#online fan community watching con from afar/reacting to what is being announced/released >>>>>>>>>>>> the actual in person con community

[sersi]

Is it bad that I don’t go to the convention? I don’t have that kind of money but at the same time it doesn’t feel like I’m a valid fan or love these things as much as everyone else who goes to these things and meets the actors which is my dream to meet Evans. Even though I know that’ll never happen. But I do love the marvel fandom more then anything I just feel I’m missing out on a big part that brings everyone together. Cause I can’t go to a con

It’s not a bad thing at all, anon! I don’t really think that being a fan or your worth as a fan should be tied in to your (financial, physical, etc.) resources or even your interest in doing insane and sometimes really expensive things. Further, while cons are something of a community experience, as someone who has gone to a lot of them + been in fandom for a long time, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t other ways of finding or engaging with your particular fan community. To further explain my perspective/because I don’t know how to talk about cons without being a bit long winded, I’ve sort of broken the rest of this answer down in a few parts, which are under the cut.

So, cons in general are not for everyone. When Tumblr was more active/had more people interested in going to San Diego Comic Con around here, I would sometimes get questions about whether or not someone would like SDCC or if SDCC was worth it. My answer to this would usually be some variation of “Can you handle crowds?” and “How much effort are you willing to put in?” If you’ve ever been Disneyland or some other popular theme park during a super busy summer day and had a hard time handling those crowds, SDCC would probably not always be that fun for you. Because the crowds are just as bad, if not worse at times. And if you’re someone who doesn’t like crowds and therefore has no interest or desire to ever go to a con, that doesn’t mean you’re less of a fan!! It just means you want to have a good time with fandom and not do things you hate 🤷🏽‍♀️!

The reason I mentioned effort is that it is another thing that is both incredibly important to your con experience. As someone who followed SDCC for years online before I ever went, it is easy to think that every single day you, as a con attendee, will be doing tons of fun things: seeing all the exclusive footage, doing signings, visiting cool offsites, etc. I love Comic Con, I have tons of fun at Comic Con, and I can tell you that, when attending the con, you will probably miss more things than you actually see. While not every line is long, a lot of them are and, depending on what your priorities are, you may end up having to devote a significant portion of your day (or, if we’re talking certain super high demand panels/activities, multiple days in some cases) to doing that one thing. The years when Marvel Studios attends, I have gone with that being my #1 priority and basically shaped the rest of my con around the time I have to devote to ensure that I will get into their panel. (In addition to missing all the other panels that are also on Saturday, some of which, at any other con, would absolutely be my top priority as well as the ability to try and pull for tickets for the Marvel movie signings, which are usually also on Saturday). 

Now, to me, this is worth it because I really, really, really want to see the exclusive footage and know that Marvel, historically, does not release most of what they show at the con online. (This is in contrast to WB, which tends to release everything or almost everything that is shown during their big Comic Con panel). However, it isn’t worth it to everyone (I have friends who’ve either stopped doing the Marvel panel or even going to SDCC entirely just because they got tired of the lines/time commitment) and that doesn’t mean they’re less of a fan than I am. I personally have the advantage, I guess, of being good at functioning on very little sleep during conventions and have never had any issues with crowds. Not everyone is like this! My younger sister, for example, is terrible at running on limited sleep for multiple days in a row and her ability to do stuff at SDCC is very much dependent on me being the one to wake up super early and go get in line.

For me, SDCC is a community experience–I have friends who I met at cons and only see at cons as well as friends who I became closer to through meeting in person at a con. However, for big cons like SDCC, where a lot of things are being announced and released, I think there is just as active and viable a community experience online. And that experience is one that, as someone at the con, I usually end up missing. Most of the time, when I get home from SDCC, I end up spending a lot of time trying to catch up with all the announcements, interviews, memes, etc. that came out of the con and that I missed because I was busy standing in some line with shitty cell service or slowly dying while eating dinner because it’s 9:45 p.m., I haven’t had real food all day, and I’ve been up since 3:15 a.m.

So, if community is really what you want, I think that just being online, talking about what you’re excited for, what you’re looking forward to, etc. is one of the best ways to find that community. Having been in fandom since 2012, it’s been the weeks right after a new MCU movie drops that have really helped me form new friendships. For example, @captainwondyful and I “met” during the immediate aftermath of The Winter Soldier coming out/through the SamSteve tag and now we basically talk 24/7 and are meeting up to see Endgame together.

And, finally, because I couldn’t really figure out where else to put this, the conventions with exclusive footage and the conventions where people go and pay a lot of money to get autographs from/take pictures with assorted celebrities, are generally not the same conventions. SDCC, which gets, by far, the most big movie panels, is actually terrible for paid photo ops or autographs with celebrities because most of the celebrities who are there are being paid by the studio releasing their movie/tv show and, consequently, spend all of their time doing press. While there are tv/movie signings, pretty much all of them are done via lottery and most will have, at absolute best, 100 tickets (some will have much less than that). So, while some people do get to meet their favorite actor, at a convention with over 100,000 attendees, it is a very, very small group. (And, speaking from experience, the Marvel TV/movie signings are probably the hardest to get at this point). Personally, while I have met/gotten the autographs of some MCU actors, for the most part, I did it via waiting for movie premieres, not SDCC or any con with paid photo ops.