{"id":41866,"date":"2016-07-24T09:38:41","date_gmt":"2016-07-24T16:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.originalprop.com\/blog\/?p=41866"},"modified":"2016-07-24T12:26:58","modified_gmt":"2016-07-24T19:26:58","slug":"san-diego-comic-con-2016-marvel-entertainment-misses-with-exhibitor-booth-sdcc-marvelsdcc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.originalprop.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/24\/san-diego-comic-con-2016-marvel-entertainment-misses-with-exhibitor-booth-sdcc-marvelsdcc\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego Comic-Con 2016: Marvel Entertainment “Misses” with Exhibitor Booth (#SDCC #MarvelSDCC)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Marvel-Entertainment-San-Diego-Comic-Con-2016-Booth-Exhibit-Photos-Props-Costumes-FI\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is part of my ongoing coverage of San Diego Comic-Con 2016. In my 2015 feature on Marvel Entertainment<\/a>, I opened by noting that “they elected to not have much of a presence or major announcements at Comic Con this time around”<\/em> and compared their display of one Ant-Man costume to that of historic competitor DC Comics and their more impressive display of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman costumes as well as television costumes, all in stand alone displays that allow fans to get up close to check them out.\u00a0 The divide between the lackluster and the impressive was widened further this year, as Disney-owned Marvel seems to have lost any sense of self awareness and their 2016 Comic Con presentation felt like it was invented by a hype machine-driven PR company.\u00a0 Trying to get a glimpse of what was going on with Marvel this year had all the charm of a clumsy Target clerk trying to pressure you into signing up for one of their Target-branded credit cards (“make mine Marvel” is becoming “make mine MasterCard”).\u00a0 They did put a few things from upcoming movies on display on their stage, but with overflowing crowds they would take it away and hide it before you could even snap a poor photo by trying to hold your camera over the heads of the crowd.\u00a0 I guess the upside is, I can’t imagine a worse showing next year, so it leaves tons of room for improvement.\u00a0 But 2016 seemed crafted for generating hype among those who weren’t there rather than those who were, as reading Twitter paints an entirely different picture (see #MarvelSDCC<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

I spent a lot of time at least trying to give Marvel Entertainment positive coverage and flattering photos this year, but they made it almost impossible, even for someone attending as registered press.\u00a0 The only way to see how “Marvel Takes Over San Diego Comic-Con” is to visit the official Marvel site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I skipped preview night this year (thanks to Southwest Airlines systems going dark for hours<\/a> on Wednesday, leaving travelers stranded on all flights nationwide for hours), so my first stop at the Marvel booth this year was on the first official day, Thursday.<\/p>\n

I think the context of how increasingly difficult it is for fans to attend Comic Con at all these days is completely lost on those in charge of Marvel’s booth.<\/p>\n

With more and more mainstream popularity, badges are now part of a lottery system that leaves a majority of fans who would love to attend Comic Con out in the cold.\u00a0 Additionally, some scramble to get passes for even a single day (usually the less popular Thursday and\/or Sunday).\u00a0 So many fans are lucky to attend a single day, if any at all.\u00a0 And it is impossible to even scratch the surface of all there is to see and do with a pass good for Wednesday through Sunday, yet Marvel holds back and only shares with those who I guess would camp out at their booth the entire time, with the manner in which they present eye candy and information about upcoming movies and TV shows.<\/p>\n

In stark contract to these realities and frustrations, Marvel has come up with this shell game of putting a costume or other film artifact on display at their booth for a limited time (with no information of when things are going up or down), so seeing anything (apart from the tacky credit card offer on the jumbo screen) is a gamble, and if you can only attend one day, you might not see much of anything.<\/p>\n

To make things more frustrating, the overall setup lacks imagination or any sense of design, featuring a stage and an open floor in front.\u00a0 It is constantly packed so tight you can’t get in (mostly with people waiting for something to happen), and there are security personnel (staffed by\u00a0 Comic Con, not Marvel) stationed all around the Marvel booth throughout the exhibit hall hours pressuring fans to keep moving…\u00a0 so it is a huge foot traffic problem and does not allow most of the fans who made their way to the booth to do more than keep walking by…<\/p>\n

