Ten Questions We Want Answered at Comic-Con 2008
by Tom Burns

Can we see Gort please?

Once it was announced that Hollywood was working on remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, the very first question fans asked was "Is Gort in it?" Gort the robot was one of the most iconic parts of the original film, and fans were disappointed when early script reviews for the remake started trickling in, reviews that insisted that Gort had been replaced by a four-legged robot called "Totem." However, once the teaser trailer was released last month, a definite Gort-esque robot appeared, and director Scott Derrickson told EW.com "Of course we have Gort!" So, now that the Gort controversy is seemingly settled, will we get a glimpse at the modern reimagining of one of the coolest movie robots ever at Comic-Con 2008 or are we just going to get a slightly longer teaser and Keanu telling us how great it is to work with Jennifer Connelly?

Can Sam Raimi reclaim his title as a master of horror with Drag Me to Hell?

We know that horror fans LOVE Sam Raimi (and with good reason), and Raimi has definitely been active in the horror community over the years (mostly as a producer), but let's be frank - Raimi hasn't directed a horror movie in 21 YEARS (Evil Dead 2). (We're not counting Army of Darkness because that's much more of a sword & sorcery flick, and The Gift was just a Bayou thriller.) So can you blame us for being a little nervous about his 2009 return to horror, Drag Me to Hell? We're big fans of Raimi's kinetic style, but over the years, he's really begun evolving into a strangely sentimental and cheesy filmmaker - the horrible pinnacle of that de-evolution is unquestionably Spider-Man 3, which had moments of such earnest goofiness and family-pandering cheese that, we'll admit, it's making us doubt whether Raimi can scare us again. He'll be screening some footage of Drag at Comic-Con this year, so maybe that'll assuage our fears... maybe.

Will anyone mention the recent DC Comics/Warner movie summit?

It's not surprising, given Marvel Comics' recent success with their attempts at creating a cohesive film universe (though we're still waiting to see if Ed Norton's Hulk actually outgrosses the much maligned Ang Lee version), but, earlier this month, Warner Brothers and DC Comics held an extensive summit to create a new strategy for bringing their wide catalog of superhero properties to the big screen. According to Variety, Warner has scripts for a Justice League and Green Lantern movies that they're pleased with, but fans are speculating whether WB wants to mimic Marvel's recent gameplan of having characters overlap from film to film. Hopefully, at one of the many WB or DC panels at Comic-Con, someone will give fans more of an idea of how Warner wants to go forward with the world of DC superheroes. (Looking at you, Geoff Johns - the Green Lantern and Infinite Crisis writer is strongly rumored to have been a summit participant.)

What's the deal with The Spirit?

Fanboys and pop culture addicts loved the movie version of Frank Miller's Sin City, but Miller's next movie project isn't exactly engendering the same kind of positive pre-release buzz. Admittedly, it's an ambitious project - an adaptation of The Spirit, the classic 1940s masked superhero created by Will Eisner, one of the founding fathers of modern graphic literature. Eisner was a mentor of Miller's, so he seemed like the perfect person to helm a Spirit movie, particularly with Miller's recent Hollywood success with 300 and Sin City. And that still may very well be true. Miller might be the perfect Spirit director, but, we have to say, the most recent Spirit trailer has filled us (and a lot of other fans) with some serious doubts.

For starters, the trailer looks way, way more like Sin City than The Spirit, it spends much more time creepily obsessing over the Spirit's femme fatales than establishing what the story is about, and the scenes with Sam Jackson variously in Nazi stormtrooper and samurai outfits.... well, let's just say, this movie is either going to be artistically visionary or completely effing ridiculous, and it's really too close to make that call at this point. Ideally, the Comic-Con Spirit panel will give us more of a sense of what Miller's going for, and allow Eisner to stop turning over in his grave.

Can DC Universe Online be the next World of Warcraft?

EW.com calls the in-development DC Universe Online "Geek Heaven," and they might just be right. The game - which has been worked on for almost three years by Sony, with design help by such comic luminaries as Jim Lee - is a massive multiplayer online experience. Think World of Warcraft or City of Heroes only with Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, among others, hanging out in the huge virtual world, ready and willing to help you take down Lex Luthor or prevent you from robbing STAR Labs. The official site has some cool artwork, and there's supposed to be a live demo at Comic-Con 2008.

But why are we cautiously optimistic about DCU Online? Three reasons - #1. There has never been a licensed superhero game that reached the stratospheric heights of WoW, Halo, GTA, or any of the truly classic game franchises; #2. The game is being developed by Sony's in-house Austin team, which isn't exactly known for breaking any new ground; #3. We'll come out and say it... that DCU Online screenshot of the Joker STINKS. We're glad that Jim Lee is doing design work, but it's up to the Sony guys to let him know when his 2D designs don't work in 3D. We'd LOVE to have a massive online DC Universe to duck into whenever we want to fight crime, but let's hope that the designers are focusing more on gameplay and less on getting the Ambush Bug designs just right.

Is anyone paying attention to comic books anymore?

This is a COMIC-Con, right? We know that the San Diego Con has become this yearly pop culture phenomenon, but the convention began as a comic book event and it'd be nice if we got some actual comics news out of Con '08 rather than just an early look at Death Race. Just to throw some things out there... we want to hear what Robert Kirkman is planning to do as newly-promoted partner at Image Comics; we want scoop on the long-term plans following both Marvel's Secret Invasion and DC's Final Crisis; we want someone to yell at Joss Whedon about killing Kitty Pryde and then we want someone to yell at John Cassaday for not hurrying up and finishing the art for the last issue of Planetary.

Also, we want to see some pages from P. Craig Russell's adaptation of Sandman: The Dream Hunters, which is coming out as part of the Sandman's 20th anniversary celebration; we want to know if Marvel is cancelling all of their Ultimate titles (except for Spider-Man) and, if so, what will they be replaced with; we want to see Dan Didio laugh at all the people who thought he was losing his job back in June.... deep breath.... OK, we could go on and on, but, suffice to say, despite how much we love TV and movies, we really, really want to see the comics industry shine at San Diego 2008 and remind us of why comic-cons were started in the first place.