A Good, Long Look at DC FanDome: Day 2

Well, time sure flies! It seems like only yesterday when I wrote about the good and bad stuff regarding the first day of the DC FanDome experience. There were indeed some good surprises as well as more than a few disappointments. However, all-in-all, I liked it. As this was Day 1, I felt DC already unloaded all of their major surprises then. There was this little matter of there being a DC FanDome day and I couldn’t really think of anything they could have left up their sleeve. I was really wondering what other big news they could reveal in two weeks at that time. That time has already passed! DC FanDome Day 2 has already concluded. So, what did they do?

Well, I have to say DC did some incredibly sly maneuvering when it came to content for DC FanDome Day 2 as it was a whole lot different from Day 1. Probably the biggest change between the two events is how things were scheduled. Or rather, how things were not scheduled. DC FanDome Day 1 had a very strict rotating 24-hour stream of videos that would repeat after 8 hours. As this was something that happened all over the world on the same day, that meant you had to plan you day around the event. If you missed a particular panel during the first 8 hour block, you had a chance to watch it again since the stream just repeated itself. This, of course, was kind of a moot point since there’s this little thing called YouTube where people were already uploading video captures of the events. But, hey! Trying to watch the stream “live” was part of what made if feel special.

DC FanDome Day 2 did things differently as there was no strict schedule. Instead, the site will direct you to different “verses” and all of them had different themes. WatchVerse was mostly a section for focusing more on the people behind the scenes as well as a couple of new panels that weren’t seen during Day 1. InsiderVerse had a bunch of DC documentaries about DC characters and worlds. YouVerse shined the spotlight on the fans themselves and also had a few Q&As with some of the actors that portrayed DC heroes and villains. FunVerse leaned towards more of the interactive side, with some games and you can download some free stuff. KidsVerse was the child-friendly section of the DC FanDome and a lot of the stuff from there was from Teen Titans Go! and just a few segments from DC Super Hero Girls. Hall of Heroes was, well, basically most of the stuff we already saw from DC FanDome Day 1. Basically, if you already saw everything from DC FanDome Day 1 and (thanks to YouTube) you probably already did, you don’t even have to touch that area.

Hall of Heroes looks out of place as it isn’t on a planetoid, huh?

The “verse” I didn’t get much use for was, oddly enough, the YouVerse. That’s because most of the content was focused more on the DC fans rather than what DC. The YouVerse had an overwhelming amount of content that showed a lot of cosplayers as well as fan art from fans. While I know cosplay and fan art is all part of the convention experience (Comic-Com would look so empty without them), I’m not going to devote a whole lot of time perusing through the content. To me, their more of an interesting side distraction I encounter while I’m going to the places that I want to go do, not the reason why I go to a comic convention. The only thing I did find interesting was the To The Batmobile segment showing the fans who made their very on version of the Batmobile. It was funny as most of them were janky but I will give props to them, especially the guy who remade his dune buggy Volkwagen Beetle into a 1940s version of the vehicle.

They also had some Fan Q&A segments in the YouVerse area with the actors of their upcoming films but a lot of them were super short and not worth watching. The only one I found fulfilling was the Suicide Squad Fan Q&A as it was rather substantial at around 15 minutes. The other “verse” I didn’t go to that often was KidsVerse. I totally get why this section exists but any adult who knows their comic book stuff will find nothing substantial here. I do have to mention this is the section where the moved the funny vids, like the Beyond Batman rifftrax video from Day 1.

The WatchVerse was the best section for me as this was the area that showed the other panels that didn’t make the cut for Day 1 and how other countries “celebrate” the DC Comics characters and universe. Some of the panels, like the Stargirl panel, was fine but a whole lot like the panels from Day 1. Others, like the Lucifer panel, was super disappointing. The Lucifer one broke my heart because, while it really made me interested for the upcoming musical episode, the panel didn’t have any of the stars on it!

However, the biggest thing the WatchVerse has is a full-blown screening of Superman: Man of Tomorrow! It wasn’t a brief clip nor was it the first few minutes of DC’s new animated film. No, they actually showed the entire Superman: Man of Tomorrow from start to finish! There were a couple of ads interspaced strategically throughout the runtime and they just couldn’t help put the DC FanDome graphic at the bottom of the screen at times. That’s amazing considering Superman: Man of Tomorrow was just released a month ago digitally!

InsiderVerse was kind of a mixed bag for me. There was a lot of really neat content, like how to break into the comics industry as an artist or writer. Since I can’t draw a lick, I did watch the writing panel. Unfortunately, there isn’t a direct line to the job but the main lesson I got from it was, well, you have to write stories. And you have to be good at writing stories. Then it’s all a matter of either getting discovered by someone in the comic book industry or you have someone you know who’s in the comic book industry who’ll be willing to give you a shot. Okay, the second step does involve some luck but the first part, well, that’s something anyone can do. Or, at least, practice on doing so.

The other stuff in the InsiderVerse were mostly documentaries and, honestly, some of these documentaries are really, really good and definitely worth watching if you’re interested in DC. They had stuff like Secret Origins: The Story of DC Comics, Long Live Superman! and Masterpiece: Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. I watched all of these documentaries. However, I didn’t watch them during DC FanDome: Day 2. I watched them on YouTube a while ago. In fact, I saw two of them from the Warner Bros. YouTube channel. It’s great for someone who hadn’t watched them before or don’t know they’re available at any time. But, since I did, I kind of wish there was newer content.

The last “verse” was FunVerse. These were mostly interactive material and, honestly, should be made available whole year round. As the things here are mostly things like games, such as The Joker’s Escape Room, downloadable items like posters and wallpaper and, the best thing available there, the comic book reader. I got to read the first Harley Quinn issue and Kingdom Come for free there! I’m not really sure if they’re still free right now since I don’t remember the link to them. But as these are older issues, why not have them available forever for free?

As a whole, DC FanDome Day 2 did have some glitches. There was an option to create your own schedule but, really, why? You can click whatever you want whenever you want, so why even put that up there? Also, while each “verse” looks like it’s bursting at the seams with content, a lot of the videos were extremely short. Some of the Fan Q&A sessions were just a minute long! Why not combine some of them together, like put all of the Wonder Woman Fan Q&A sessions into one long video. Still, a lot of the content was really good. And putting up the entire Superman: Man of Tomorrow movie for the entire world to see for free was mighty nice.

Overall, I liked DC FanDome Day 2 much more Day 1 because you had more control over what you wanted to see. However, considering Day 1 had all of the important reveals and it was roughly 8 hours of content already, splitting up the DC FanDome experience into two days was the way to go. I actually hope DC does this again next year so that someone like me, who doesn’t live in the USA, can participate and see all of these announcements as they happen with the rest of the world.

Did you get to experience DC FanDome: Day 2? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments section below.

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