Last Saturday I had an opportunity to attend the Heroes & Villains Fan Fest 2016 at the San Jose Convention Center after a friend got two Saturday passes for the price of one. A fan fest wasn’t something I would normally attend, as it doesn’t appeal to me as a writer and I’m unfamiliar with most of the stars who attended. Since I’m a big fan of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”, I made the panel with Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson) and Chloe Bennet (Daisy), and a signed autographed from Chloe, the focus of my day.
The show fitted inside the main hall with space to spare, making it smaller than the Big Wow Comic Con before it hulked out into the Silicon Valley Comic Con earlier this year. The autograph booths lined the back wall. A small number of dealer booths occupied the middle of the floor, mostly merchandise and artists. The kid zones had a zip line and bungee jumping. The panel stage off to the far side had a wide open space around it for fans who didn’t want to line up to sit down for the panel.
As I surveyed the autograph booths during my initial walk through, it was obvious who was popular and who wasn’t. The stars who won the popularity contest was “Guardians of The Galaxy” (Michael Rooker) and “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” (Clark Gregg/Chloe Bennet). Everyone else, meh. Then again, I might be biased here in my opinion.
The “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” panel started with a recap video of Season Three that led up to cliffhanger scene of Daisy being emotionally devastated by the loss of her boyfriend who sacrificed himself to save everyone else, and, six months later, she’s on the run from Coulson and his team for using her superpowers to demolish buildings. Clark and Chloe came on stage to answer questions from the moderator and the audience. Although Season Four is several weeks away from premiering on TV, they couldn’t say too much about what was forthcoming.
Chloe was a lot of fun while standing in line to get her autograph. When mom called she turned her phone around for everyone to say hi. When a couple presented their baby in a one-piece Jedi robe, she picked up the baby and posed for a picture with the mother. She also flashed her well-toned arm on request. When my friend asked how dark Daisy would go in Season Four, she found a still photo on her phone that showed Daisy as a bad ass emo chick with too much eye shadow (something that she mentioned several times during the panel that she would like to have less of for her character).
As for the autographed picture that I got, I picked the one showing Daisy leaning back against an S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicle on an airport tarmac. Out of the five pictures available at the autograph table, this was the only one that had a “light” background. All the others had “dark” backgrounds. I’m not entirely pleased that Daisy had gone off to the dark side at the end of Season Three. Of course, this could be a bit of misdirection going into the new season. It’s always possible that Hydra will sprout another head and produce a new villain for everyone to chase after.
After the panels were over for the day, The Rayford Bros took over the stage as Batman (guitar), Robin (bass) and Riddler (drums), singing old rock and roll songs from the 1950’s and 1960’s. I recorded a video of their “Back to The Future” tribute of playing “Johnny Be Goode” by Chuck Berry, and posted it on my YouTube channel. My first fan fest ended on a satisfying high note.