Comic superheroes fail to break record

Comic superheroes fail to break record

They may have the nerve to don Spandex in public, but a dozen "Superheroes" don't have the power to break a world record on Friday.

Exactly 237 people gathered for the Awesome Con - a comic book and toy convention - in Washington, attempting to conjure something miraculous and smash the record for the largest gathering of individuals dressed as comic-book characters, AFP reported.

But they didn't even get close to the record-breaking 1,530 that hit Changzhou, China in April 2011.

Volunteers used about 150m of rope to create an enclosure from which no Awesome Con participants could enter or leave without being counted by two hand-tally clickers, Washington Post reported.

Because the previous record was set with only comic book characters, participants could only don costumes of characters approved by Guinness.

Once they were in the enclosure, they had to remain there for at least five minutes for the record to count.

"Batman", also known as Mr Richard Willett, a 58-year-old retail representative, told AFP:

"I'm a fat guy, I shouldn't even be dressed this way. I'm probably the fattest guy you're ever going to see in a pair of tights, at least today."

Also present were Spider-Man, Wonder Woman and a variety of other characters such as Jubilee, a sidekick of Wolverine.

The failed record attempt came before the opening of the fan convention.

Organiser Ben Penrod, 31, said he was disappointed not to have set a record, but was buoyed by the growing success of Awesome Con.

He said: "We were in 18,000 sq ft last year, we're in 230,000 sq ft this year, so it's over 10 times (the size)."

This article was published on April 20 in The New Paper.

Get The New Paper for more stories.

This website is best viewed using the latest versions of web browsers.