Part 1: The PlanThrough the past several years of attending New York Comic Con at the Javits Center in New York City, I formulate a plan before I arrive. A plan that will get me the most out of the experience with doing all my “must dos” at the con. Unfortunately, that plan gets thrown out the window the second the doors open at 9 a.m. to the Javits Center and the mob of like-minded people plow through.
As soon as that happens, I follow my plan for my first “must do” which is usually standing on another line to gain access to one of the main stage panels. This year that panel was “Netflix and Chills”. While there were a lot of other panels I would have like to have gone to, the Netflix shows have been reliably great and getting a sneak peek at what they have coming up sounded like a great idea.
After that though, trying to get into any other main stage panels for the day seemed like an impossibility. Most were already booked and at capacity and the few that weren’t didn’t really interest me. This was the first thing on my plan that faltered.
Part 2: The Show Floor
No big deal though, as next up was the Square Enix booth to play some Kingdom Hearts 3. My comrades and I made our way over and sure enough, we were able to secure the last 3 tickets to try out the game and went straight into the queue to wait our turn. Since I have been waiting for this game for more than a decade this was definitely at the top of my “must do” list.
Kingdom Hearts 3 looked and felt like I remember, even with using a Microsoft XBOX controller over playing on a PS4. While I would have preferred playing on the console of choice, I was not complaining I just wanted my hands to control Sora and wield the keyblade once more. I started with the Olympus play mode and had to get used to playing with the controls and movement, camera angles. The type of stuff you need to do when starting a new game.
Kingdom Hearts 3
Once I got my bearings straight I rolled up the mountain to take on (and easily beat) Titan. Since you’re about level 200, with all abilities, the game plays pretty easily. After about 10 minutes of playing that game mode I switched over to the Toy Box mode. This is what I should have played first.
Toy Box mode felt like storyline Kingdom Hearts. The voices, the characters, the mannerisms, etc. was all there. Donald, Goofy, and Sora were met with Woody and Buzz and the player gets to explore the toy story land that the game will ultimately feature. You even got to kill some Heartless and explore the world as you normally would in a Kingdom Hearts game. While the Titan battle was very linear, this was more open world feeling.
After our 15 minute game play it was time to hit the show floor. The floor was not as packed as expected at about 10:30 am. Not sure if this is because of the extra panels at MSG and Hammerstein or NYCC was better at spreading out the crowd in Javits. This was better than previous years.
For most of the day, we walked the tons of aisles of vendors, Independent comics, publishers, and more. We bought a few knick knacks, some independent comics and talked with a great bunch of people selling their wares. This seems to be about the same every year… maybe some new faces but ultimately the same feel.
The best part of the floor though has to be Artist Alley. Seeing some of the comic book artists who worked on some of the greatest comic book storylines or cartoons is the highlight of Comic Con. Getting a signed piece of work from a great artist with one of your favorite heroes (or villains) makes you feel truly connected with the characters and artists.
The one thing about Comic Con that I think people don’t always factor in is the amount of walking. The show floor is huge. Walking from one side to the other, avoiding banging into people, the stopping short, the moving around displays, vendors, the groups of people who stop short in the middle of isles all takes its toll on your tootsies.
Part 3: The Panel
After a day of walking around, the Netflix Panel seemed like a good place to rest at the end of the day. We filed in, and took our seats at center stage about 15 to 20 rows back with a great view of the stage and side displays. And as I predicted, Netflix didn’t disappoint.
They started the panel off with the Umbrella Academy, a show based on the comic of the same name. It’s about an orphanage of superheros, and the seemingly negative experiences they had there (Or at least that is what I got out of the trailer- we’ll be looking more closely into the comic before its release.) After that, they bought the cast out to talk a little bit about the making of the show and give a hint about each of their respected characters. Since the show isn’t going to be released until February 15, 2019 they were reluctant to give too much away. In the end, it looks entertaining and worth a watch so I am all in.
Up next was the “Haunting of Hill House” which has since been released on Netflix. It again, is based on the book of the same name. There have been movies already created about this title, but Netflix has made it into a series. It’s of the spooky variety/horror genre and the clips they showed were definitely chilling. The crowd had reactions to what they were seeing and you could hear the gasps and see people get hit with the typical “jump scares”. While watching the trailer, they secretly bought out 7 woman dressed as zombie like characters who stood on the stage as the lights came back on. After the panel that followed, the cast/crew/host invited everyone in the auditorium to go to a nearby hotel to watch the first episode before the show released. However, space was limited for the viewing so first come first serve.
Lastly, Netflix brought up the last set of night and it was what everyone was waiting for. “The Chronicles of Sabrina” which again is based on the graphic novel of the same name. The whole cast was on stage and they did a quick talk and showed the entire first episode to the attendees.
By this time, I was squirming in my seat, tired from the day. Being here since 8 a.m. (standing in line) to now being around 10 p.m., I was officially tapped out. The show was good enough, and looks to have promise. It is definitely darker than the 90’s Sabrina show and uses a lot more blood and occult based sounding spells vs the happy-go-lucky 90s Sabrina. I am hoping the show works out and that the teen angst is cut to a minimum. I am aware that the show is based around teenagers, but would like it to be more relatable to an adult audience than the first series.
Part 4: Conclusion
Once the panel was over, I high-tailed it out and back to the Airbnb for a good night’s rest. This was only one of our days at NYCC, but I wanted to share it with our readers. Maybe you were there, maybe you weren’t, and maybe you have your own thoughts to share; we look forward to reading them in the comments.
In the end, Comic Con was a great time. The ReedPop staff have done wonders on fixing the crowd control issues on the floor and lessened the hassle with the scanning of passes when exiting/entering the venue. I have had a few cons that were less than desirable, and caused me to declare to never come back. This year though has made me rethink that, and I am sure I will be attending again next year. Here’s to keeping making more changes for the better and looking forward to another fun time at Comic Con in 2019.
Let us know what you thought of comic con or some of your favorite experiences in the comments below.
