NYCC Cosplayers

I didn't get photos of nearly as many cosplayers as I wanted. Some got past me too fast. Some shots I did take were blurry because I was too rushed. I also managed to cut off some feet as I had only my regular, kit lens, and couldn't back up enough. There were so many wonderful costumes, as always.

Something for Admirers of the Male Body

Now this is more like it! Buff guys in skimpy superhero costumes. While they're challenging the whole skimpy costumes for gals, they're rather easy on the eye. The comments are mostly fun.

Alternate Realities

As in, the multiverse. But first, a few more thoughts on the new Wonder Woman outfit (I can't bring myself to call it a costume).

As many folks have pointed out, it would work better for Donna Troy, though I prefer Donna's black starfield jumpsuit. If I were younger, I would love to wear it, actually. Now I don't think those leggings would be all that flattering on me.

I think tweaking a costume is fine. Most of the time I don't notice. So many people (and I'm really sorry for not having links but at the time I read all the posts, I didn't think I'd want to revisit the topic over here) have blogged the history of Diana's WW costume. I've never paid much attention to her belt or the symbol on her chest, how stylized the eagle design is, if her boots are flat or heels, and so on. I notice a cape. I noticed two stars on the bottom of the costume vs a great many. I even notice when her bracelets grow or shrink in length. And I don't usually care. Because the costume still says Wonder Woman.

In fact, the only tweaking I never much cared for was Power Girl's costume, when the high neck with the cutout for her cleavage was replaced with a scoop neck, making it look like any old swimsuit off the rack. The top with the oval cutout was different, eye-catching, not something you see every day. Happily, the cutout is back. And when I realized that, I realized another thing about Diana's new outfit that bugs me.

The damn thing, pretty though it is, looks like it came off a rack at the local department store, Macy's, perhaps. I get the feeling Diana's real costume was in the laundry, so she rummaged in her closet and dresser drawers and came up with a nice, red stretchy top and black leggings (or possibly very tight pants) and thought, "Heck, this will do."

It's not iconic. It doesn't scream "Wonder Woman" because, minus the accessories, anyone could wear it (well, most any woman) and might be likely to wear it or something very similar, and no one would notice. Anyone walking around in Diana's iconic outfit, or a tweaked version, would stand out. Same as if they were wearing Supergirl's costume, or even Black Canary, because even that is a stylized look, blending the old Canary costume with a more modern approach.

Which brings me to that multiverse thing. I love the multiverse, so I decided I'm reading about Earth 53. I think there are still 52 earths, so I came up with Earth 53. On Earth 53, there was no Cry For Justice (or if so, Prometheus was quickly nabbed and eliminated as a threat). So, Ollie didn't kill anyone and Star City is intact. Corrupt, but intact. Ollie and Dinah are happily married, still (I'll have to see how well this fantasy of mine meshes with BoP as things play out there), and Lian Harper is alive and well. Roy is still the happy-go-lucky, yet responsible parent, still dating heavily and looking for the right woman to be Lian's stepmother. Without the need to avenge his daughter, he has not killed and might be back in the JLA. I can envision him fighting alongside Dick/Batman and Donna Troy.

The Dibneys are alive and well on Earth 53, too. Somehow, they were restored to life after Blackest Night, but no one knows yet. Not part of the special dozen whose story is currently being chronicled in Brightest Day, they moved to a busy city where Ralph, eschewing his Elongated Man identity, has opened a PI business with Sue, the two of them happily solving mysteries.

Anyone else we should resurrent/retcon on Earth 53?

Fun Stuff

"Girls' Love Stories" updated for 2006, on Google Blogoscoped.

Meanwhile, I loved today's "For Better or For Worse," not just for the joke, which is pretty funny, but for the way it echoed something from my own life.
Here's a panel that shows Elly and John in costume, he as a hula dancer and she as a guy with bad fashion sense.


Not only did my parents once attend a costume party in reverse sex, but my father was dressed as a hula dancer. No coconuts, though. We got him fake boobs, which tied with string around his back, and we got him into an old shirt of my mothers that uh, barely covered the titties. We (me, my sister, and our mother) thought he looked quite fetching, especially with the wig and fake grass skirt. One of my mother's handbags completes the ensemble.

Mom was dressed as a man, in one of my father's old suits, plus bald wig and mustache. Except for the hat and clothes, I think she looked remarkably like Elly.

I've smudged his features which are a bit too clear, but my mother's face was disguised enough for me to put online without smudging her features. The party was either for Halloween or New Year's Eve, as they and their friends had more costumed New Year's Eve parties than for Halloween. The picture was taken in the early-'70s.

Hmmmm....Supergirl?

Tom and Dawn both discuss a version of Supergirl that was done by an 18-year-old that depicts Kara in a costume that resembles Superman's costume more than her current one and gives her a more realistic and less "exploitive" body. And while I think the current version of SG is drawn too thin, I think that of pretty much every character in the book, male and female. I agree more normal sized breasts make more sense given Kara's still a teen and it would be nice to have one or two woman who aren't in danger of tipping over. But her thighs look like tree trunks.

But I really don't like the costume. I think the current one, though overdone, is more in line with how teens really do dress. And this looks too much like a young woman dressed up like Superman. Kara's worn some nice outfits over the years and some hideous ones, but this one doesn't do anything for me. It isn't a distinctive look for her. One thing that has given the book some drive recently is the realistic searching Kara is doing for self (previously, the search was too over the top and just plain weird). Kara is striving to carve her niche, find her identity, and a costume that mimics Superman's so strongly negates that for me. Keep the S somewhere, keep the colors, but she needs a unique look. Like it or hate it, what she has now doesn't make me think about Superman at all.