Just a few hours after Legendary Pictures’ CEO Thomas Tull announced that Mothra, King Ghidorah and Rodan will appear in the Godzilla sequel, attendees at the 40th annual Comic-Con Masquerade saw the four monsters destroy a city live on stage –

and win the competition’s Best in Show.

Cosplay plays several different roles at Comic Con, from bonding the community together to connecting individuals to creative power within the entertainment they enjoy. In fact, the intrepid Masquerade Coordinator Martin Jaquish opened the event by noting that the Masquerade helps to fulfill San Diego Comic-Con’s nonprofit mission by promoting creative enterprise among the Con’s attendees.

That spirit of creativity is ultimately what appears to have secured the victory for the four women who created the winning costumes in “Giant Monsters All Out Attack” — Lisa Truong, Lynleigh Sato, Wendy Colon, and Cindy Purchase. As should be evident in the admittedly fuzzy picture above,  the costumes were not literal recreations of the four monsters’ film design, and their mode of wreaking havoc was more akin to a chaste burlesque than wanton carnage. However, it is precisely this blend of playfulness and novelty that made their designs stand out.

There were a number of other winners and honorable mentions, both as determined by the judges and as selected by the Masquerade’s sponsors. For example, DC’s winning selection had a Scarecrow-venomed Batman fighting Ray Harryhausen skeletons, and other winners included lifesize (more or less) Game of Thrones dragons, a paean to the transformational power of fandom sung to the tune of “Be a Man,” and, of course, MODOK. Technique mixed with surprise were the core values of the night, and an extra splash of fun seemed only to help.

For those who would like to know more about the Masquerade or see video of the entries, Martin Jaquish along with John Ruff will be hosting the Comic-Con Masquerade Replay starting at 2:30pm today (Sunday) in Room 8.

We’ll be talking more about the Masquerade from various perspectives in days to come, but the jury’s still out on whether I’ll follow the recommendation of several people on line to show up next year as The Governor.