Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:
[T]he following photo collection, to be curated and presented here in three parts, was previously shared elsewhere online last year, two weeks before Midlife Crisis Crossover was born. For the sake of bringing my works under a single, unified creative banner, it’s my pleasure to present to you, the Viewers at Home, this memory parade of our second time at C2E2.
Part One focused on movie-based costumes. For this installment, our focus is the attending majority who support Marvel and/or DC Comics. Some were more inspired by Marvel films than by Marvel comics, but wouldn’t exist without the comics’ success in the first place.
In a rare moment of Big Two detente, WWII Captain America costars in his own special inter-company crossover with the grim-’n'-gritty 1980s version of Green Arrow, the first version of the character to retire the trick arrows and fight crime using only traditional, pointy, frequently lethal arrows…except in this photo, because C2E2 has strict weapons policies. Armed WWII Cap will be fighting to defend the both of them, then.
On the lighter side, Smallville‘s own Green Arrow was a little more mannered and a lot more charming than the ’80s incarnation. I’ll be curious to see if any Arrow fans appear this year in shirtless regalia.
Fans of DC’s animated universes will recognize the Joker’s pal Harley Quinn, and Starfire from Teen Titans.
Steampunk versions of established characters is a costume subgenre gaining popularity at cons. Such alt-universe flourishes will guarantee your costume will resemble no one else’s, and since you devised it yourself, no one can tell you you’re doing it wrong. Here, Steampunk Rogue and Steampunk Polaris represent for a hypohetical team of Steampunk X-Men.
X-Force was later shaken up and reformed after the con, so now all we have are recent memories. Front row: X-23 and Deadpool. Back row, left to right: Dark Beast, Domino, Archangel, Thunderbird, giant-sized Lockheed the Dragon for some reason (he’s usually housepet-sized), Wolverine, Cable, and Just-Out-of-Frame Lad.
Two X-Force members also posed with other X-folks, not just their color-coordinated teammates. Left to right: classic Juggernaut, movie Wolverine, classic Magneto, original Gambit, original Rogue, ’90s Cyclops (give or take a decade).
Frequent Spider-Man foes the Black Cat and the Rhino show off their ill-gotten gains, taken from the First National Bank of OldMoviePropVille. Caught unintentionally in the background are the Invisible Woman and possibly Captain Jamaica.
The illusionist known as Mysterio has yet to be allowed in any of the live-action Spider-Man films, but kids who enjoyed the 1990s animated series might remember him. We assumed his helmet had air holes and we weren’t oblivious to muted cries for help.
At the end of the Saturday costume contest, the Dark Knight was more than ready to take out the trash…or, preferably, to hunt down the evildoers responsible for this wanton abandonment of litter.
To be continued!
