Comic Con International

In the complex tango between movies and video games, Hollywood may be losing its lead. Motion picture studios have had a penchant for adapting games into movies all the way back to 1993's "Super Mario Bros.," which starred Bob Hoskins as the mustachioed hero Mario and Dennis Hopper as the villainous King Koopa, with varying degrees of success. But today at the giant Comic-Con International fan convention in San Diego, Microsoft Corp.

Shannon Page, 18, an aspiring actress and self-proclaimed "nerd" from Carlsbad, took a step toward breaking into the movies this weekend. She joined would-be record producer Stephen Matteson, 20, of Chula Vista and scores of others performing in "video auditions" at Comic-Con International, the annual gathering of youth-entertainment purveyors and customers.

If you look closely at some of the most popular comic book and collectible characters featured at Comic-Con International in San Diego, you notice some unexpected similarities. "X-Men's" Professor Charles Xavier uses a wheelchair. "Daredevil's" Matt Murdock is blind. "Iron Man's" Tony Stark doesn't have a healthy heart. But it's not just the superheroes who are living with disabilities.

While thousands of fans lined up outside the San Diego Convention Center on Thursday morning, hoping to get into one of Comic-Con's most anticipated panels, a session devoted to a little franchise called "Twilight," the series' stars spent some time with the media at the nearby Hilton Hotel. The trio -- Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner -- arrived a fashionable 30 minutes late.

Robert Zemeckis has never been to Comic-Con International in San Diego, and the director's "Disney's A Christmas Carol" seems like an unusual choice for a first appearance. But like several filmmakers heading to this week's colossal fanboy convention, Comic-Con -- with its new 3-D projection system -- offers an exceptional occasion to position upcoming releases. Snippets of film shown at earlier Comic-Cons have helped launch several blockbusters, including "300," "Iron Man" and "Twilight."

Judging by Thursday's 25-minute preview unveiled at Comic-Con, James Cameron's 3-D "Avatar" will be every bit the spectacle of his 1997 Oscar-winning film "Titanic." The animated "Avatar" is set on a distant, lush planet called Pandora, a super-saturated world filled with 1,000-foot trees, exotic, near fluorescent forests, fearsome predators and an indigenous people known as the Na'vi -- tall, blue humanoids who are peaceful until provoked.

Ready for a superhero musical? Usually the answer is no, we're not. There's only been one superhero musical of note: "It's a Bird . . . It's a Plane . . . It's Superman," which didn't last four months on Broadway in 1966. Admittedly, $40 million is being spent on "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," coming to Broadway next year. But even with Bono and the Edge doing the music, that's a creative crapshoot, as conventional wisdom has always been that it's enough trouble persuading audiences to believe in flying crime-fighters wearing colorful tights, much less breaking into song.

IT'S THE Cannes of Capes, the World's Fair for Fanboys, the ultimate Bazaar of the Bizarre. Comic-Con International gets underway today at the San Diego Convention Center and 125,000 fans will attend this frothy celebration -- and hard sell -- of pop culture. Like at a rock festival with multiple stages, you can go to Comic-Con and have an experience completely different from the next fan.

Some people say Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has a temper like the Hulk, others think Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is more slippery than Aquaman -- but did anyone expect the two presumptive presidential candidates to be getting their own comic books? IDW Publishing, a comics company best known for horror titles (most notably "30 Days of Night") and adaptations of movies and television shows, is going into the inside-the-Beltway world by publishing "Presidential Material: Barack Obama" and "Presidential Material: John McCain," comics that chronicle the lives of the two men who both want to be riding on Air Force One. Announcement of the titles was timed to the kickoff of Comic-Con, the annual convention in San Diego for fans of all things pop culture.