Comic relief for geeks

Comic-Con 2014 astounds audiences with Hollywood reboots and sequels.

GAL GADOT plays the iconic heroine Wonder Woman in the upcoming ‘Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice’ (photo credit: ZACK SNYDER TWITTER/WARNER BROS)
GAL GADOT plays the iconic heroine Wonder Woman in the upcoming ‘Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice’
(photo credit: ZACK SNYDER TWITTER/WARNER BROS)
When Comic-Con first started in 1970, it was nothing but a small meeting of like-minded nerds and geeks in San Diego sharing their love for science fiction and beyond. The annual event has now become a staple of the film and television industry, attracting thousands of attendees from across the globe to relish the hype of the latest Hollywood projects.
This year brought many familiar characters to the halls of Comic-Con as superheroes, cartoons and towering monsters excited audiences throughout the weekend starting Friday, July 25.
The first footage of Ben Affleck playing a new form of Batman in the Warner Bros. and DC Comic’s upcoming Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, showed Henry Cavill’s Superman and Affleck’s famous caped crusader facing off in the night skies. It also premiered the first look at Israeli native Gal Gadot as the iconic Wonder Woman.
Rival studio Marvel released two minutes of footage of its sequel to the wildly successful Avengers movie titled, The Avengers: Age of Ultron. According to Twitter users, the clip showed a much darker look into the franchise with a shot of Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man standing over what appeared to be the rest of the Avengers dead around him.
“One of the first times ever I have seen all [of the audience] give a standing ovation to the footage, not the celebs,” one Twitter user wrote. “The footage we just saw, wow.”
Another Marvel superhero flick, Ant Man, premiered test footage, as it is still in its early stages of production.
It stars Paul Rudd as the title character and Lost’s Evangeline Lilly in an unknown role.
A trailer for season five of AMC’s The Walking Dead was another huge premiere at the event that showed the grizzled face of lead character Rick Grimes saying, “No matter what anyone says, no matter what you think, you are not safe,” to his own teenage son over footage of reckless zombie chaos.
The popular Mad Max franchise from the eighties that starred the now infamous Mel Gibson is receiving an updated sequel to the apocalyptic series titled Mad Max: Fury Road, which premiered an incredible display of desert car chases and special effects to the audience of Comic Con. The Warner Bros. film features Tom Hardy, famous for playing Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, as the title character alongside Charlize Theron.
Fox’s The Simpsons and Family Guy reconciled their differences, revealing clips from an upcoming episode that showed the two patriarchal yet lovable oafs of each show, Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin, sharing beer and donuts together.
Legendary Pictures announced another “King Kong” film, titled Skull Island after the exotic sanctuary the fictional ape calls home. It will focus on not just the classic primate character, but the assortment of creatures that also live on the island.
The studio also confirmed Godzilla 2, with the emphasis on more monsters than just the familiar skyscraper- sized reptile. Because Godzilla 2 and Skull Island are both produced by Legendary Pictures, rumors began to fly around about a potential Godzilla and King Kong match-up, but only time will tell.
Christopher Nolan, famous for The Dark Knight trilogy and Inception, brought Matthew McConaughey into Comic-Con to premiere footage of Legendary Picture’s film, Interstellar.
Its focus is on the idea of wormholes, a complex science fiction concept, but Nolan is notorious for keeping plot details of his films secret, so don’t expect to hear too much about this movie until it is released in November.
Although Hollywood barely managed to break free from its now traditional formula of reboots and sequels, the audience of Comic- Con 2014 and fans around the world are still eagerly awaiting the release of these highly anticipated blockbusters.