SDCC, FOMO, & Spider-Man | 02
Pictured is my favorite book that I got at SDCC 2024 and an empty demitasse cup because I’m writing this at midnight and am not drinking coffee at this hour!
I have been itching to get back to the desk to start writing this week’s issue of Spro’s Comics & Coffee Corner since kicking it off last week. My mind has been racing about various topics to write about, plans for how to grow this project and so much more. I am doubly excited because I’ll be putting out TWO posts this week. As a dear friend of mine would proclaim when times were good (or bad), “what a blessing!”
I don’t know about you guys, but as someone who didn’t go to SDCC I still felt those post-con blues. It was fun waking up every day this weekend to see so many different posts about the con and to share in the hype of it all. I’ve been to SDCC once before, back in 2024 and it was an absolute blast. The spectacle of it all is worth the price tag. For some reason, I felt far more FOMO over it this year compared to 2025. I think Marvel’s presence played a part in that. The year I was there was the same year that Kevin Feige announced Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, a controversial decision for sure, and one that I feel every which way about. But there was absolutely no doubt that once that Hall H session ended, the atmosphere in the main hall shifted. You could feel it. I remember digging through boxes at a booth and someone running up asking for every issue of Secret Wars books they had. And dealers began removing books from their wall display so they could be replaced by Doctor Doom books/covers. It was electric. It seems as if that same energy was coursing through the con this year, except it wasn’t Doom people were hyped on, it was Absolute Batman. The lines for Scott Snyder signatures, the unfathomable number of variant covers, all of it seemed to be what the collectors were chasing the most. There’s definitely room to be critical of some of that energy and the mass craze of it all, but I will leave that for another post. For today, I am just excited to see people excited about comic books. It is a good and healthy thing when people love buying and reading comic books. And in due time it will slowly seep its way into other parts of the hobby.
In Hall H news, Ryan Gosling was officially cast as Ghost Rider. It has been a well-known fan cast for quite some time now and even something that he has pitched himself for, and I think it is a great casting choice. I’m not sure the MCU has had an actor of his superstardom before. Many have become superstars because of their roles in the MCU, but Gosling will undoubtedly bring a box office presence that the MCU has yet to see. As for the details of his casting, they did not clarify whether he would play Johnny Blaze or Danny Ketch, but If I had to guess I’d say it’ll be Ketch. Marvel has mentioned in the past a desire to do a Midnight Sons project, so introducing Ketch would be a perfect lead in for that. But not to be forgotten is Gosling’s tenure on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club during the mid-90s. He was absolutely reading those 90s Ghost Rider comics during that time.
And following that announcement, Marvel announced the return of T’Challa, with David Jonsson taking up the mantle. I am unfortunately not familiar with his work. I’m not big into the Alien/Predator worlds so I have not seen Alien Romulus. He was most recently in a film called The Long Walk, which I have not seen either but following this announcement many were quick to say that his performance in that was great. Either way, I am excited T’Challa is back. He is culturally one of the most important characters in all of comics. And although Chadwick Boseman’s death was sudden and tragic, it is pivotal that the Black Panther lives on in these films. I am excited to watch Romulus now, and I am even more excited to see T’Challa return to the big screen.
And now the long-awaited Spider-Man: Brand New Day. I will be as brief as I can here since I feel I have written too much already. My excitement for this movie is bursting at the seams. At the time of writing this I will be only two sleeps away from seeing it, and by the time this is posted I will be but one sleep away! Maybe a nap somewhere in there.
Potential spoilers ahead as I theorize, I have not seen the movie at the time of writing this so if you prefer to go in completely blind and with not even a hint of what myself, or others, have been theorizing please scroll to the bottom of this post where you will be safe from any and all potentials of spoilers.
There are many theories and speculations about this movie since Marvel/Sony have decided to keep Sadie Sink’s character a secret. Thus, the trailers don’t give much way to the plot being that we don’t know who or why she is there. The consensus since the trailer dropped is that she will be playing Jean Gray. While I think this will be fun if she is Jean, I struggle to see why Marvel would want to introduce the first member of the X-Men in a movie that profits Sony the most. On the flip side of that same coin though, Marvel introducing Jean in this movie might be a genius play given that it should easily pass $1B at the box office and probably flirt with $2B. So, giving her the biggest stage to debut on is probably a smart choice.
Okay, now onto my own personal theory for this movie. If you watched this week’s episode of The Comic Room Pod then you already know this, but for those of you who haven’t watched - I think Peter Parker will die at the end of this movie. Not sure how, maybe at the hands of Hulk or The Hand, I don’t know, but I think the credits will roll and Peter will be dead. And the post credit scene will zoom into a tombstone reading “Here lies Spider-Man” and from the grave bursts out Spider-Man, except he will be donning the black symbiote suit. Web of Spider-Man #32. BOOOOOM!
POTENTIAL SPOILERS OVER NOW
That was all far longer than I expected it to be, my bad. I will see you all back here Friday morning and we shall see if my theory carries any weight or if I am just another fool giving reason as to why nobody pays me to write these movies. And for those of you who might be planning to see the movie later in the weekend, the first portion of Friday’s post will be a completely spoiler free reaction and thoughts segment, completely safe to read if that is of any interest to you. Let me know in the comments your engagement with SDCC 2026 and if you have any thoughts or theories for Spider-Man BND.
See y’all Friday!
- Joshua // Spro
P.S. Email subscription is coming, I was bogged down with claim sale prep over the last few days and wasn’t able to get into it. Hopefully by Friday’s post or the next one I will have that all set up for y’all so you can more easily access these entries. Appreciate y’all a ton for reading!