I have no idea how any of this is supposed to serve the fans or be a fun or positive experience.\u00a0 It feels devised to “create hype”, I suppose, and maybe make some kind of splash with social media and traditional media.\u00a0 Well, this writer finds it all highly unappealing, so my message to Marvel is this… Create an engaging and respectful experience for the fans.\u00a0 Let someone else run it next year, and don’t let your PR team anywhere near it.<\/p>\n

It feels like it is 100% devised to create a scene and manufacture hype, at the expense of making it fun for attendees, apart from the occasional star sighting\/signing (and even then the staff spends most of the time shouting into a microphone telling you that you can’t get an autograph and don’t bother asking them if you can participate).\u00a0 It’s all spectacle.<\/p>\n

Getting back to Thursday, there was a Doctor Strange costume on the stage, and two other costumes, but there was no context or messaging to go along with their presentation, and the official Marvel staff seemed intent on standing in front of the costumes blocking view of them the entire time anyway, so it was impossible to take quality photos, or really see much of anything from a distance.\u00a0 I assumed (wrongly) that I could go back after the hubbub over the signing for quality photography (like with Ant-Man last year<\/a>), but when I returned multiple times Friday and Saturday, the costumes were never on display again.\u00a0 I tried to ask staff about this, and I was summarily dismissed.<\/p>\n

I was doing photography for another exhibitor on Friday prior to the exhibit hall opening and went directly to the Marvel booth again to see if I could photograph something… anything…\u00a0 there was at that point a car with a black sheet over it in the exhibit area.\u00a0 I asked staff about this… they would not tell me what it was, or when it would be revealed…\u00a0 I went back many hours later and nothing had changed.\u00a0 Still it was a car with a sheet over it.\u00a0 At some point thereafter, it was simply gone.<\/p>\n

Saturday I returned again, and now there was a helmet and prop on stage (apparently Hulk\u2019s gladiator armor From Thor Ragnarok<\/em>, which I only figured out from reading another news site, not from the actual exhibit or staff), but again the space was filled with fans waiting for an autograph session for Guardians of the Galaxy II<\/em>.\u00a0 Staff all seemed intent on standing in front of the props on the stage, as before, so even at six feet tall and holding my camera in the air and shooting blind, I could barely get even poor photos.<\/p>\n

So I gave up trying to cover Marvel any further at that point.<\/p>\n

Disney has taken over some of my favorite pop culture franchises in recent years (Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>) but it does have some arrogance with how they handle their properties, and it is, in my opinion, only going to hurt them with fans as time goes on.\u00a0 Rather than treating fans like fans, it feels like they are treating us like consumers.\u00a0 There is a big difference.<\/p>\n

If I were doing a “hits and misses” style article reviewing San Diego Comic Con 2016 on the whole, Marvel would be the biggest miss in terms of their exhibit.\u00a0 Yes, they made some cool announcements regarding their upcoming movie and television schedules (Teaser Trailer: Luke Cage on Netflix<\/a>, Teaser Trailer: Iron Fist on Netflix<\/a>, Teaser Trailer: The Defenders on Netflix<\/a>, Doctor Strange Trailer 2<\/a>, and probably a few others), but it just doesn’t work in the exhibit hall, in my opinion.\u00a0 They have some of the best characters and IP in popular culture and create some incredible products, but they are on a path with Comic Con year after year that is completely wrong, and I would hope that they would throw away the current model and start from scratch.\u00a0 If they stick with what feels like a hype machine run spectacle, they should have their own space somewhere outside of the exhibit hall itself, as it just causes traffic problems and comes across as arrogant.\u00a0 Or just stick with Celebration and D23 and create a Marvel version and do their own thing in a format that works for what they are trying to accomplish.\u00a0 Just my honest opinion.<\/p>\n

For all coverage of Comic-Con International: San Diego<\/em> this year, click the link below\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Original-Prop-Blog-San-Diego-Comic-Con-2016-Coverage-Articles-Photos-JUMP\"<\/a><\/center>Below are the photos from the display in the main exhibit hall – click any image to open the virtual lightbox gallery and browse the images:<\/p>\n