Over the weekend thousands of fans descended on the ExCeL London to take part in the first MCM London Comic Con of the year, with panels, countless stalls, special guests and more on offer. Now owned and organised by Reedpop, the company behind the more recognisable and infamous New York Comic Con and Emerald City Comic Con’s, amongst others, due to obvious reasons there hasn’t been a Comic Con in London for the last two years, meaning this one had a buzz around it that perhaps others were absent of.
As with any comic conventions, one of the biggest draws for anyone attending is the atmosphere on offer, and as usual, MCM certainly succeeded there. Thousands of people turned up over the three days, and it was clear that many of those attending were die-hard fans of various different franchises.
Related: 2023 PlayStation Showcase Recap
Looking in any one direction and you’d see various pop culture icons including Poison Ivy, Deadpool, Vegeta, Chainsaw Man and more, including some particularly obscure cosplays. One thing that brought these people together was their love for their fandoms, and it was in this simple connection that lent towards a genuinely nice and refreshing air around the ExCeL, something that in day-to-day living you may not be used to.
MCM London Comic Con – An Experience Everyone Should Have
Walking around MCM London Comic Con was a spectacle in itself, with everything relatively well-organised and laid out on a super simple basis. Whilst the panels weren’t as ground-breaking as previous years, the panels on offer did include some interesting guests including What We Do in the Shadows Kayvan Novak and Harvey Guillén, and with the likes of Ryan Hurst, Sunny Suljic, Alastair Duncan and Danielle Bisutti from God of War: Ragnarok, it was a good time to be a gamer.
For those with an affinity for comic books, there were a staggering 197 artist booths for you to be able to meet and greet some of the best comic book artists currently out there, and as a whole they were all too happy to talk to their fans, with most more than happy to draw something for them too. Of course there were several stalls for those simply wanting to purchase, including the stalwarts Forbidden Planet and Panini stands, as well as a huge amount of independently owned stalls, and you couldn’t turn away from the sheer amount of pop culture memorabilia on offer.
All that said, the real stars of the shows were the fantastic cosplays to be seen, with some real thought and ingenuity put into their costumes. As with many there, I spoke to someone that had put six months into their costume, a delicately crafted Lady Deadpool, which captured every single facet of the character and wouldn’t have looked out of place in the upcoming Deadpool 3.
After all that is what MCM London Comic Con has always been about, and that goes for any and every convention anywhere. You get the opportunity to be someone else, whether that’s for a day, a weekend or longer, you can forget the troubles of ‘real life’ and inhabit your favourite characters, all whilst everyone else around you is having an equally good time, which in itself breeds a great, inclusive atmosphere. Would I go again? Absolutely. Would I use my 6’8 frame to its fullest cosplaying capability? Possibly.
Follow us for more entertainment coverage on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
