While the rest of the world glued their eyes to the MayMac fight, a small portion of us Filipinos gathered in the country’s largest convention hall for the annual Asia Pop Comic-Con, the closest event to SDCC we have in this troubled country of ours. And like SDCC, the organizers behind APCC hold an annual presentation aptly titled Hall M, wherein they showcase footage unreleased to the public that has more or less been presented in, you guessed it, Hall H. Two years ago, they brought Paul Bettany here (whom I had the privilege of seating close to that year in this presentation) and presented the D23 Captain America: Civil War trailer, unfinished effects and all. Last year, they showcased the astral trip scene from Doctor Strange to a room of a thousand fans that included guests Nicholas Hoult and Milly Bobby Brown. And because this year’s SDCC Hall H presentation was crazy filled with goodies like Ant-Man & the Wasp, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel. Black Panther, The Punisher, Inhumans and Thor: Ragnarok footage/concept art, APCC regulars like me expected this year’s Hall M to be the same. We got something close to that scale, minus a few huge ones.

Note: it should absolutely be of note that most of these descriptions have been out for some time now during the SDCC coverage dump. You can check our coverage here or just google what the other outlets covered. Nevertheless, I believe it’s worth a try to share some of the details I picked up on from the footages that others may or may not have noticed last month when they were presented.

Inhumans

The actual sequence of what they presented is hazy to me but one of the things they showed early on was some footage from next month’s Inhumans. They gave us an extended version of the promo clip featuring a touchy-feely Maximus and Medusa. An abridged version of the clip can be found on their official Twitter page and there’s really isn’t anything distinguishable from the one they showed.

The more notable clip they showed was one that depicted the arrests of Karnak and Gorgon under the rule of Maximus. It opens with the apprehension of Karnak and Gorgon by the Inhuman Royal Guards followed by the go-signal from Maximus to either capture them alive or dead. In Attilan, Karnak beats up several of the guards only for him to be zapped dead….. until it becomes apparent that the sequence was just him evaluating the precision required to take these men out without dying. They do this gimmick where Karnak walks around his “dead” body as visual diagrams pop up analyzing the situation at hand. The actual fight kicks in shortly with Karnak beating every soldier in the entire room. Honestly, the idea is great but the execution feels so clunky. The scene slows down and baffles audiences for no reason other than to forcibly look clever by throwing us off for a moment. Equalizer did this viscerally with Denzel; straight to the point, no BS gimmicks. Plus the fight wasn’t even that good to begin with. It’s on par with every awkward looking fight in Iron Fist.

Gorgon’s moment was way better. He’s in a jungle which I presume to be Earth and not Attilan. He is cornered by several guards who look like average joe mall cops. Gorgon does that stomp we see in the trailer and the ensuing fight is decent. Gorgon is a brawler and relies on his feet to do all the ass whooping. The scene is composed beautifully compared to the Attilan scene and that’s likely because they filmed on-site instead of a plastic looking set. Oh and Gorgon calls one of them a dumbass. Also, the song that plays during this scene – a weird remix of The Door’s Break On Through – feels super out of place

The Punisher

This was my favorite footage from the presentation. It basically opens with Frank teaching Frank Jr. how to play the guitar. The scene is somber as hell especially when it intercuts with present day Frank playing the guitar alone in his room. Frank is in pain as he wallows alone in a dark room. Cut to rural Alabama, where two Dogs of Hell members are racing through the woods on their bikes. Behind them is the Punisher himself, driving a van. He cocks a shotgun and blasts the two bikers. They hit the concrete while Frank makes a U-turn. “One batch, two batch, penny and dime,” Frank mutters under his breath as he runs over the injured bikers.

Cut to Mexico, several shady looking men enter a building where a party is being held. Lots of women, lots of booze. Somewhere outside, we see Frank observing the situation through a sniper rifle. Back in the party, one of the shady looking men becomes hot and heavy with a lady. As the lady prepares to go down on the man, a bullet goes through his skull. We zoom out of the window to Frank. He’s a mile away over the border, sniping from El Paso, Texas.

