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Heroes & Villains, the collector-focused lifestyle label from global pop culture merchandiser Bioworld Merchandising, returns to San Diego Comic-Con 2026 with an immersive booth experience tied to the highly anticipated Avengers: Doomsday, which comes out in December. The booth draws from the X-Mansion’s appearance in the recent trailer but also serves as a full-circle moment for the brand.
For Doug Johnson, San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) is more than a sales floor. It is the place where Heroes & Villains found its voice.
Johnson, creative director and brand manager for Heroes & Villains, traces the brand’s origin back to years spent walking the floor, meeting fans and learning what collectors wanted from licensed gear. The result is a label built for people who know the stories, quote the panels and care about whether a jacket, backpack or tee understands the character it represents.
“We all had that childhood, right, where we collected our favorite things and idolized our heroes,” Johnson told Newsweek. “The whole idea of the brand was kind of born from going to this Comic-Con.”
Designing for the True Fan
Johnson’s path runs through illustration, graphic design, licensed product development and outdoor gear. Those influences show up in Heroes & Villains’ mix of collegiate lettering, tactical details and everyday wearability.
“The goal is everyday items, everyday apparel,” Johnson said. “It’s a quality-of-goods focus.”
The designer describes the Heroes & Villains customer as the person who “consumes it all,” knows the lore and notices when a design reaches deeper than a familiar logo. The brand has worked with some of the biggest licenses on the planet, including Star Wars, Marvel, DC Comics, and Dungeons & Dragons.
“We are really adamant about everybody doing their research, understanding what we’re working with, what’s the backstory, and then building that story into the product,” Johnson said. “It’s built for the true fan. It’s built for the guy who wants to incorporate that into his everyday life.”
The story-minded approach explains why a Xavier Institute piece can lean collegiate, while a Mandalorian-inspired item might become rugged, modular and outdoorsy.
“The story will define the item and the art and the look,” Johnson said. “We want to build respectful product to tell that story.”
From Xavier’s Mansion to Marvel’s Booth
Heroes & Villains first built momentum with Lucasfilm and Star Wars, a relationship Johnson said grew through trust, shared enthusiasm and a clear understanding of the audience. Marvel followed after the brand proved it could translate fandom into a full convention experience.
At an early New York Comic Con, Heroes & Villains created an Xavier Institute booth with framed alumni photos and a library-style setup. The next year, it pushed further with a Weapon X booth featuring Wolverine’s chamber, fog machines and photo opportunities.
“My perspective on a convention and what it should be is that it should be an experience,” Johnson said. “People are there for the experience. They’re not there to just buy stuff.”
Those builds caught Marvel’s attention. Johnson said the company’s team saw the work on the floor and recognized a partner capable of bringing merchandise into the same emotional space as the panels, cosplay and photo ops around it.
“When you make an emotional connection to an item through an experience, then that person will forever love that item,” Johnson said. “It resonates with an experience they had in a moment face to face with somebody in real life.”
Make Mine Marvel
Being invited deeper into Marvel’s official convention presence brought excitement and pressure in equal measure for Heroes & Villains. Johnson said the brand was never chasing recognition from Marvel. It was aiming to elevate the fan experience.
“It’s daunting,” Johnson laughed. “It’s scary because we weren’t doing it to get higher recognition. We were doing it to have fun and have an experience at the show.”
The stakes increase each time the team delivers. After every successful booth, Johnson said the next question becomes how to beat it.
“Every time you do it and you feel like you did the best you could do, it’s scary because you’ve got to turn around and do it again,” he said. “You’ve got to beat that.”
Mining the Comics Without Spoiling the Movies
With Avengers: Doomsday in the mix, secrecy becomes part of the design challenge. Johnson said Heroes & Villains often builds from comic history and public-facing material, using thefilm spoilers
“We have always leaned into the comic or the origin story,” Johnson said. “With the comics, it’s the comics and the publication art. That’s all core.”
For Johnson, comic art offers a deeper runway than a trailer or a release-window campaign. The stories already have decades of emotional attachment behind them.
“It’s probably more endearing to the true fans than the current film because a lot of times the film comes and goes,” Johnson said. “Those comics have been around forever.”
The team can still pull from public details, Johnson added, including trailer elements and imagery fans have already seen.
“We have obviously pulled elements that we can decipher from the trailer, things that are already public and people already are aware of,” he said.
Standout Pieces
Fans in attendance will have access to an array of officially licensed Marvel apparel and accessories inspired by the upcoming MCU film, including SDCC-exclusive graphic tees and hoodies celebrating the signature debut comic issues of Doctor Doom, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and The Avengers.
Asked which items he expects fans to react to, Johnson pointed to apparel and bags with ties to the X-Men.
“There’s a really awesome bomber jacket that we’re doing that’s kind of derived from Professor X,” Johnson said. “It’s super wearable. It’s a really cool jacket.”
The backpacks may be the bigger tell for Heroes & Villains’ identity: practical, lore-aware and built for fans who carry the story with them.
“You can’t talk enough about the backpacks,” Johnson said. “The X-Men bag that we’re bringing is probably one of my favorite bags I’ve seen in a while now. The Doom one’s amazing as well.”
The collection will be available at the Heroes & Villains booth, Booth 2329, during San Diego Comic-Con 2026.
X Marks the Spot
This year’s Marvel activation brings Johnson back to a familiar doorway. The Xavier Mansion concept helped establish the brand’s experiential language at New York Comic Con. Returning to that idea within Marvel’s San Diego Comic-Con footprint makes the moment feel personal.
“We’re back in the Xavier Mansion,” Johnson said. “It’s a different look and a different vibe. It’s exciting to be like, ‘You guys remember us from the previous Xavier Mansion? Look at it now.’”
For Johnson, the final reward is still the same one he found walking the convention floor years ago: the fan reaction.
“These cons are like going to summer camp where you get to see your buddies that you haven’t seen for a full year,” Johnson said. “To be out there on the floor and see everybody, you come back with another level of inspiration to get back at it.”
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Mark Muir and Yannick Demoustier.
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