WonderCon 2022 Part 1: The Bad, The Cosplay and The X-Men

 

By Jonathan Bilski

WonderCon returned after a hiatus of two years and once inside was a wonderful reminder of why people go to cons. I'll be highlighting different parts of what I saw and enjoyed below. 

 

However, let's go over what went wrong now, so, I don't end this on a negative note.

Covid vaccine check line

 

The Anaheim Convention Center parking situation sucks. I arrived with fellow reporter Giancarlo V. driving. In, just arriving on Saturday, it took us 40 minutes to just get inside the convention center's parking lot. Car lines wrapped around the convention center and I'm sure others were stuck waiting even longer than us. It's ridiculous that the Anaheim convention center has no smart car queuing system, more entrances or just a faster credit card processors. It didn't seem to be human error. The Convention's card readers are slow. And, they break easily. A car line next to ours broke down for a few minutes, trapping people in their cars for a longer wait. Some of the booths weren't even operating. Also, the bizarre no cash system should be explained in signage well before getting in line.

 

The next line was not for badge pick-up, it was for Covid. Frankly, there should have been at least two locations, not one and manned by more than 5 people. Proof of not spreading Coivd took some time. That was another 20-30 minute wait.

 

In a joke of how ridiculous masks were. People in close proximity were directly outside the convention halls not wearing masks and I didn't see one staffer tell anyone to put their mask on if it was off inside.

As all ways, the Anaheim Convention Center's terrible overpriced food disappointed. LA's Convention Center disappoints just the same, but would it be so hard to get some decent food into these places?

Sadly, WonderCon 2023 is already booked for next year back at the Anaheim Convention Center, hopefully complaints come in to make it a working facility. Complain here to the Convention Center's Executive Director Tom Morton [email protected] & General Inquiries [email protected] like I did.

Cosplay, Cosplay, Cosplay! It's back and all our pictures of it are here.

Panels with bigger names weren't around. Still many found joy in the 30th Anniversary Celebration of X-Men: The Animated Series panel and the X-Men Fandom panel. Eric Lewald and Julia Lewald (showrunners, X-Men: The Animated Series) we're at the first panel. Larry Houston (producer/director, X-Men: The Animated Series), Steven E. Gordon (character designer/director, X-Men Evolution), comic artist Peter V. Nguyen were at the second panel. And Eric came back for the second panel.

The first panel was a great exploration of the behind the scenes of the amazing animated series and how rushed and how little the network believed in the show until the ratings made it a juggernaut of Saturday Mornings. Not that much on the 2023 X-Men '97 cartoon 'cept it is a continuation of the original series, not a reboot. Events will unfold where X-Men: The Animated Series left off and not years later. This was told by Eric Lewald, now a Consulting Producer for the show.

The second panel dealt more with the fandom from X-Men clearly generated from its cartoon incarnations. The movies a lot less, because they suck.

Throughout both you learned that the people behind the shows really loved making them, cared about the comics and stories and wanted to entertain not just kids, but fans of the comics as well. They know they're X-Men comics.