Superheroes and villains converged on Eau Claire Friday morning not to do battle, but to show off their colours in a march to Olympic Plaza, the first official event of the Calgary Comic Expo.

Even Mayor Nenshi got in on the fun before the parade, dressing up as Marty McFly from the Back to the Future movie series and riding along in a Delorean.

The parade is one of many events on schedule for the convention which will feature a long list of special guests from popular series like The X-Files, Star Wars, and The Game of Thrones.

Some of the special guests at the show include Gillian Anderson, Richard Dean Anderson, John Barrowman, Michael Biehn, and horror film director John Carpenter.

Organizers are doing all they can to avoid issues from last year that resulted in very long lineups and fans being shut out from attending events they had already paid for.

In an attempt to control the situation, tickets for the Expo were sold in advance and they won’t be selling any tickets at the door.

They’ve also been working to reduce the amount of congestion in the hallways of the BMO Centre. “We’ve got the Big Four building where admissions and photo ops are in the lower level of that,” says Emily Expo, organizer of the event. “So we don’t have as much congestion in the halls.”

She also says that there will be staggered program times so different events finish up at different times to reduce the amount of traffic in different areas.

On their website, they warn that anyone who shows up looking to buy a ticket or without a valid ticket, will be leaving empty handed.

Last year’s Comic Expo featured a reunion of the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the original Batman, Adam West, and many others.

Tickets were sold at the door and minutes after they went on sale, they were all snapped up.

To make matters worse, the fire marshal shut the doors to the BMO Centre and many who had bought tickets were shut out.

Fans also complained of the lines being way too long and the pace too slow to satisfy them.

The Calgary Comic Expo runs from April 26 to 28.