{"id":1843,"date":"2017-08-15T14:58:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-15T21:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comic-con.org\/toucan\/?p=1843"},"modified":"2023-12-21T09:13:16","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T17:13:16","slug":"devourer-of-words-048-comic-con-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comic-con.org\/toucan\/devourer-of-words-048-comic-con-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Devourer of Words 048: Comic-Con 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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MARC BERNARDIN’S DEVOURER OF WORDS<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Devourer of Words 048: Comic-Con 2017<\/h1>\n\n\n
Marc Bernardin<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Toucan<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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I am going to try not to make this about \u201cme,\u201d but I am going to fail. Just a little warning up top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This past Comic-Con International was my 15th, by my count. I first attended as a journalist, working for Entertainment Weekly.<\/em> It was just after Sam Raimi\u2019s first Spider-Man<\/em> made almost a billion dollars and I managed to convince my bosses that, maybe, comics and its progeny would be worth covering in a real way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, I know that, for some, that number feels like an eternity, while, for other Comic-Con mainstays, it\u2019s a drop in the bucket. What made this year different for me is that it was the first year I wasn\u2019t<\/em> there as a journalist. I was present entirely as a person who makes things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, that turned 2017 into a vastly different convention. I wasn\u2019t bouncing from panel-to-panel to cover stuff or rushing into press rooms and hotel suites to interview people, then skittering off to write it up for EW<\/em> or THR<\/em> or Playboy<\/em> or the L.A. Times.<\/em> I wasn\u2019t in a rush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So this time, I got to relax into it. And I got to engage with people who know me from the comics that I write, the journalism that I\u2019ve done or, more frequently, being the cohost of the Fatman on Batman podcast with Kevin Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fan interactions are always genial and cordial\u2014sometimes a little teary. I am never prepared for it when someone comes up to me and says that the little podcast I appear on has helped them laugh when times were dark; that I, in any way, helped urge them forward to chase a dream they might hold dear. I\u2019m sure Beyonc\u00e9 knows how to handle it. I do not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I am prepared to withstand is derision. I am a person who puts thoughts out into the world and, as such, I have to expect a response to those thoughts. On the Saturday night of Comic-Con, Kevin and I did a live version of our podcast. In it, I gave some thoughts about the first four episodes of Marvel\u2019s The Defenders<\/em> series, which unites Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist. I liked most of it just fine. Except for the parts I didn\u2019t\u2014the parts featuring one specific Defender. The room laughed. I did my job, which is to both inform and entertain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then the Internet did what the Internet does and decided that I am spreading hate by saying there is one Defender I don\u2019t like. Hate, because I don\u2019t like a TV show. And hate, especially now, is a word I don\u2019t use lightly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dichotomy is not lost on me: I spent a long weekend in San Diego, surrounded by people who have pilgrimaged from however far to join 130,000 people who all love things. Driven by passion. SDCC remains the highlight of my year because of that love. Because the emotion that unites all of us is love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But love shouldn\u2019t be blind. Love should see all and decide to love despite flaws, not in ignorance of them. That way lies devotion, fanaticism, obsession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what was SDCC 2017 for me? A reminder of why we gravitated to this kind of stuff in the first place: A shared affinity for the things that made us outcasts from so many other circles. It was also a reminder that love and hate aren\u2019t binary: You can have one without the other. Just because we\u2019re bonded by our love for something, doesn\u2019t mean we need to hate someone who doesn\u2019t share our depth of love for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, I got to meet Star Trek\u2019s first Uhura, Nichelle Nichols, which was RAD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Marc Bernardin\u2019s Devourer of Words appears the third Tuesday of every month here on <\/em>Toucan!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Written by<\/p>\n\n\n

Marc Bernardin<\/div>\n\n\n

Published<\/p>\n\n\n