Diversity a major theme at 50th anniversary of San Diego Comic-Con
Updated 12:48, 22-Jul-2019
By Mark Niu
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02:44

With four days of jam-packed events and an additional preview night, San Diego Comic-Con International finally came to a close on Sunday. 

This year is extra special because it's the event's 50th anniversary.

Strolling through the convention center I ran into some amazing cosplayers, a few larger than life.

There's the Juggernaut – a villain from the X-Men Comics who can run through walls.  With muscles bulging all over his body, this real-life version looks to be about the width of three people.

"This is all made out of EVA foam. If you are not familiar with that it's like floor mats. And also upholstery foam used in couches," said the Juggernaut. "It's very light. Maybe total weight about 25 pounds (11.3 kg)."

Outside the venue I found an even bigger cosplayer in the form of Iron Man, though he's dressed in his Hulk Buster armor.  My guess is that he's about the width of four people while standing more than three meters tall. 

People in cosplay at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con. /CGTN Photo

People in cosplay at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con. /CGTN Photo

I find two other immaculately dressed cosplayers who come as a team, partly because the two characters have a love-hate relationship. 

Magneto, the villain who controls metal, comes with a floating helmet, which is actually attached by string.

And Mystique, famous for shapeshifting, is dressed so that she's in half trademark blue villainess form and half military officer form, who she shapeshifted into in one of the X-Men movies. 

"It's a two-month process of hard labor," said Anna Martin who made the costumes. "For getting ready in the morning it takes six hours in total."

Comic-Con also delves deeper than the costume. This year talk of diversity was a hot topic. Although, China hasn't been a big player at Comic-Con, Marvel has taken notice of the market.

In 2018, it introduced two Chinese characters – the superheroine Aero and the superhero Sword Master. Their stories were created by Chinese comic book artists in Chinese.

And now they are coming to U.S. markets too. C.B. Cebulski, the editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics spent two years living in China and leading the charge on these characters. I asked him how Aero and Sword Master were being received in China.

"Amazingly well, we launched the comics digitally with partners at Netease and the comics were a huge hit right off the bat. We never quote sales numbers but they were some of the top selling comics for Marvel in a very long time," said Cebulski. "The Chinese creative teams that we had working on these books really took a lot of their storytelling skills, kind of a more fast-paced story telling, a different set of panel layouts. They brought some of the skills they learned as artists in their culture to the Marvel comic book format. And it's been very well-received on both sides of the ocean."

There's another Chinese character from Marvel that made waves at Comic-Con too. His name is Shang-Chi, a kung-fu master who has already appeared in a number of comic books, including Marvel's "War of the Realms," where he teamed up with characters like Aero and Sword Master.

At Comic-Con, Marvel announced that Shang-Chi was getting his own movie, "Shangh-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," which will be hitting theaters on February 12, 2021. Canadian-Chinese actor Simu Liu has been cast as Shang-Chi.

Crazy Rich Asians star Awkwafina and Chinese actor Tony Leung will also star in the film. It's a significant and somewhat historic venture, as this marks the first time an Asian character has headlined a Marvel movie franchise.