SDCC 2023: What happens when you announce a Rob Liefeld panel but forget to invite Rob Liefeld?
How a panel that was never supposed to happen ended up on the SDCC schedule
Friday at San Diego Comic-Con 2023 was a big day for Rob Liefeld. He had a massive signing at the Marvel booth, giving away free Deadpool prints. He had another signing at the Hot Flips booth for a full 90 minutes. And in two major Marvel Comics panels, the pulisher teased two "super secret" projects by the artist/writer for 2024.
For fans, all that was to be capped off with a hour-long panel titled 'Rob Liefeld: Deadpool - Badder Blood' where he would presumably talk about those two projects, as well as Deadpool: Badder Blood. It was to begin at 5:30 pm PST in room 5AB.
There's one problem. Liefeld never showed up.
Nearly 200 fans, including a Popversew writer, sat in Room 5AB for 35 minutes while SDCC staff worked on getting Liefeld to the panel - before ultimately calling off the panel altogether.
Hours later, Liefeld commented on the situation on Twitter.
"Hey, hearing folks say I had a panel at comic con," Liefeld tweeted. "There is zero communication with anyone to me about ever having a panel at comic con. News to me."
As this situation unfolded, Popverse asked Comic-Con staff about the situation and found the answer.
"We apologize for the confusion that occurred regarding the Friday panel for Rob Liefeld," reads a statement from a SDCC spokesperson. "While we received both a panel request and later description, we missed the communication about the cancellation of the panel. Our sincerest apologies to Rob and his many fans!"
Liefeld later said that he has been declining to do any panels at any convention this year.
Comic-Con didn't specify who submitted - and canceled the panel. Ultimately Comic-Con rightly takes fault with this, and issues an apology.
Popverse reached out to Marvel for comment, and will update this story when we receive a response.
