Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week, Bennett talks about New York Comic Con and the return of Agent Coulson.

It occurred to me recently I've complained a lot more about never attending San Diego Comic-Con International (which, apparently, is still the event's full given name) than I have about never having gone to New York Comic Con (a.k.a. NYCC).  Which is understandable given I haven't been going to San Diego since I was a teenager and NYCC has only been in operation since 2006.  But every year NYCC seems to have gotten larger (see "NYCC Maxes Out with 116,000") and more media saturated, and this year appears to have been the tipping point.  The moment when the big comic book conventions become just as much about corporations selling brands and setting trends as it is about fans meeting their favorite writers and artists.

While New York is a lot farther from Hollywood than San Diego both it and the rest of corporate America (in the form of companies like Mattel, Hasbro, Walt Disney, Nintendo, Barnes & Noble, General Motors and Scholastic) were in attendance at NYCC.  This didn't make a lot of headlines on the usual suspect comic news sites so allow me to present into evidence a Wall Street Journal piece by Andria Cheng titled "Marketers Seek Out Geeks", subtitled "Corporate Enthusiasm for Comic Con Matches Attendees."  Here's the first paragraph in its entirety:

With geeks and their lifestyles emerging as the new totems of coolness, marketers from a wide swath of companies are jumping on the trend for marketing opportunities, and there was perhaps no better target audience than the attendees at New York Comic Con.

Make no mistake, these companies are actively courting us because the demographic that goes to comic book conventions is the one most coveted by companies; males between the ages  (present company excepted) of 18 and 34.  And they come to places like NYCC to (a) raise awareness about their products and (b) attempt to win our brand loyalty.  Dan Buckley, president and publisher of print, digital and TV at Marvel was interviewed for the piece and said that comic book fans "are people who are setting trends.  They are the early adopters of technology.  These are the people who start things and make them hot."

I should have known something was up last month when I attended the Cincinnati Comic Expo and saw, among the booths selling old comic books and facsimile weaponry, one for State Farm Insurance.  OK, that's not on the same level as Chevy tricking out some of their Sparks with comic book inspired detailing the way they did at NYCC.  But it is still something I never thought I'd ever see at a comic book convention.

Of course there was some actual comic book news to come out of NYCC, like My Little Pony #1 had advance orders of 90,000 copies and that there was going to be a new Superman comic (title to be determined later) by Scott Snyder and Jim Lee that I very much want to read.  But of course the news I was most delighted by was the news that actor Clark Gregg will, in spite of his character's death in The Avengers movie, somehow be able to reprise his role as Agent Coulson in the upcoming S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series (see "Whedon, Marvel Prep 'S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series"). 

Lots of people have been trying to figure out how this will take place, me, I'm just glad the character is coming back and that a talented character actor will get the exposure (and payday) he deserves.  But I was struck by a quote from Joss Whedon from the New York Comic Con Marvel TV panel that said Clark Gregg would be "headlining the S.H.I.E.L.D. show."

The key word in that quote being "headlining," meaning that that this wouldn't be a cameo, that Coulson wouldn't be the show's jovial comedy relief, Gregg would be the lead on a primetime network television show.  I very much want to believe that but I must admit I have my doubts; TV networks don't usually make middle age character actors with thinning hair the lead on such shows, unless they're a comedy.  Plus there's the fact that Whedon is doing the show for ABC, the network responsible for 2011's incredibly short-lived remake of Charlie's Angels.  In case you missed it, and there's a very good chance you did, in it they cast a hot young hispanic to play the role of Bosley, a role historically played by doughy middle-age men with male pattern balding.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.