You are currently viewing Inside the Magic of Marvel: An In-Depth Look at Marvel’s 616 Panel from San Diego Comic Con!

Inside the Magic of Marvel: An In-Depth Look at Marvel’s 616 Panel from San Diego Comic Con!

I would like to start this review off by thanking both Marvel and DisneyPlus for the incredible honor of getting to watch this panel coming to you guys live from San Diego Comic Con 2020! The people at both of these organizations have done absolutely wonderful work in creating genuine magic for audiences the world over to enjoy and cherish together and so I thank them for this amazing opportunity!

Under normal circumstances, Marvel would have more to show the world at San Diego Comic Con than they currently do. After all, it was about this time last year that, Kevin Feige was wowing fans of all ages with, amongst other exciting MCU news, that at long last Black Window would be getting her own film (finally!), an Eternals movie would be following, and that we would also be getting a Thor 4 (with the 80’s rock album-sounding title of Thor: Love and Thunder) which would see Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster finally come back to the MCU and acquiring Thor’s powers….somehow….oh and that Christian Bale MIGHT be in it.

Then COVID happened and like every other major studio in Hollywood has had to deal with for the past 400 million years (or so it feels like), Marvel was not immune to the delay madness. Fortunately that doesn’t mean they don’t have any extraordinary content that they wish to share at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. I say this because just a short while ago I had the immense pleasure of getting to watch, via livestream of course, a panel consisting of directors Gillian Jacobs and Paul Scheer, executive producers Sarah Amos and Jason Sterman and moderated by Angelique Roche about a new little anthology series going on at Marvel called Marvel 616 (the name drawing inspiration from the main reality within the comics of Marvel).

Simply put, this riveting documentary series chooses to focus on the world of the comics, and more specifically, how the characters and their stories were created, but also how the fictional world has made impacts in key areas including pop culture in the real world. Indeed this to me is an intriguing concept because we all see how events in the real world led to the creation of some of the more iconic characters in comic books history be they DC or Marvel, but never have we really been able to get a comprehensive look at the reverse flow of this exchange until now. However after hearing these distinguished guests talk about this project, I am now more convinced than ever that this documentary series will be perfect for Marvel fans, and just comic book fans in general, to enjoy and maybe even learn something from (gasp) whilst we await with bated breath the return of the MCU and just movies in general to come back to theaters.

Indeed not only is it very clear that the directors and producers that Marvel has chosen to work on this distinct project are either avid lovers of these truly distinct characters, with Scheer even helping to pen such comics as “Spider-Man Deadpool” back in 2017, but more importantly, they also know just how exactly these characters have been able to make their mark on the real world as well (with Gillian Jacobs leading that particular camp having never read a whole lot of comics before working on this). Therefore it really is incredible, at least for me, to see these talented visionaries, as well as all the others who helmed and worked on the other episodes in this series, talk about such icons as Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel (who coincidentally will also be getting her own MCU-tied in show in the near future), and others in the clips that have been released and just how these fictional creations have been able to inspire us as people to battle such inhuman qualities such as racism, discrimination, and just pure intolerance for our fellow human beings.

Honestly, having gotten a few glimpses into what some of these episodes are going to consist of, I think it is going to be quite exciting to see just what other characters are brought up in the other, at the time of this writing, 5 episodes that they didn’t go too much in-depth on during the close to 45 minute panel and I am very excited to get to see all of the episodes in full. Thus if any of what I said sounds like it would be your alley then definitely assemble your fellow Avengers and check out Marvel 616 when it soars onto Disney+ later this year!