I go to the local comic-con every year. Have since the very first one (sadly, this is the first one my oldest nephew will not be attending since he was five years old*). And some years we dress up, some years we don't.
This year is one of the former.
My cousin's three kids basically choose which year it'll be, and this year, they wanted everyone to dress up as DC Comics characters.
My first idea was an ambitious one: I wanted to be Bizarro Superman (Me Am Bizarro). But even if I figured out a way to turn the S backward on a Superman costume, I had no idea how to do the face (I always think of Bizarro as the angular "Superfriends" version, though there are much easier-to-put-off iterations, including the one who's just an ugly Superman.
Next I thought of Red Hood, the "evil" version of Jason Todd**, a cool design, which I figured would entail a dark shirt, dark pants, a leather jacket and somehow, his helmet.
Hmmm, that helmet. I think I'd have to buy an expensive one, or get someone to 3-D print it (which might also be expensive). And how does one breathe in a "hood" like that?
Even easier would be the classic, Golden Age version, which would require a black suit or tuxedo, a red cape . . . and a red plastic helmet.
Oh. How on earth would I pull that off? And if I did manage to figure it out (maybe taking some kind of bowl or helmet and putting clear red plastic around it), how hard would it be to see out of?
Lastly, I thought about Black Mask, who is, or was, a childhood "friend" of Bruce Wayne's, whose parents dropped him on his head as an infant, and resented them so much he burned down his family mansion, killing his parents and inheriting their cosmetics company. As you do.
Oh, and apparently, he was inept enough to release product that disfigured the faces of several women who used his makeup. And that was BEFORE he was struck by lightning and started wearing a skull mask around leading his own team of criminals. I was only vaguely familiar with the character, never having read a comic with him in it, or having seen the movie with the repellent title where he was played by Ewan McGregor.
Anyway, I went out looking for a white suit and, failing that, grabbed a light-colored suit that I figured I could use over a black shirt. I then ordered a nice skull mask on eBay, which was quite a bargain, figuring I could paint it black. Within a couple of days of ordering it, the tracking number said it had been delivered . . . to Ohio. I don't live in Ohio, so I contacted the seller, who said that the shipment had been damaged, but not to worry, another one was on order from Japan.
I told him I needed it by a certain day, and he assured me it would only be ten days--if I would wait, he would give me a 20% refund. I checked this guy's feedback, to see if he was a scammer, and literally nobody else complained of a similar problem, so I let it go.
After twelve days, it hadn't arrived, and I waited two more, then contacted him to say it had been more than ten days, even not counting weekends. He told me it was here, but had been held up in Customs, but if I'd give him just a little while more, he'd send me two instead of one. So I waited.
And waited. And--insert Maytag repairman image here--waited.
I told him I needed it immediately, and he said, "Two more days. It will arrive in two days."
Three days after that, I went to cancel the transaction and discovered that . . . because it had been marked as "Delivered" weeks before, I could no longer claim that it hadn't arrived. Huh.
Anyway, at the last minute (not literally, but a day before) I went to Walmart and got a replacement skull mask. Not nearly as good, but it would do in a pinch.
Unfortunately, that meant I was inhaling the smell of spray-paint the whole day, but that would still have been a problem with the more expensive 360 degree skull mask. I touched up the teeth with dark gray, and it looks fine. If I had it to do over again, I'd have painted it with acrylic paints and a brush, but live and learn.
In the end, our group was Two-Face, Batwoman, Robin, Black Mask, and Lex Luthor:
I was only recognized by one or two people (which is about how it was when I went as General Zod), but my costume looked fine, and it was neat that our whole group was dressed up together.*** My youngest nephew looked great in his costume, and enjoyed wearing it. And my cousin's oldest was already talking about what we'd wear to the NEXT con, so there's that.
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| My cousin lent me an Airsoft gun, which worked better than the Nerf gun I was going to spray black. |
*I didn't get him a ticket, worrying that he would have a job this September (he graduated high school in May). Well, he doesn't have a job, and due to that, doesn't have any money (well, not a ton anyway). But his big sticking point was not wanting to stand in line with me outside the building--something that's been a tradition for years, going to the end of a line so long it's on a different block and waiting for our turn to go inside. I'll miss him.
**Please don't correct me if I'm wrong--this shtuff changes in DC Comics more than Courteney Cox's hair in the Scream movies.
***My cousin's youngest daughter didn't end up being able to go, despite having bought a Supergirl costume, and while that's really too bad, there's no reason she couldn't be Supergirl next year. Or, if she doesn't want to, I could go as Bizarro Supergirl, since I looked, and she's just a zombiefied version of her usual self.