Avatar Taking Over San Diego! Comic-Con Banner Unveiled!

**UPDATE - July 2, 2009: Further info about differences between Na'vi and Avatars! Jim here again. Here is what my source has to say: "There is major difference between the Na’vi and the avatars. It was visible in the footage shown at Amsterdam, but the viewers were so stunned they didn’t notice. The Na’vi have four fingers and toes; the avatars have five. In addition to the eyes, the avatar’s nose is also slightly smaller than the Na’vi’s."

Pay attention guys! :-) That includes me!

**ANOTHER SAME DAY UPDATE: Exclusive insider info on the Na'vi image in the poster - this is from a trusted source: "Since one of the viewers of the Amsterdam presentation already mentioned it, the avatars do look somewhat like their human counterparts. This means the Na’vi look less human. Larger eyes for one. (Jim: Actually heard Neytiri has a striking resemblance to Zoe Saldana).

Unfortunately, geometric distortion was introduced when people photoshopped the banner picture, which was slightly oblique, to generate a full-frontal view. This made the facial features look smaller in relation to the size of the head, as well as distorting the nose.

The glowing spots are on the face, not an overlay of a star map. Whether they are naturally-occurring markings, tattoos made with bioluminescent bacteria, emanations of mysterious psychic powers, or simply applied dots of glowing makeup must be left to your readers’ imaginations at present."

Interesting!! Comicon is the place to be...

UPDATE: Now with the original, higher resolution pics from the official Comic-Con Twitter feed. Click for the big versions.

Michael here. This is awesome - It looks like Avatar will completely rule Comic-Con this year. The opening salvo of the marketing campaign are these banners that are appearing in downtown San Diego.

My guess is that this is Jake in avatar form, and that the dots of light are bioluminescent in origin. I love the design - it has enough "humanness" for the audience to relate to, but enough "other" to be definitively alien. That was the problem with most of the non-Davy Jones characters from the "Pirates" sequels - they're too cartoonish. But Davy and the Na'vis get it right.

I've heard from a number of sources that the Avatar panel will be first thing Thursday morning. So be sure you get to Comic-Con early if you want to see history in the making!

Another pic from the official Comic-Con Twitter page:

Here's an enhanced version of the poster and a full-face manip, courtesy of "Ludovic":