San Diego Comic Con 2018 has come to a close, with stunning new trailers for Godzilla: King of Monsters, Glass, The Walking Dead, Shazam! and more — Check out my top 10 reveals right here!
#10. Umbrella Academy Promo Image Reveals Main Cast
Check out that cast: 1) Spaceboy (Tom Hopper) 2) The Kraken (David Castañeda) 3) The Rumour (Emmy Raver-Lampman) 4) The Seance (Robert Sheehan) 5) The Boy (Aiden Gallagher) 7) The White Violin (Ellen Page). Gerard Way and illustrator Gabriel Bá’s Dark Horse series The Umbrella Academy is one of the best comics since Watchmen. I can’t wait to see how Netflix adapts this beautifully bizarre two-volume book into a TV series that the mainstream is able to handle. It will probably be stranger than Legion, so get ready for the weirdness in 2019.
#9. The Flash Season 5 Trailer Introduces New Villain Cicada
Chris Klein will be playing the villainous Cicada, who will apparently be the big bad for The Flash season five, making for two seasons now where another speedster isn’t the main badguy. It’s a weird choice and could make for some really dark storylines, considering Cicada kills (or tries to murder) all of the people that Team Flash has ultimately saved in other scenarios. I’m getting a little tired of this show to be honest, but last season had some damn fine moments, plus; we all get to see Barry’s costume come flying out of a ring finally, so there’s that. You weirdos… I hope you’re happy.
#8. Disenchantment Trailer Takes Simpsons Fans to Fantasy Land
We got the present in Simpsons and the future in Futurama, now creator Matt Groening is taking us to the fantastical past in Disenchantment. Billy West teased this project to me a couple years ago saying that Groening had been working on a brand new “something” that would reunite most of West’s Futurama co-stars, and now that we know what this project is, I’m kind of baffled that it’s going to be a Netflix exclusive. Maybe Groening is truly sick of the typical Network series format, or maybe Disenchantment will be more edgy in some ways? I didn’t get a mature-rated vibe from this trailer, but I did get some solid laughs and more than enough footage to make me tune in next month when season one hits Netflix.
#7. Fear The Walking Dead Season 4B Trailer Introduces The Zomnado
We’ve seen Sharknados before, but that all pales in comparion to the ZOMNADO that we will get when Fear The Walking Dead returns next month for the second half of season four. Yes – you read that right – massive gusts of wind are sending zombies flying through the air and into the darndest of places. Fear TWD is a completely different show than it used to be, barely recognizable in many ways, which for me, is kind of sad, but then again — it’s also been damn good which makes me confused. Hell – I’ll go even further by saying Fear TWD is still better than the flagship series at the moment so if you haven’t taken the plunge yet or if you tried to and you’re one of those assholes that didn’t like it at the start, give it another go and prepare for THE ZOMNADO.
#6. Aquaman Trailer Reveals a Badass Black Manta & Stunning Underwater Warfare
Aquaman looks like a cheesy CGI mess but it also looks like a lot of fun so I’m willing to forgive all of that. Black Manta looks perfect (that big goofy ass helmet with red glowing eyes actually looks great in live-action) and I’m more intrigued by the origin of Jason Momoa’s Aquaman than I anticipated. That scene with the bullies and dramatic shark save at the aquarium was really cool. Plus, Patrick Wilson looks like the traditional Aquaman (blond hair, clean cut) so I think that’s kind of fascinating to see Momoa’s version go toe to toe with his onscreen brother. Plus there’s a bunch of underwater battles with dude’s riding sharks and shit which all looks equal parts ridiculous and incredible.
#5. The Walking Dead Introduces The Whisperers for Season 9
Forget the fact that “you know who” is leaving the show this season… We all knew this would happen and now that it is, I give The Walking Dead one more tenth and final season to wrap up and go away before the legacy of this franchise wares out its welcome. All Out War came and went with underwhelming results so I’m weary of what AMC is planning by promising a remix of classic comic moments this Fall when TWD returns… We’re going to be losing another main castmember and character that is very much still alive in the comics, so even though that stings worse than last year’s exit of a similar character, I’m still VERY excited to see The Whisperers onscreen. That little tease of their dialog at the end of this trailer was dead-on.
