We're back from New York Comic Con 2017, and this year one of the most noticeable things was the ubiquitous presence of DC comics and their push for their new film Justice League. DC seemed to be everywhere, taking up most of the south part of the Javits Center's Crystal Palace and even expanding off-site to areas around the convention center.
Full disclosure--though I like both DC and Marvel, I consider myself more of a Marvel fan. If I were to pick my top-ten favorite superheros, most of them would be Marvel characters. But even if you consider me a biased source, DC really killed it this year. I planned on seeing Justice League before, but now I really want to see it. I wanted to check out Injustice 2, but now I'm itching to play. And on top of it, DC pushed their two major storylines from their comic book line--Metal and Doomsday Clock.
First, let's start with the Javits Center--DC took over the southern section of the first floor of the Javits Center, with an amazing display of Justice League characters from the upcoming film, an area with buttons and comics free for the taking. They had a merchandise booth, and a gaming area where attendees could play Injustice 2. The merchandise for the upcoming Justice League film, and their current Metal storyline, and several exclusive variant covers of some of their popular titles. To the side of the merch booth was a signing area, where they had artists and writers throughout the day to sign your freshly-purchased comics, such as Geoff Johns, Jim Lee, Greg Capullo, and Scott Snyder.
On the 2nd level of the convention center, they had the Justice League VR experience--a virtual reality game, in which players could choose a character to play as, and would play a unique game based on that character. Aquaman fights sea monsters, Wonderwoman fights in battle, and Cyborg shoots robots out of the sky. At the end, you even got a Justice League t-shirt.
Now, if you're already a DC fan and you've been following the current stories, the experience was even better. Artist's Alley featured an entire section against the back wall that featured DC artists, including folks from the current top-selling DC crossover story, Metal. One could meet artists such as Stephan Sejic (Teen Titans, Suicide Squad, Aqua Man), Mirka Andolfo (Harley Quinn, Teen Titans), and Jonothan Glapion (Batman, Dark Nights Metal, Wonder Woman).
Even if you didn't attend the convention, there was plenty to see in nearby Times Square. The AT&T store at the south end of Times Square was decked-out for the new film. Pedestrians in Times Square could drop in and see the the costumes from the upcoming film, see the trailer, and get a picture with the Justice League. Outside the store, just across the street, fans could line up for pictures with the Batmobile, and Bruce Wayne's Mercedes Benz. Here's a gallery of all the sights just from the Times Square AT&T store:
By contrast, Marvel wasn't invisible--they had folks walking around handing out fliers for their new series, Runaways, on Hulu. They had a very intriguing Cloak and Dagger merchandise shop across from the convention center. And of course, they had a booth on the show floor--but Marvel's presence seemed muted in comparison to DC's in-your-face approach. On top of that, Marvel had a couple of last-minute cancellations--one due to concerns over the portrayal of violence in the upcoming Punisher series on Netflix in the wake of the mass shooting in Las Vegas a few days before the convention. The second, and more surprising,was the sudden termination of their partnership with Northrup Grumman on the NGEN series. The panel announcing the new partnership was cancelled via Twitter, and the partnership soon followed.
The silver lining for Marvel may be that it grabbed bigger headlines with the abrupt and surprising announcements. But DC captured the hearts of the fans in attendance. DC managed to get the fans excited about their new stories and get potential viewers hyped for the new Justice League film. DC put on a great show, but let's hope next year brings more of a competition. The fans would love to see them both bring their "A" game.
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See more of our coverage of New York Comic Con 2017:
And look for more coverage coming soon!
