You might not believe me if I told you that four days of hanging with the geek elite in sunny, beautiful, 75 degree weather can actually tucker one out to near exhaustion...but it would be the truth, boy howdy. In the end, it was Katie who fell first. She fought hard and valiantly for Nerd-Girl Pride, but as our fourth and last day dawned she would not be moved from her bed for all the glimpses of Tom Welling, Justin Hartley and Misha Collins the universe might offer her. We had our last two, Must-See panels early on Sunday morning. Tina, toughing it out, and I dragged our now blistered and tired feet out of bed at 6am and made our way back to the convention center and it's inevitably long and boring panel lines. Luckily, we had Batman and Superman too keep us entertained and a nice, big tent to keep us shaded while we waited.
While we waited, I periodically checked my Twitter to see if Nathan Fillion would make his much-teased-about appearance at the Con later that day. More on that later...
The room holding our last two panels (Smallville, followed by Supernatural) was unexpectedly set in a much smaller room than our usual one. This found us a little anxious about actually making it into the room at all, let alone finding a couple close seats. I'd heard the day before, via the Twitter grapevine (it really does come in handy!), that Tom Welling would be making his first ever Comic-Con appearance at the Smallville panel. Considering that we were already bummed about the absence of our two favorite demon-hunters (Jensen and Jared), this completely lifted our Totally-Psyched! levels. After a couple hours in line, we were herded (like fanboy and fangirl cattle) into the panel-room. Up until the Smallville panel, the Lost panel was the only one where I had received "gifts" when entering the room. We were handed black, baseball hats with the Smallville logo written across the top. Now, I would never say no to a free gift, but I'm pretty sure I won't be walking around Atlanta with that hat on (or anywhere else, for that matter). My ex always told me I was way to obvious about my geekiness. I'm thinking wearing a Smallville hat around would be a little overboard, even for me (who has been recently spotted sporting a new Empire Strikes Back t-shirt).
Anyhow, we entered the room and even though I know tons of people didn't make it in, our 6am wake-up time paid off and our seats weren't that bad at all. The Smallville panel was nearly as big as the True Blood panel. As the audience yelled and clapped in welcome, Justin Hartley (Green Arrow), Cassidy Freeman (Tess) Erica Durance (Lois Lane), Tom Welling (Clark Kent), Allison Mack (Chloe) and Callum Blue (Zod) walked onto the stage and took their seats.
*Just as side-note, there have been so many seasons of Smallville, one can totally forget how many great actors have guest-starred on this show. Jensen Ackles played in 22 episodes, James Marsters played in 13 episodes, Ian Somerhalder (Lost and Vampire Diaries) played in 6 episodes (totally forgot about that!), Kyle Gallner (from Veronica Mars) has been in 3 episodes, Tahmoh Penikett (Battlestar Galactica and Dollhouse) played in 3 episodes, Neil Flynn (from Scrubs!) played in 2 episodes, Jonathan Taylor Thomas (JTT!) was in 2 episodes also and even Shawn Ashmore (who's twin brother, Aaron played Jimmy Olsen) played in 2 episodes. Wait, did I say "great actors"? What I meant was...totally hot and/or adorable MALE actors. *swoon*
Anyway, back to the panel at hand. Jeph Loeb, who has played producer on Smallville, Lost, Heroes and was even going to produce the Buffy Animated Series, moderated the panel. I'm a really crappy fan since I cannot for the life of me remember the other, non-actor, peeps on the panel, but I'm sure they were a couple producers...I might have to get back to you on that one. Anyhow, we were shown an amazing montage (that a lot of the actors hadn't even seen), with tons of shots from the next season, that totally pumped up the whole room (even Tina, who had stopped watching the show years ago). After seeing that footage, I can honestly say that I am completely and amazingly excited about next season. It looks totally badass. As for the actors, I have to say that, besides True Blood, this has got to be the best-looking cast on television right now. There was not one decent-looking actor up there; they were all stunningly beautiful. Everyone seemed really excited to be there and everyone got the chance to put their two cents in. Justin Hartley's two cents, for example, was to continually defend himself (his character) on the fact that Lex Luther really WAS dead (after multiple fans asked questions about that sticking). "No, I killed him. He's dead"! His (mock) offense at the fans questioning his killing abilities was very cute and it got lots of laughs. Allison Mack was extremely out-going and by far the funniest of the group. You could tell that she was more than happy to talk through the whole thing, if they had let her. Tom Welling was, understandably, a little hesitant and shy but he did well for his first time. Which takes us to my...