#4. Godzilla: King of Monsters Has a Lot of Really Cool Monsters in It Obviously
Stranger Things season three is going to be intense… I’ll admit I’m a bit weary of another giant monster movie right now, but that’s because we were spoiled recently with Pacific Rim: Uprising and Kong: Skull Island. I feel like I’m seeing a lot of mass destruction in my blockbusters these days and Godzilla: King of Monsters is chaos overload… However, I’m a fan of the old films and seeing new bigscreen versions of these monstrous kaiju hits me right in the nostalgic feels. Mothra looks beautiful and now that I think about it, so does most of this trailer which also looks like it shows Earth being absolutely obliterated by Godzilla and friends.
#3. Marvel Knights Imprint Resurrected Under Madman Donny Cates
Art by Mike Deodato
Marvel Knights is sort of like Marvel Comics’ answer to DC’s Vertigo line of mature-rated series. This year mark’s the imprint’s 20-year Anniversary and we now know that writer Donny Cates will be headlining a one-shot this November (art above) called MK20, with plans to be a showrunner and oversee the rebirth of more Marvel Knights series down the road. Cates will be enlisting talent like Matthew Rosenberg, Tini Howard, and Vita Ayala. As a fan of more adult-oriented hero books, as well as being a dedicated Donny Cates die-hard reader, this news is profoundly exciting. I wasn’t reading any Marvel titles for YEARS but I’m now faithfully reading Venom, Cosmic Ghost Rider and I think Thanos Wins is the best Marvel series since Civil War. Cates is the madman that Marvel needs right now and having him showrun Marvel Knights is another brilliant and smart move.
#2. Shazam is The DC Superhero Movie to Save all DC Superhero Movies?
Zachary Levi as Shazam in that puffy comic-faithful suit could have been a disaster… But now that we’ve seen the hilarious trailer for DC Comics’ latest superhero blockbuster, you can put me on that gigantic list of people who are now eating their words. Shazam looks like a blast. David Sandberg’s direction and clever casting have injected new life into the DC movie universe, taking several cues from Marvel Studios in an effort to be less dark and dreary. The results look great and Levi’s performance as a young boy with the body and powers of a god are pitch perfect. This was the biggest surprise of Comic Con 2018 for me and I’m sure millions of others, who were all cringing at set photos from months ago.
#1. Glass is The Crossover Movie We Never Knew We Needed in 2019
Unbreakable. Split. Glass. I’ve been really hard on director M. Night Shyamalan these past few years… I think a lot of us have been, but that all changed for me personally when Split came out and blew all of our minds by turning out to be a secret sequel (sorta) to his cult classic Unbreakable. Bruce Willis’ vigilante character shows up at the end of Split and promises to track down James McAvoy’s multiple personality psychopath, which leads us to Glass – the crossover film we never knew we needed. Glass looks SO DAMN GOOD. I’m in love with everything about this trailer – Willis has been hit or miss in recent years, but seeing him return to his Unbreakable character to take on an unhinged McAvoy in a superpowered showdown is more than enough for me. Samuel L. Jackson is about as subdued as you’ll likely ever see him on the bigscreen and I always thought Jackon’s calmer performances were more frightening than his over-the-top big-screen villains.
Just the very idea of this trilogy is brilliant and the fact that we get an origin story for a superhero (Unbreakable), a stand-alone origin story for the villain (Split), and now a third film in which they go toe to toe (Glass) is a remarkable achievement considering these are all original characters. This isn’t based on some comic book – this is all original stuff people and we rarely see that these days so I have to give massive props to Shyamalan for secretly crafting one of the most intriguing and ingenious sleeper franchises of all time. He’s so damn sneaky and I love it.
Bonus: The Worst Moment of Comic Con 2018 is –
The Titans Trailer Confuses DC Fans for Bloodthirsty Idiots
I watch Teen Titans Go with my kids. I remember telling them some time ago that a live-action series was in the works and I also remember seeing them light up with excitement at the prospect of seeing Beast Boy, Robin, Raven and more in a series like The Flash or Arrow. We were all really intrigued… That is until I saw the trailer for Titans and lost all hope. Apparently Titans is going to be an R-Rated series (a first for producer Greg Berlanti, which also handles Arrow, Flash, Supergirl and more). In case you weren’t convinced, Robin really brings that home by saying “Fuck Batman” while he stabs a bunch of goons to death in an alleyway. Look guys… Not everything needs to be restricted. What works for Deadpool, doesn’t work for EVERYTHING ELSE and it sure as shit doesn’t work for the Teen Titans. This trailer was so bad it makes me not want to watch Berlanti’s other superhero shows just in protest of what the hell they are doing to the Teen Titans.