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Comic-Con 2024 Highlights, From Marvel to ‘Doctor Who’ to ‘The Boys’

Posted on by Vaseline

Another Comic-Con is coming up.

This was my 13th since I first came in 2008, when I attended a panel for a new movie I had heard a little bit about called “Twilight” and I heard that, hoo boy, Edward and Bella already had serious fans. When Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart took the stage, you’d think it was the resurrection of Beatlemania.

Since then, the event has only gotten bigger and better, with more and more movies, TV shows, and A-listers hyping up the best of pop culture. (Sure, there’s a line everywhere and sometimes you can barely move forward, but hey, you’re going to get to the right place eventually.)

I know I said at the last Watch Party that our Comic-Con special would be on Monday morning. But I couldn’t wait! Here are my favorite things from this year’s Con:

Marvel Hits Another Homerun with Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom

After nearly 50 years on this planet, I don’t get surprised by much anymore. But I was pleasantly surprised Saturday when Robert Downey Jr. showed up in a Doctor Doom mask at the big Marvel Studios presentation. What a turn on!

Downey being billed as Victor Von Doom in a pair of “Avengers” films was a highlight. (Check out our primer on that classic supervillain if you’re unfamiliar.) As was seeing Harrison Ford turn into the Red Hulk in a “Captain America: Brave New World” trailer, bad guys fighting even worse dudes for the government in “Thunderbolts” and a tasty glimpse of Galactus in the retro-futuristic “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.” (Oh, and it was also pretty cool to see a drone show starring Deadpool and Wolverine on Thursday night.)

Jensen Ackles returns for a double dose of ‘The Boys’ fun

Here at Watch Party Central, we’ve been fans of Jensen Ackles since the days of “Supernatural.” (Dean Winchester is still one of my favorite screen heroes of all time, period.) He had a solid guest role as Soldier Boy in Season 3 of the subversive superhero series “The Boys,” and Ackles returns as a series regular in the fifth and final season, plus the 1950s spinoff “Vought Rising.” More Ackles on TV is good.

‘Doctor Who’ is in a good place with Ncuti Gatwa as the pilot of the TARDIS

I was a latecomer to the Doctor Who fandom, with Christopher Eccleston as my first Doctor in 2005. David Tennant came next, my personal favorite, though I haven’t really dug a Doctor since. But new guy, Sex Education breakout Ncuti Gatwa, has brought me back into the Who-niverse in a major way. The upcoming Christmas special looks awesome, and it was cool to hear him talk about being a Doctor who cries a lot.

Chris Hemsworth is our new Optimus Prime in the animated film ‘Transformers One’

Peter Cullen will always be Optimus Prime – his voice was a huge part of my childhood. So Chris Hemsworth honoring Cullen as he takes on the heroic Autobot leader as a youngster in the upcoming animated origin story “Transformers One” means a lot. The movie also looks really good: the only great “Transformers” movie was the 1986 cartoon jam, and this one looks similarly inspired.

There’s more Comic-Con fun to be had!

Do you have thoughts, questions, ideas, concerns, compliments or maybe even some recommendations for me? Send an email to [email protected] and follow me on social media: I’m @briantruitt on Twitter (I’m not calling it X!), Instagram and Threads.