Heroes & Villains Creative Director Doug Johnson is thrilled to introduce the ‘Weapon X’ collection at NYCC, and with it, a detailed and fan-oriented experience for the company’s booth on the showfloor.
The new collection, in part based on Deadpool & Wolverine, puts the attention on both titular characters––but with a twist. Instead of their colorful superhero personas, this line is meant to be born out of their personalities before going through their Weapon X experiences.
Those terrifying experiments also make the foundation of Heroes & Villains NYCC floor booth, which is modeled after a Weapon X laboratory.
Heroes & Villains Puts Wolverine and Deadpool into the Spotlight for NYCC
The Direct’s Russ Milheim was able to speak with Heroes & Villains Creative Director Doug Johnson about the brand’s big new NYCC booth and its new line of apparel is based around the iconic characters of Wolverine and Deadpool.
“It all kind of stemmed from Wolverine’s 50th anniversary,” Johnson explained:
"It all kind of stemmed from Wolverine's 50th anniversary. At Heroes & Villain, we like to really tell the backstories of characters. We like to immerse the fans and the experience. So, with that in mind, with it being Wolverine's 50th, we're like, let's tell the story of Logan becoming the Wolverine, right? And that all takes place at the Weapon X test facility."
With the focus being on Logan, many might be wondering how Wade Wilson slipped in. Well, needless to say, there are “more test subjects” who “went through Weapon X testing.”
Allowing them to explore who Wade was before becoming Deadpool as well, including his time with the Canadian military:
"With Wade, we wanted to tell his backstory through his special forces work in the Canadian military. So that's what this is all kind of vibing from. If you look at it, maybe this is Wade’s old sweater from when he was in the military. He got his military field jacket over there. Had to go with the duffel bag for that military vibe. And that's kind of where the inspiration for Wade [comes from]..."
“I didn’t want to go full-on Deadpool and all the red and black and all that,” Johnson admitted:
"I didn't want to go full-on Deadpool and all the red and black and all that. I wanted to go like, Wade Wilson, who was he before he became Deadpool? So you think of [the NYCC booth experience] as maybe where Wade hung up his gear when he was taken into the test facility. And then the same thing happened with Logan."
Talking more about the purposeful lack of bright, vivid colors, such as those featured in Deadpool & Wolverine, the creative director reiterated how Heroes & Villains do try to lean more into those desaturated and muted color schemes:
"Heroes & Villains, in general, we try to desaturate the colors so it's not super poppy. But with this idea here, it was more about Logan, and Logan's vibe is this utilitarian workwear, lumberjack kind of vibe, right? That's why we got the plaid flannel lining in the interior. So it's less about him as Wolverine, where he's in the full uniform with the bright colors. It's more about what is Logan? How does he dress? How does he vibe?"
One particular item, a baseball cap with Mutant spelled upside down, catches a lot of curious eyes. Most have no idea why the text is upside down––but there’s a reason, one that shows how much Heroes & Villains thinks about each and every piece of the collection:
"This one I love because it's upside down. People are like, ‘Why is it upside down?’ Okay, well, I have two explanations. One is you lay them down on the operating table, and you know what it is laying down on the operating table. The other is you enter the Weapon X test facility as a regular common man, and they flip your world upside down. You come out of mutant."
Johnson explained how they designed the booth as “an experience” where you can “see all the experimentation that they did on Logan [and Wade]:”
"We set the booth up, so it's an experience. So you can come in here and check everything out. You can kind of see all the experimentation that they did on Logan [and Wade]. This is all hand-illustrated art, [they] even illustrated the X-rays."
Johnson also made sure to point out how awesome their booth photo op is, which lets attendees put themselves in a Weapon X experiment canister tube:
"I mean, to be honest with you, beyond the product is the booth and the experience. Our homies over at The Dad Batch built this photo op for us, and I think the overall experience is the best part."
As for who else Doug Johnson would love to explore someday with future lines at Heroes & Villains, he was quick to name both “Dr. Doom” and “Mr. Fantastic:”
"I'm hype about Dr. Doom. There's some buzz there. So, that could be sick. Mr. Fantastic might be fun to mess with there."
Fans can take a look at all Heroes & Villains has to offer here.
