Earlier today on the Ron & Fez show on Sirius XM, the great Ron Bennington made an astute point: Comic-Con may be too big for its own good. It used to be a place where geeks and nerds could get together to talk about storyline inconsistencies in the latest Batman series. Now? It’s just as much about A-list-ish celebrities “being seen” and hawking their trash as it is celebrating the spirit of nerdiness. Maybe it’s time Comic-Con split into two parts: you Hollywood jerks have a mini movie fest in Los Angeles, fawning over how great you are in the process, and leave the comic books and video games to San Diego.
There’s already rumors that Comic Con will have to leave cozy San Diego because it’s become too big for the city. Possible new locales include Los Angeles and Las Vegas—two soulless dens of sin and vice.
Nerd culture, such as it is, is being HIJACKED~! ($1 to TechLand for the word) by the very people nerds should be mortal enemies of: the popular kids. You go to Comic-Con expecting to talk about Dragon Quest with a man dressed in a Wonder Woman costume, not listen to Angelina Jolie talk about her latest terrible movie.
It’s pretty disappointing to see the show commercialized to such an extent.
I have no solutions, per se, especially as the Hollywoodization of Comic-Con can only mean more exposure (and hence, more money) for the show itself.
But it just seems so wrong.
