acid reflects

I grew up with Superfriends on Saturday morning television. That started the DC guy in me, rather than the typical comic book path. I never had a comic book collection, to this day. Read some back in college, from my friend’s collections (DC’s Crisis and Marvel’s X-Men and the Infinity Gauntlet/Wars were the series that I happened to have read quite extensively as they introduced en masse their roster of heroes and villains, luckily for me.) Also, this would explain if I miss pointing out a comic book reference in a movie adaptation.

I had previosuly ignored the first two Asia Pop Comic Conventions mainly because I have never identified myself as a comic book reader. I’m not. Ignored the first year when Paul Bettany (Vision who?) Nathalie “Missandei” Emmanuel and Colton Haynes (Jackson AND Arsenal!!) attended (thoroughly regretted that.) Second year, got interested but not enough to bring my butt over, I skipped seeing Nicholas Hoult (!) and Millie Bobby “Eleven” Brown (bummer.)

And then around early August, organizers announced the year’s main guests to include Cyborg himself Ray Fisher and the Alpha/TV Superman Tyler Hoechlin. As a JL fan, I knew I had t see Fisher, and as a Teen Wolf and CW-DC-Berlantiverse fan, I had to meet Hoechlin, too. That was it. I knew I had to attend this one.

So, last August, while the country was scandalized by the killing of teen Kian delos Santos and Twitter was afire with Adam Ellis’s creepy Dear David thread, I renewed my superhero fandom by attending my first-ever comic con at the (third) Asia Pop Comic Con in Manila at the SMX Convention Center at Mall of Asia, Pasay.

I went with my fellow DC fan and buddy from my ex-newspaper on the last two days of the three-day event, because the last two were the “guests days.” Aside from Fisher and Hoechlin, the year’s other celebrity guests included  Macross creator Shoji Kawamori, Marvel Comics’ Carl Potts, and the voice of Genji in Overwatch, Gaku Space.

Netflix brought in Stranger Things cast members Noah Schnapp (Will Byers) and Joe Keery (Steve Harrington) as well as Season 2 members Dacre Montgomery and Sadie Sink. The channel owned the exhibition floor, showcasing their famous shows in interactive rooms. But clearly my mission was to meet both Fisher and Hoechlin.

I arrived mid-afternoon on the first day and the place was packed, party in high gear, with exhibition fights from the Philippine Wrestling Revolution upping the atmosphere. For the uninitiated, the place was noisy, loud, confusing and overwhelming. But if you know what you’re there for, just compartmentalize.

First, I accompanied my buddy to have his photo op with Tyler. The line looked long but moved along comfortably. Took a peek inside the booth when the staff momentarily opened the divider to see a heavily bearded Hoechlin. Then I roamed around while my buddy waited for his photo. And then it was my turn for to see Ray.

Ray didn’t have that big superstar air about him yet, maybe because he’s relatively new, maybe because he truly is just a down to earth guy. Quite tall. And just jolly and hyper all the time like he was really having a blast. I think he was. I got to see him again the next day, with more interactions plus the fan meet at the events stage. More on that later.

The next day, I came early and headed straight to the giant Netflix booth, which actually was a Netflix neighborhood inside, featuring one show per room transected by a “street.” Of course there was Stranger Things, connected to the Orange is the New Black booth by passing through a hole in the wall and ignoring the demogorgon . Opposite the ST room was a Riverdale diner (wasn’t into it, so I didn’t bother squeezing in together with the quite young fans), and then Death Note (again, too many kids.) In between the rooms was The Defenders street. Was feeling feverish that morning, so I just had my photo taken with the  Defenders standees.

After that was meeting Tyler. Yup, bearded. Big smiles. Eyes blue and glowing. Didn’t bother to ask about Teen Wolf and joining Supergirl, decided to let the girls in the room to have their time. Standing in line for his autograph and photo, I realized that he was taller than he looked. Gave a big hug when I had his photo taken. Well he gave everyone a big hug with their photos taken. Cool guy.

