It’s Friday, which means it’s time my regular column, Comics Disassembled. Except it isn’t! This week only, I have a special one-off column I wanted to tackle that will cover a lot of the same territory my ten things piece would have, except this one has a different structure.

It’s a look at the winners and losers of this year’s San Diego Comic Con, which is a common approach in the wake of the con. But, as is often the case with me, I might some curveball takes and unexpected choices in here. That’s because while some of this is all about holistic, industry-centric thoughts, it isn’t all that. It’s hard to not think of the things that made this convention stand out to me as an individual as well. So, it’ll be a blend. Don’t worry, if you’re missing Comics Disassembled, though. We’ll be back to our regular programming next week!

Winner: DC

It’s been a weird year so far for DC. While there’s a lot of hope tied to James Gunn’s tenure as the co-chairman of DC Studios — to say nothing of all the movies he’s putting together — the comics themselves seem to be in a bit of a wayward moment. Retailers have told me that the publisher has had a pretty soft year, and a whole lot of what they’ve been up to has been middling in performance despite a strong start for the Dawn of DC era. The publisher really needed something to rev things up for them.

And San Diego Comic Con may have done just that.

Out of every publisher there, DC seemed to generate the most conversation at SDCC. Perhaps bizarrely, the number one thing that really seemed to get people going was switching back to Milton Glaser’s iconic bullet logo. Whether it was at the show, via text, or on social media, people were buzzing about the return of this logo and its consistent usage across the comics, movies, and shows. It felt cohesive in a way that the company just hasn’t in a while, and it felt…meaningful. I cannot even explain why! It was a logo as mission statement, and people were really feeling it.

Pair that with the varying announcements connected to the upcoming All In efforts — Ram V and Evan Cagle on New Gods! Jeff Lemire and Nick Robles on Absolute Flash! Mark Waid and Dan Mora on Justice League Unlimited! Al Ewing and Jahnoy Lindsey on Absolute Green Lantern! Etc. Etc. Etc.! — and you had a lot of heat coming from the publisher and excitement coming from fans. I had people talking to me about comic books at the convention because of all this news! That’s honestly kind of rare! These announcements generated conversation in a real way, and that’s a major step in the right direction.

Plus: The Absolute Batman ashcan seemed to be one of the hottest items on the floor. Hot enough for me to wait in line for it? God no. But people were pumped about it, and that sort of enthusiasm is big.

Loser: Marvel Comics

If DC was the publisher that generated the most enthusiasm on the floor and beyond, then Marvel was the opposite. All the publisher’s announcements and presence seemed to be met with a collective yawn. There wasn’t much energy behind anything they did or announced there, with much of what they revealed seeming quite random. A couple new X-Books were announced! There’s a Doom thing coming next year! There’s a new West Coast Avengers title coming (although I talked with Gerry Duggan about that and it seems like a lot of fun)! Spider-Man is getting a magic suit, I guess?! Marvel’s booth seemed to reflect that chaos energy, as it was a gigantic space that seemed to be everything and nothing at once.

It was kind of strange! For the second straight SDCC, Marvel didn’t seem to announce anything that generated much excitement at all. While I really like the idea of the Ultimate Universe: One Year In one-shot, if that’s arguably your biggest gun, you’re not exactly lighting the world on fire. Of course, it’s worth noting that Marvel has been favoring NYCC, C2E2, and even not-comics events like SXSW for its major announcements of late. Its SDCC efforts were consistent with what they’ve been doing. But it felt like the biggest direct market publisher punted the biggest comics convention of the year to some degree, and that’s enough to qualify them for this side.

Winner: Marvel Studios

Conversely, if there was a second big winner at SDCC, it was Marvel Studios. You might disagree with that. I’d understand why. The whole “Robert Downey, Jr. as Doctor Doom” news seemed to be received rather poorly online. But here’s the thing. For the first time in a while, people were really, really talking about what Marvel Studios was up to beyond the whole “Wow, they seem to be on the decline!” angle.

