II” promised in the Women of Marvel panel); an explanation of what happened to Bruce Banner in Totally Awesome Hulk, and Thanos’s return to Earth in Ultimates. The low point of the panel was a joke about how they couldn’t tell us too much of the event, but that we could gather from the cover of issue #2 that “Iron Man’s gonna hold hands with a dude.” And Marvel House loses ten points for an unnecessary gay panic joke.