Favorite Moment:
When a cute, little fangirl walked up to the mic and addressed Tom Welling, asking him some generic question and adding, "...and could you take your time answering so you can just stare at me for as long as possible"? The audience busted out in laughter, but it couldn't drown out Allison Mack's ringing laughter from beside Tom Welling. She thought it was the funniest thing ever. Tom smiled indulgently and even with little amusement, if I remember it correctly, and said, "Wellllllllll.........I...........think........", drawing out his sentence very slowly and staring dreamily into the girl's eyes. It was a hoot and I like him even more now for that kind and gracious act for an over-zealous fan.
Scoop/Spoilers:
In case you haven't heard, Brian Austin Green will be guest starring in a couple episodes as Metallo. We got a couple shots of him in the montage for the next season and I have to tell you, I haven't been so excited about a half-human, half-machine-thingy since Iron Man was released last year. It's going to be LEGENDARY!
The Supernatural panel followed immediately after Smallville ended, so Tina and I kept our seats for our last hour of 2009 Comic-Con panels. I felt myself getting slightly depressed at the thought of leaving. It had been an extremely stressful and tiring trip, but well worth it and I still wasn't ready for it to end. But seeing as the girls' aunts were already on their way from Huntington Beach, I wouldn't even get a last chance to take on the Exhibition Hall. Depressed, indeed. But I rallied for our last two panel guests, Misha Collins and Jim Beaver, Castiel and Bobby from Supernatural.
It was a small panel, with only those two actors, the creator Eric Kripke and two other writer/producers, but Misha and Jim made the best of it. It was Misha's first time at the Con, but I'm not sure about Jim. They both did spectacular and it was a great panel, despite the absence of the show's two stars. Misha and Jim are both really outgoing people, so they had no problem entertaining the over-crowded room.
Favorite Moment:
When a fan asked, "How does it feel to know you are just as important to the show as Jensen and Jared"? Misha and Jim, without any obvious communication between themselves, starting ranting about how, "those boys are important and we let them believe they are the stars of the show so as not to hurt their feelings"...and so on and so forth. In the end, they almost had us believing that we watched the show for them and could care less about seeing Jensen and Jared onscreen.
Scoop/Spoilers:
Again, in case you didn't already know, Mark Pellegrino (Jacob from Lost and also from Dexter), will be playing Lucifer next season. In a very Supernaturalesque twist, the writers are writing him as a very sympathetic character; his feeling are hurt by the Angels/God that banished him and he comes off as misunderstood. Personally, I cannot wait to see Mark in this role. He is fast becoming one of favorite actors right now and I'm very excited to see what he will bring to the role.
So there ends our Comic-Con adventures. Soon after we left for the hotel, I saw a tweet from Nathan Fillion, saying he was going to be in the Exhibition Hall for the afternoon and later saw he had surprised all the people who showed up for the California Browncoat screening of Dr. Horrible (or maybe Serenity). I could not have been more upset about missing him, but such is life. Perhaps I will have another chance to stand open-mouthed and brain-fried in front of him as he signs his autograph and I walk away without saying anything beyond a whispered, "Thanks, Nathan". I can only hope.
If you're afraid you may miss my exciting and stimulating accounts on Nerd Nation, fear not, for Dragon Con is right around the corner and yours truly shall be attending all four, fabulous days. Until then, Viva la Nerdias!
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