This is part of my ongoing coverage of San Diego Comic-Con 2016. In my 2015 feature on Marvel Entertainment, I opened by noting that “they elected to not have much of a presence or major announcements at Comic Con this time around” and compared their display of one Ant-Man costume to that of historic competitor DC Comics and their more impressive display of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman costumes as well as television costumes, all in stand alone displays that allow fans to get up close to check them out.  The divide between the lackluster and the impressive was widened further this year, as Disney-owned Marvel seems to have lost any sense of self awareness and their 2016 Comic Con presentation felt like it was invented by a hype machine-driven PR company.  Trying to get a glimpse of what was going on with Marvel this year had all the charm of a clumsy Target clerk trying to pressure you into signing up for one of their Target-branded credit cards (“make mine Marvel” is becoming “make mine MasterCard”).  They did put a few things from upcoming movies on display on their stage, but with overflowing crowds they would take it away and hide it before you could even snap a poor photo by trying to hold your camera over the heads of the crowd.  I guess the upside is, I can’t imagine a worse showing next year, so it leaves tons of room for improvement.  But 2016 seemed crafted for generating hype among those who weren’t there rather than those who were, as reading Twitter paints an entirely different picture (see #MarvelSDCC). [Read more…]