For people who follow the massive annual barrage of news from Comic-Con International — popularly known as San Diego Comic-Con, or SDCC — part of the big news in 2024 is that it won't have an equivalent virtual or online event in year, for the first time since 2019. That will leave fans looking for more ways to follow all the announcements pouring out of one of the biggest fandom events of the year. But don't worry, Polygon has you covered.

Marvel and DC are both heading into 2024's big show with important questions to answer. Marvel scaled back its plans for the Marvel Cinematic Universe after some major box office disappointments, a new wave of "superhero fatigue" discourse, and the conviction and sentence of actor Jonathan Majors, once at the center of the MCU's upcoming strategy. Comic-Con will be a preemptive victory lap for the company, with Deadpool & Wolverine opening in theaters on July 25 and already a hit. But this year's Marvel panel is also where we catch up on Marvel projects that seem to have disappeared, and learn how Marvel plans to bolster its fan base and remake Phases 5 and 6. Is Kang replacing Doctor Doom? Replace Majors with another actor? Something completely different?

DC, meanwhile, went through its own big reboot in 2022, when Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad director James Gunn took over the company's film and TV franchise — but Gunn says he won't be at Comic-Con for any of big DC presentation because he's too busy shooting his version of Superman. Parent company Warner Bros. will have a small presence rehearsing the upcoming HBO series The Penguin and My Adventures with Superman. Instead of a presentation, DC will have a booth where they will try to build excitement about new DC Comics products. But it's always possible that DC could drop a big announcement during Comic-Con just to maintain its presence.

Aside from the big two (and Disney, which is saving its announcements for its annual D23 show), there's still plenty going on in the media at the con, with panels on upcoming franchise plans for Star Trek, Doctor Who, Transformers, Walking Dead, and Alien , as well as upcoming seasons of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and more.