Crisis On Infinite Cons: Corporate Fracturing Of Fandom Is Putting Comic-Con In a Tight Spot

San Diego Comic-Con is coming home this year. Not San Diego, your home. Considering the surging numbers of coronavirus in California, it's the right move. Instead of cramming people into the San Diego Convention Center and creating a super spreader situation, Comic-Con's organizers announced that they are taking the event online, relying on a combination of video chats, livestreams and hashtags to make it work. And it could not come at a worse time.

This year is Comic-Con’s first all-digital convention. In the near-century old tradition of comic book conventions, they’ve primarily been an in-person event. Fan conventions date back as far as the 1930s. One of the earliest, Philcon, also known as the Philadelphia Science Fiction Conference, began in 1930 and has run nearly every year since. Philcon is even still scheduled for this November, but considering the rising numbers of COVID, it seems unlikely it’ll happen as planned.

Fan cons found their footing in the 1960s, with the explosion of comic book collecting, as well as the popularity of various science fiction properties, like Star Trek. Comic-Con grew out of this tradition. Launched in 1970 as the "Golden State Comic Book Convention," San Diego Comic-Con grew into the largest fan event of the year. The first three-day version of the convention in 1971 boasted a turnout of 300 people. By 2010, more than 130,000 fans would enter the San Diego Convention Center to show off their Optimus Prime and Wonder Woman costumes.

Unlike sports, which normally benefits from near-daily games and events for fans to take part in at arenas around the world, fans of science fiction, comic books, fantasy and other indoor-kid activities have relied on fan conventions to connect. Fans can go there and meet other like-minded people to celebrate the things that they love. Entering a comic book convention, big or small, should feel like a chance for discovery and a chance to build community. Their impact on fan communities is invaluable, laying the groundwork for how modern fans interact with each other. Comic-Con, and its massive growth over the final quarter of the 20th century, centralized that connection even further, with many of the biggest companies in science fiction and fantasy withholding their biggest announcements until Comic-Con weekend. Not only that, but also smaller vendors, indie writers, artists and creators all had opportunities to sell their wares, meet new people, make connections and further their careers. It’s not just about one type of fandom, it’s all of them. At its best, Comic-Con is about making the fan community bigger, inspiring fans and giving them a home.

Comic-Con became something like the SuperBowl of geek stuff, but this year is a little different. In April 2020, organizers announced Comic-Con@Home, moving the SDCC from the Convention Center to whatever you use to access the internet. With panels, costume contests and badges all done digitally, Comic-Con will not become the epicenter of a COVID outbreak. However, by losing the free-wheeling intermingling of different fandoms Comic-Con risks losing its seat as the world's biggest fan convention.

Positioned next to about 10,000 other Zoom-based reunions, panel discussions and more, Comic-Con has to compete with the attention spans of its followers. Fandom is in the middle of a gigantic fracturing due to corporate ownership of some of its most sacred properties. These corporations are sealing off their lucrative assets and directing fans on how to access them. Last year, Disney struck its claim by moving all Marvel and Star Wars content to Disney+. DC followed suit, first with DC Universe, and now as a part of HBO Max. Different imprints have always kept fans in bubbles, but it is becoming more and more lucrative for corporations to do so. Now, these corporate entities are launching their own fan conventions and pulling their properties from Comic-Con.

With so many important titles owned by just a few gigantic corporations, Comic-Con is missing some key features at this year's festivities. Fans may get a panel on Marvel's 616, a documentary series about Marvel, but as the Verge points out, Marvel Studios’ biggest releases are curiously absent. No mention of the upcoming Loki, WandaVision, or The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, let alone that Black Widow movie that was supposed to come out in May. There's a whole slate of Marvel movies in flux due to the pandemic, wouldn't reminding fans of their existence be a smart move? Some fans speculate that Marvel is planning to announce a fan fest for themselves. It wouldn't be surprising. Disney has already relegated most Star Wars talk to their Star Wars celebration weekend, as well as their annual D23 fan event, which features celebrities from Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar.

Marvel's main competition, DC, is way ahead of them. In a statement made in June, Warner Bros. and DC announced that they would also be withholding their most valuable assets at this year’s convention. "Warner Bros. and DC have been -- and will continue to be -- longtime partners and supporters of San Diego Comic-Con," a Warner Bros. and DC spokesperson told the Wrap. "We are excited to participate in this year’s Comic-Con@Home with 23 virtual panels across Warner Bros. Television, Home Entertainment, Kids, Young Adults and DC publishing." But where’s DC going to host their Snyder Cut panel? Why at FanDome, the DC-branded fan convention that it announced in June. The late-summer digital event looks to fill in the gaps from Comic-Con while creating an echo chamber for Warner Bros. properties. There's no chance of someone wandering from a Justice League panel over to an Avengers one once you’re trapped in DC’s FanDome.

#lastRT wondering if Marvel Studios won’t follow in DC Comics’ footsteps and do their own atHome convention…

— RICHARD MADDEN GLOBAL (@RMaddenGlobal) July 8, 2020

The truth is, the lockdown is already placing undue stress on Comic-Con. If conventions continue to fracture as corporations capture more and more of the properties, the more this trend will continue. In this economy, it's hard to find money to go to Comic-Con, let alone Disney's myriad of fan conventions. Marvel and DC have already bowed out of Comic-Con, but who will be next?

There's no reason to despair just yet. With Comic-Con being at home this year, fans that might never be able to fly to San Diego have never had access to most of the offerings will finally have a chance to see what the hype is about. That access could prove invaluable to the future of Comic-Con, who should consider taking these events to the masses online after the pandemic ends. Key elements of the event, like cosplay, are now available to everyone via the internet. While it's in a much more restrctive form, anyone can submit to the costume contest on the Comic-Con website. It’s expensive running from con to con. As these corporations break up one fan event into several over the course of the year, they are putting unnecessary strain on fans’ wallets. Comic-Con@Home gives fans a break when they really need it.

What do you mean #SDCC2020 is "virtual" this year? But I have my #ComicConAtHome badge and everything! Comic_Con SDConventionCtr #ComicConAtHomeCosplay #SDCC #ComicConAtHome2020 ImperialSands 501stLegion @JRS501st pic.twitter.com/qFniH9Sxo5

— Todd (@wetodded) July 23, 2020

Comic-Con isn't going anywhere just yet. The convention is too much of a staple of fandom to simply just disappear overnight. But as corporations continue to isolate fandoms, it'll become harder and harder to keep its place as the year's biggest event. More conventions and fan events, with more money and publicity behind them, will be part of the landscape of fandom. As these corporate entities continue to create walled gardens for their properties, there will be fewer spaces for all fandoms to converge, replacing Comic-Con with advertisements devoid of the positive aspects of conventions. Fan communities thrive off of fan-driven events like Comic-Con, which helped establish fandoms as major societal forces, and as corporations continue to separate those communities, it's the fans who will pay the price.