Woke up bright and early for day three of New York Comic Con. Harmony was cosplaying as Sailor Pallas from the Sailor Moon manga. I was cosplaying as Azusa Miura's cute and girly variant. I had gone to Sephora the night before to pick up some makeup to enhance my Azusa cosplay, and the new lip liner worked wonders. We boarded the train to Penn Station and then hitched a cab to Javits.

Unlike Anime Expo, panel rooms don't clear out for the next. For the next few panels, while most of them were geared towards a male target demographic, the audience consisted of lady Whovians pining for a stupid sexy John Barrowman. It was quite amusing watching them snipe for front up close and center seats.

Cup of Joe

Joe Queseda of Marvel Comics moderated a panel on some upcoming projects from Marvel. Joe expressed how much he loves having a forum of artists and writers to discuss what's going on in the comic industry. He also invited the audience to go ahead and pick the panelist's brains. The show opened up with a Deadpool announcement which was well received by the audience. The next piece of news featured Marvel and Disney teaming up on doing a series based on forgotten Disneyland rides and attractions. Despite criticism, I really do think this has potential among Disneyland park fans – much imagination has gone into creating Disney theme park attractions and I would love to see a series that's based off Disneyland rides. After all, I did see a Space Mountain themed comic…
We were treated to a promotional video of Marvel Live. Think of Marvel heroes meet Cirque Du Soleil. It is planned to be a live touring show. Audience reaction was quite mixed. While Spiderman: Turn off the Dark is still selling tickets and does not look like it is leaving 42nd street anytime soon, the trailer showing the behind the scenes stunt and wire work looks interesting. This might be geared towards kids and families than 20-something Marvel fans.

We were also treated to learning about the re-release of Miracle Man and the team up with Neil Gaiman. However, the biggest surprise at this panel was the reveal for Empire of the Dead, a new "of the Dead" story in the Romero universe. George Romero also made a special guest appearance at the panel that was met with standing ovation.
The panel was followed by a Q&A. As mentioned previously, there were plenty of women in the audience. One such attendee asked if Black Widow will ever see her own movie. Queseda suggested she go see the new Captain America movie. However, other panelists interjected and mentioned to support series that had strong female leads such as She Hulk and other Marvel media aside from featured presentations.

DC New 52

DC fans donning Superman and Batman t-shirts slowly started filtering in the large panel room. John Cunningham was moderating the lineup of DC writers and artists. The first couple announcements had to do with what series were ending. The Flash was promised to have a happy ending. We were also treated to some new covers for upcoming New 52. While I haven't quite touched the New 52, World's Finest starring Huntress and Power Girl looks really interesting. We also saw some previews for the upcoming Swamp Thing. Nicole Scott begun to talk about world on Earth 2. Most of the panel was updates on what's coming and what's going. The most interesting part of the panel was the Q&A. The topic of Wonder Woman's uniform came up – one fan complained about Wonder Woman's current design. Earlier in the panel, Cliff Chiang mentioned that they enjoy Wonder Woman covers having a little kink to them. He responded that it's hard to draw black pants and boots in action. Nicole Scott also defended the character design. Whether or not Wonder Woman's uniform is practical or not, it opened up a lot of discussion.

Perhaps the most controversial topic was when Cunningham answered a question regarding tokenism in recent DC comics:

This was a rather interesting panel. DC may not have the best tact and best responses in regards to questions and concerns about heroines and diversity (one such fan asked about what's going on with Cyborg), but I certainly hope that DC realizes that this is an ever growing concern to have marginalized cultures at the forefront. Meanwhile, I had begun to read the rest of the Sailor Moon volume 12 as people were getting ready for the next panel.

John Barrowman Q&A

For many, this was a highly anticipated event. John Barrowman doesn't really do stateside conventions as much. For some, this was the reason for attending New York Comic Con. Whovian fangirls brought their photos with them in hopes he could sign it after the panel. The panel room was filled up. Even one attendee joked that this had more people than the Nintendo community presentation going at the same time. Truth was, John Barrowman was one of the main spectacles of New York Comic Con, even if it meant enduring an awkward DC Q&A first.

John Barrowman bursted onto the stage and was meet with a standing ovation. He didn't want to behind the table the whole time and simply took command of the panel stage. The line up for questions filled up just like that. There were two long lines for John Barrowman. It was uncertain if he would get to all of them. One thing I noticed is that he tends to give out long (yet entertaining!) answers to questions. Like any other popular guests, he was met with some intelligent questions (ie: "Would you ever come back to Broadway?") and some that were weird (ie: "Have you ever had Thai food?").

Usually, when I visit New York, I love watching at least one Broadway show. John Barrowman was my show. He sang a little bit from "The Doctor and I." This made a lot of fangirls very happy. He is also transparent about stories on the set of Torchwood and his adventures with his husband, Scott. He told of some jokes he played on the cast of Torchwood – particularly one story where he was filming a steamy scene with Gareth David Lloyd and Eve Myles kept giggling during takes.

Barrowman did promise a surprise at the end of the panel. He brought in his husband Scott cosplaying as Superman. This was a really fun panel; one I'm glad I waited for. As someone who is a fan of John Barrowman outside of the World of Who, I was really happy to see one of my favorite actors. It was too bad I wasn't able to request my question; I was at the tail end of the line, but I had a ton of fun. Thank you for always being loyal to your fans, John Barrowman!

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