Organizers of Salt Lake Comic Con brought together 1,784 fans on Friday to set a new Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of comic book characters. The previous record of 1,530 was set in April 2011 at the opening of World Joyland theme park in China.

It's not an easy task, as other convention have discovered in recent years: Guinness has rigid requirements, including a list of approved characters and a prohibition against certain costume variations (such as Steampunk Batman).

The Desert News reports there was a last-minute scramble Friday to assemble enough participants to break the record, with calls going out throughout the exhibition hall. Arrow star Manu Bennett even joined in, donning an eye patch to reprise his role as Deathstroke (who's on the approved list).

"You can have the best organized record attempt, but the trick is getting people in the door. I've seen it happen time and time again," Michael Empric, a Guinness World Record adjudicator, told the newspaper. "I know they have enough people attending the comic con. They just need them in the record attempt to count."

You can see photos from the event on the Salt Lake Comic Con Facebook page.