Famous faces grace pop culture convention

Never underestimate the power of a star-studded sequel.

The second Celebrity Fan Fest more than lived up to its name Saturday, as the pop culture convention lit up the Freeman Coliseum and Expo Halls with comic book movie stars and costumed fans aplenty. Celebrity Fan Fest kicked off Friday and concludes today.

Billed as “San Antonio’s premier comic convention,” Celebrity Fan Fest also featured tons of graphic novels and geeky collectibles. Many comic artists showcased their sequential art, while vendors hawked toys ranging from thumb-size Lego Minifigures to foot-tall custom action figures that would do the original G.I. Joe proud.

Of course, the main attraction had to be the celebrities of Celebrity Fan Fest, which looked like a Marvel and DC Comics movie crossover Saturday.

The festival assembled famous faces from across the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including “Avengers: Endgame” co-stars Jeremy Renner, best known as the amazing archer Hawkeye, and Anthony Mackie, aka the high-flying Falcon. Other Marvel-related movie stars included Alexandra Shipp, who plays Storm in the latest X-Men movie, “Dark Phoenix,” and Lee Pace, the villainous Ronan in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Captain Marvel.”

Meanwhile, “Aquaman” star Jason Momoa made an even bigger splash with his return to Celebrity Fan Fest, this time with co-stars Amber Heard (Mera), Dolph Lundgren (King Nereus) and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Black Manta). Ray Fisher, who played Cyborg alongside Momoa’s Aquaman in “Justice League,” also made his second Celebrity Fan Fest appearance.

Saturday saw hundreds of attendees line up for autographs, photo ops and general breathe-ina-paper-bag-moments with the various film stars. First-time congoers Kwinton Estacio, his wife, Wave, and their two daughters Anarah, 10, and Kealani, 7, took a photo with Momoa that was sure to have reminded the star of both his Hawaiian roots and his latest blockbuster.

Kealani dressed up as Aquaman right down to the trident, while her big sis bore the garb of Mera and their dad proudly flexed his own tribal tattoo from his native Hawaii, just like Momoa.

“It was awesome,” Wave Estacio said. “When he saw that Hawaiian tribal tattoo, he knew this is one braddah Hawaiian. With all the handshakes and the shaka (Hawaiian hand sign), we were all good to go.”

A scheduled evening cosplay competition was sure to bring out even more dynamically attired attendees, but kids and kids at heart weren’t the only ones at Celebrity Fan Fest dressed up as memorable characters.

At the Cars as Stars exhibit, which featured more than two dozen famous automobiles from across the pop culture spectrum, “Ghostbusters” star Ernie Hudson rocked the famous khaki jumpsuit from the 1984 film for photos with the Ecto-1 vehicle, complete with a life-size replica of the gross green ghost, Slimer.

“It’s just part of who we are,” Hudson said of the “Ghostbusters” franchise, which he hopes to revisit for a 2020 sequel. “Kids that grew up with it, now their kids are growing up with it. I think it crosses generations.”

That family appeal goes as much for Celebrity Fan Fest as for other modern-day pop culture and comic cons.

Produced by PMX Events, this year’s Celebrity Fan Fest marked its first three-day outing, following its two-day debut in November at the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa.

The extra day of interactive fun no doubt should result in even more fans than last year. PMX President Bob Wills projected 42,000 to 46,000 attendees for this year’s event.

Billy Calzada / Staff photographer Daniel Wise sports steel Wolverine claws in his pockets at Celebrity Fan Fest at the Freeman Coliseum and Expo Halls on Saturday. The event, now in its second year, concludes today.