Cut to JFK airport in New York. A business man enters the restroom to takes a dump. While he’s in the cubicle and on his phone, he sees a pair of black boots walk slowly towards him. Bam! The Punisher kicks the cubicle door in. The man pleads for his life, telling Frank that killing him won’t bring back his family, implying that the man is one of those involved in the Central Park murder that took Frank’s family. Frank strangles him anyway. Meanwhile, two men enter the restroom and overhear their tussling in the cubicle – dying moans and all – and think that Frank and his victim are having sex in the cubicle. They say something along the lines of “Get a room, you two!” and leave.

I don’t have much to say other than the footage was freaking incredible. The Punisher will no doubt be a nice palate cleanser from all this The Defenders ninja/Hand stuff.

Thor: Ragnarok

The scene opens with Thor strapped into a moving chair as he’s being briefed by a female voice about the history of Sakaar. The voice mentions several things about the planet including the Grandmaster being the father (founder?) of the Contest of Champions. It kicks into high gear when the scene goes full on creepy with the voice conditioning Thor about his current predicament. The voice says something along the lines of “You’re home now. This is your new home.” It plays out like that Tunnel of Terror scene from Willy Wonka or Zoolander’s brainwashing scene with Mugatu. Thor freaks out and realizes that he’s been in one room all along. Just like in the trailer, the Grandmaster, Topaz and Valkyrie are right in front of him. Topaz calls Valkyrie ‘trash’ and a bitch hinting at a rivalry between the two. I couldn’t discern much of what Goldblum was saying but he looked hilarious. Valkyrie then refers to Thor as a contender.

Thor is then tossed into a circular chamber where he meets Korg, played by Taika Waititi himself. Korg voice and demeanor is adorable. I could honestly see him being a stand out in the film. Korg lets Thor know about the ins and outs of being a gladiator in Sakaar, saying that a previous fighter named Doug who went up against their champion died. Korg then calls Thor the new Doug. Sometime in the scene, Thor tries to run through the circular chamber only for him to show up behind Korg the second he runs off screen. The chamber is described as “circular but weird” by Korg.

Ant-Man & the Wasp

The panel with a brief presentation from Ant-Man & the Wasp. As per SDCC, the footage that was screened to us featured a recap of the entire MCU by Paul Rudd and Michael Pena. The clip was as funny as I imagined it. Rudd takes a dig at The Incredible Hulk as the two make hilarious references to non-MCU Marvel films. The clip ends with Rudd concluding, “and that’s all you need to know about the MCU….. if you’re going to play Janet van Dyne.” Cut to a beautiful Michelle Pfeifer being interviewed by the two.

The clip transitions to a sizzle reel for the much-anticipated sequel featuring pre visualized animated key sequences and concept art from the upcoming film. Off the top of my head, we saw Hank Pym wearing a new suit that looks almost as bulky as the Mark 1 armor from Iron Man. It was white and its helmet had a wide-looking face shield. If I had to guess what this was for, it’s something designed for the Quantum Realm. We got a brief look at Wasp’s new suit. From what I remember, it had a lot of yellow and looked very different from the concept art. Almost metallic gold with red highlights. The helmet, for the most part, looked the same as the one in the first film.

A lot of the sequences they showed takes place in the middle of a city street in broad daylight, which I’m guessing will be a huge action set piece in the film. They showed Giant-Man kicking a car off a curb; a tiny van going under a normal-sized van which then reverts back to normal size, toppling the other van over; Giant-Man peeking out of an alley. The best piece of Ant-Man concept art they showed, however, features a puppy sized Ant-Man piggyback riding Cassie. That just warmed my heart to no end. Cassie absolutely loves her dad as a superhero and I’m glad they’ll be showing some of that in the sequel.

There you have it! Just some of the stuff they showed us several hours ago. It isn’t much but I hope it supplements some of the other information that’s out there now. They sadly didn’t preview any Avengers: Infinity War footage which I was looking forward to the most. Hopefully, they can show us some Avengers 4 footage next year.

What did you think of the footage descriptions? Let us know in the comments below!