And then I met Ray again for the second time. I asked Tyler and Ray to sign each arm of my Metropolis varsity jacket, whch I intend to wear on the premiere of Justice League this November. That’s the jacket I’m wearing in the Ray photo. Ray remembered me from the day before when he saw the jacket, and I told him I just needed his photo taken with me. At the end of the session, members of Justice League Philippines, dedicated cosplayers, had their time with Ray and Ray was game to share a lot of moments with them, particularly the Pinoy Cyborg. That was so cool.

Bumped into my friend, actress Meryll Soriano (or she bumped into me) who had her pumpkin Elijah with her. Eli was going to celebrate his birthday the next day but he really wanted to meet the Stranger Things cast so they went that day. Elijah was wearing a black Stanger Things tee, an Optimus Prime face mask, arm bands that made his red overalls look like the Flash (his favorite), except the bands ended in Wolverine hooks in his fingers. And he was also carrying a plastic sword, maybe GoT inspired. He’ll be fine. Saw a lot of kids in costume, too but mostly kids at heart.

There was also a booth featuring the most iconic creations of legendary Filipino comic book creator Mars Ravelo. Presented by network ABSCBN, the booth featured the first-ever licensed statues of Darna (the Philippine Wonder Woman,) Captain Barbell (a fusion of Superman, Captain Marvel and Shazam,) Lastikman (which of course is a version of Mr Fantastic) and Darna’s arch-rival, the Medusa-ic Valentina.

Darna has been around for a while, first appearing in Pilipino Komiks #77 in 1950, less than 10 years after her more famous inspiration from Themyscira was introduced. Local film studio Star Cinema is currently producing a new Darna movie, due next year, starring Liza Soberano. My sources tell me that the plan is for the other Ravelo superheroes to have their own film revivals, eventually forming the Pinoy Justice League. Fingers crossed.

Some takeaways from my attendance:
1. Wow, Netflix. 👏👏👏
2. Didn’t bother sitting on the cheapy GoT “iron” throne
3. Tiredness (hardly sat down the entire day.)
4. Know what to do, why you’re there. While three days may be enough to pore over most things in the kiosks and the booths, you really just need two days if you know where you’re going or why you’re attending. A few events might have conflicting scheds, so prioritizing what to attend is best.
5. Get in line real quick. So. Many. People. And time wasted standing in line is time lost for checking out other booths.
6. Better if you come with a buddy so you can take photos of each other.
7. The costumes were the bomb. Freddie Fazbear of FNAF was there, but the most serious cosplayers came in Overwatch costumes. Justice League PH as a group looked great too.
8. Pop fans are so nice and polite! World Peace is possible!
9. Ray Fisher is intelligent, articulate, connects with the audience, regular guy, gwapo (handsome), and very tall.
10. Tyler Hoechlin looks smaller than he actually is. So when you get closer to him and you realize he’s actually tall you’d almost “Oh my god” which would be appropriate also since he currently looks like Jesus. Bearded.
11. He’s the Alpha AAANND Superman.
12. Everyone who knows me know that I’m a Coffee Bean guy more than an SB guy, so when Tyler asked the fans about Coffee Bean, kung maka- YES yung audience akala niyo hindi ko alam puro kayo Starbaks sa IG niyo mga plastic nyeta (this shall remain untranslated.)
13. While waiting to go in the panel Hall together with the DC movie/multi verse cosplayers, Marvel cosplayers of all sizes (like, 20 spidermen/spiderpiggy/venom guys, punisher, dr strange, captains america, black widow, Asgardians, etcetera) paraded in front of us acknowledging each other LIKE THERE WAS NO RIVALRY BECAUSE THERE ISN’T ANY IN LIFE. There’s a video evidence of this on FB. I didn’t have time to flip out the phone in time to capture everyone, so I just let the thing sink in.
14. Big thanks to those who dragged me along into the events!
15. NEXT YEAR AGAIN.

Overall it was such a fun experience that I immediately wanted to sign up for next year’s comic con. I have a feeling that there might be something AQUA next year.

PS. Heard that a certain Bible-quoting, non-productive Boxing Senator (Senator Boxer?) will be next year’s main endorser (I suspect in preparation for campaign season.) Might dampen the mood. Let’s see.