And I cannot emphasize how much people were talking about it. I literally had a stranger stop me on the streets of San Diego to chat about it as my wife and I discussed it, because he was so interested in what was happening. “Is it a variant? Is this Doom Tony Stark? What’s going on?” this person quizzed me.I, of course, had no idea. But you know what? Just like that person, I actually wanted to know! So, I just talked to this random person about this news as we walked the streets of this city, because we were both so intrigued by it. There’s the old adage, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity,” and the Doom news might live up to that idea. It energized people in a real way, even if a whole lot of that was confused or annoyed energy.

All this is of course ignoring the immensely popular and desirable Deadpool & Wolverine panel Marvel held on Thursday, one that was a disaster in the buildup (short version: the line was a complete mess, people who didn’t win the event lottery seemed to get in, and some who did win did not get in) but magical in execution. As you likely know, they showed the entire movie there, with Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Kevin Feige, and friends joining the fans in the audience to watch it together. As someone who was in Hall H as it all went down, I can tell you that the energy in that room would have been enough to power my home for years. People were beyond hyped, and the enthusiasm about the Marvel Cinematic Universe coming out of that was at a fever pitch in a way it just hasn’t been in some time.

So, when that panel ended around 9:10 pm and Feige told audience members to look to the sky over the nearby Petco Park at 9:40, we all followed his instructions and quickly passed word on to everyone we knew in the area. What we all breathlessly waited for was a 12-minute drone show celebrating and touting Deadpool & Wolverine’s release, before it ended in a grand finale: the arrival of Galactus before Johnny Storm’s flame-created “4” blazed its way onto the night sky. It was fantastic.

If Marvel Comics didn’t make much of a dent, then Marvel Studios certainly did. It might have been…uh…slightly mixed sentiment. But I’m guessing they’re pleased by the result.

Winner: Caroline Cash’s PeePee-PooPoo

If there are two words that Eisner Award attendees will remember from the event, they’re probably these: “PeePee-PooPoo.” Cartoonist Caroline Cash’s Silver Sprocket series PeePee-PooPoo won the Eisner Award for Best Limited Series, and everything about the way it went down was utterly spectacular. How the Stranger Things kids presenting the award could barely handle saying the name out loud (twice!). The audience’s reaction. How Silver Sprocket head Avi Ehrlich followed Cash up to the stage to record every second of the victory. Cash’s speech, which hit all the right notes. I’m being completely serious when I say that it felt like a moment, and in the very best of ways.

I’ve had several creators over the years ask me if I think the Eisner Awards actually have an impact on the sales of a title. I’ve never had a great answer, nor have I investigated it really. But I’d bet anything that Silver Sprocket’s booth at the con sold a whole lot of PeePee-PooPoo over the next two days, both because of its Eisner win and because of how it all went down. It was sensational.

Losers: People who hate lines

The above photo is of a line, or at the very least a line-like situation. It’s what was forming outside the FX activation near the Hilton Bayfront on the final day of the convention, and this type of vision — a mass of people who generally look like they’re waiting for something — was not an atypical sight. If there was one true constant to San Diego Comic Con, it was lines. Sometimes they were lines to get something. Sometimes they were lines to do something. Sometimes they were lines to wait in another line, as the FX activation proved. Lines were omnipresent, massive, and sometimes impossible to decipher.

While everyone involved with the con did their best to manage these lines, it often felt like an impossible task verging on chaos. My wife Amber told me the con’s management of these was better than when she last went in 2012. That makes it very hard to imagine what those must have been like. The funny thing is, I can’t even really fault the convention team for this. There are so many people at this con and so many desirable things to do, it’s quite natural for this kind of thing to happen. That’s why lines were everywhere. Whether you wanted to go to a panel, buy an exclusive, or get into an activation, you had to be prepared to wait. Not everyone can handle that. I know I struggle with it!