C2E2: Our 9 best bets for 2024, from people-watching to prom

The Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo — aka C2E2, held appropriately at McCormick Place, Chicago’s own matrix of architectural puzzlement — returns this weekend. It’s the 15th edition, and the nice thing is not much has changed: If last year was any measure, it’ll still be exhaustingly large, still crowded on Saturday, likely to drain your paycheck, will be studded with celebrities (who themselves will pick your wallet at around $65 to $110 an autograph) and is still a window into contemporary fan culture.

But for a moment there, the future looked bleak — like zombie apocalyptic.

After a couple of pandemic years, the comic con industry seemed fated for extinction, doomed by its own model: Would Lou Ferrigno insist on seeing my vaccine card before hugging? Was every cosplaying Justice League destined to meet in the Hall of Zoom now? The smarter artist-focused geek gatherings like C2E2 (and the indie comic-centric CAKE con in August) stayed vital for a simple reason: In a fractured digital world, this audience still needs physical space to meet — and a runway for showing off its creativity.

Inevitably, social media doesn’t cut it.

“I feel like we came out the other end of the pandemic with the stock up on these things, and their communities eager for in-person conversations,” said Brien McDonald, vice president of content for ReedPop, Connecticut-based producers of C2E2 as well as New York Comic Con and Star Wars Celebration. At the end of each C2E2, he said, the company conducts scores of conversations with attendees, and what they have decided was the future looks like a cocktail party. With Pokemon cards and cosplay workshops.

“Goofy as this sounds, what we say within the company now is, focus on friends.”

With that in mind, here’s a quick list of best bets for C2E2 2024:

1. The heart of C2E2 is people-watching. Specifically, the cosplay — the intensely realized uniforms of latex, the inventive alternatives to Hollywood CGI and robotics, the remarkable number of people who still want to dress as the Joker or Harley Quinn. It all builds to the Cosplay Central Crown Championships on Saturday. (And that’s a scene.)

2. C2E2 Prom, Friday at 8 p.m. This is a cute idea, launched for the first time in Chicago after ReedPop’s success with two nerd proms at its Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle. Costumes are very encouraged. There will be photo backdrops and of course, there’s a theme: 15 Years of Fantasy in Chicago. Admission is included with the ticket.

3. Josh Brolin. Guest of Honor. Straight off “Dune Part 2” and a memorable guest spot on “Saturday Night Live,” with a memoir coming this fall — not to mention, still feared as Thanos, the best villain in the Marvel movies. He’s signing for $200 a pop, but on Sunday (included with your ticket), he’s also doing a great big Q&A with the audience.

4. Maya Hawke. One of the best parts of C2E2 is the inclusion each year of a star just before superstardom (Chris Hemsworth, Steven Yeun, Millie Bobby Brown) and this year that’s Hawke, daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, singer-songwriter, costar of “Stranger Things,” soon to play Flannery O’Connor in “Wildcat,” directed by her father. She’s signing Saturday and Sunday, and doing an audience chat on Sunday.

5. Horror is the new sci-fi. A generation ago, it would have been heresy to host a comic con without bowing repeatedly to “Star Trek,” the prototypical nerd-con topic. So it likely says a lot about the world right now that the hopefulness of science fiction is being replaced by the survival narratives of horror. Here’s some proof: Many, many panel discussions on horror as a growing literary, comic book, film and podcasting genre, including a conversation with Tom Skerritt and Veronica Cartwright of the original “Alien” and several appearances by James Tynion IV, reigning paranoid god of horror comics.

6. Hollywood reunions. “Alien” aside, there are also lots of cast reunions, including “Hannibal,” “Star Wars: Rebels,” “Clerks,” “One Tree Hill,” “Rick and Morty” and the film “She’s All That” (via photo sessions, with Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook).

7. Stage bound. One curious corner of C2E2 has been its dedication to workshops on theater and improv. This year, there are panels on using superheroes and Dungeons & Dragons in improv, as well as a conversation among three mainstays of the Annoyance Theatre: Mick Napier, Jennifer Estlin and Susan Messing. Also, if you’re experiencing costume malfunctions, DePaul University’s theater department has a prop repair booth.

8. Darren Criss. Speaking of theater, stage and TV actor Darren Criss — whose theater group Team StarKid was based in Chicago for a while — is back to chat “Glee,” “American Crime Story” and probably his recent off-Broadway turn in “Little Shop of Horrors.”

9. Meet-ups. The best lesson of C2E2: If you’re into something, someone else is too. Check C2E2’s website: There are meets all weekend around McCormick for fans of Scott Pilgrim, Studio Ghibli, “Our Flag Means Death,” Tamagotchi, “Dune.” Ad infinitum.

C2E2: The 2024 Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo runs April 26-28 at McCormick Place South, 2301 S. Martin Luther King Drive; tickets from $70 at www.c2e2.com

cborrelli@chicagotribune.com