In the comics, Steve Rogers was changed into Captain America after being subjected to an experimental serum.
To do the same around these parts, Matthew Bellefontaine just has to change clothes.
“I probably have about four different Captain America suits,” the Dartmouth-area resident said during an interview.
While Bellefontaine’s geeky interests are broad, the shield-wielding hero is his favourite.
“I guess Captain America would be my mainstay, my go-to.”
Bellefontaine will be attending the Hal-Con fan convention Friday through Sunday at the Halifax Convention Centre as he usually does. But this year he’ll be a guest of the event as one of
its Local Heroes.
They’re people who have gone out of their way to make a difference in the geek community and the community at large.
“It’s not like an actor or an artist or somebody like that, but it’s somebody who does have ties to the community but also contributes in many other different ways,” said Bellefontaine.
He volunteers with the Hal-Con Community Squad and takes part in charity events across the province, where he’s most likely seen as Captain America.
“I do that one a lot, especially with the community squad. It’s a very well-recognized and well-known costume. It’s a character that I’ve always liked and been a fan of. I’ve been a Marvel comics fan for a long time.”
Bellefontaine, who works in the health-care field in Halifax, also occasionally does story times at the Woozles children’s bookstore in Halifax.
He also helps run a cosplay repair table at Hal-Con and similar conventions where on-the-spot repairs to getups can be done with glue guns and duct tape and they take donations to fight prostate cancer.
“There’s a lot of costumes and some are very elaborate, and things happen,” said Bellefontaine.
“Something’s going to break, and they come to us and we’ll repair them. A strap breaks. A piece of foam falls off.”
He’s been cosplaying for five years but was crafting and building as far back as 2003 with the Society for Creative Anachronism. The first three Hal-Cons he attended revolved around doing fighting demonstrations with the society, a medieval enthusiasts group.
This is the 10th year for the convention, and Bellefontaine witnessed the origin.
“I was there Year 1. It was much smaller,” he said.
“Hal-Con just started exploding very quickly. It came from such a small thing to a big thing in the span of about a year or two.”
Bellefontaine credits the growth to the encroachment of geek culture into the mainstream.
“These comic book movies are ingrained in our culture. They’re such huge things. They’re everywhere. You’ve got TV shows, you’ve got these big movies,” he said.
“It’s no longer this small sort of niche thing. It’s now this big mainstream thing.”
Marvel, for instance, offers a range of products.
“You have your Captain Americas and your Iron Mans for everybody, then you have your Deadpools and you’ve got Dr. Strange and things that are a little more complex, a little darker, sarcastic -- more adult, for sure.”
The popularity of The Big Bang Theory sitcom, revolving around a group of comics and sci-fi obsessed science nerds, for 12 high-rated seasons also probably didn’t hurt, said Bellefontaine.
“It was sort of like the geek version of Friends. It was very popular, for sure, and absolutely there were a lot of stereotypes in it.”
For up-to-date information about the weekend’s guests, vendors, tickets and events, visit hal-con.com.
