This weekend was the latest ACE Comic Con, held in Rosemont, IL, and it was a star studded affair, with Tom Holland, Jake Gyllenhaal, Brie Larson, Tessa Thompson, Chris Hemsworth, Taron Eggerton and many more A++ nerdlebrities. After some hiccups starting their formula, Ace seems to have become a huge brand for photos and autographs, wisely keeping their schedule to just a handful of giant shows a year in Phoenix, Seattle, and Chicago.

The 2019 Chicago show was notable for the Gyllenhaal/Holland reunion, which so moved Gyllenhaal that he took to Instagram to announce a more permanent alliance.

Indeed, these two just have the chemistry ’til the cows come home.

One of the biggest losses of the Disney/Sony split over Spider-Man, at least from where I sit, was not getting to see Gyllenhaal’s Quentin Beck/Mysterio back in the MCU. His character was such a hit, I can’t imagine Kevin Feige not getting all fired up just thinking about a comeback in some form/universe — after all, Mysterio did mention 616!

Although Holland and Gyllenhaal seem to get along great, oddly enough, a check of AO3 shows few are shipping Peter Parker/Quentin Beck, as this list of the most popular Peter Parker ships shows.

I had to do another search to find a paltry 17 fanfics with this pairing!

 no Veddie. I’ll have to leave the analysis of this phenomenon to folks better versed in the ways of fandom, such as as our own Samantha Puc, but it’s clear that Jigook aside (the immensely popular shipping of two members of the Korean boyband sensation BTS), the vast majority of ships are based on the characters, not the performers.

Anyway, a search of the Getty images of ACE Comic Con reveal so many adorable pictures, not just of Gyllenhaal and Holland, but Tessa Thompson and Brie Larson.

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Indeed it was Thompson and Larson who had the blockbuster moment for queer content in the MCU with this exchange:

https://twitter.com/spacelesbiam/status/1183175171802390528

Thompson also expressed a strong commitment to the huge queer fanbase for the MCU. In fact, the two directly acknowledged the popularity of shipping their own characters:

“We’re here to ship, ya’ll!” Larson said. “We can dig into it; I’m just telling you we’re shipping.”

“Brie is my real-life queen, in general,” Thompson replied. “If it becomes canon, that’s cool, too.”

Valkyrie is canonically bi, although any reference to it in Thor: Ragnarok was removed to appease Chinese and Disney censors. But back at the SDCC Phase 4 panel, Thompson teased finding herself a queen, and Feige has confirmed that Valkyrie will have a LGBTQ love story on screen when she returns in Thor: Love and Thunder.

Just to wrap up our ACE coverage, shoutouts to Karama Horne (@theblerdgurl) and Angélique Roché (@angeliqueroche) who were hired to moderate the big celebrity panels, and both these ladies are super talented, smart hosts, so another point for ACE Comic Con.

And finally, Norman Reedus, the ultimate nerdlebrity for our times.

Embed from Getty Images

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

Comments are closed.