Angels and Demons
Last weekend, people from around the world converged on New York City for the annual Comic Convention — a.k.a. "Comic Con" — an offshoot of the parent event held in San Diego. What started as a gathering of nerds years ago has evolved into an overwhelmingly awesome, sold-out, mainstream event not only for comic book fanboys, but also gamers, toy collectors, artists, and publishers. To express their fandom, attendees dress up as their favorite characters in a trend known as "cosplay" (costume play). Here's what it looks like, beginning with: Spawn's angel Angela gets plenty of attention on and off the comic book pages.
Will the real Spiderman please stand up?
Move over Broadway; the classic Spiderman outfit comes in many different iterations.
The Ultimate Warrior
Wrestling icons from the 80s will never fade away from our psyche as long as this guy has two tickets to the gun show (and face make-up).
I pity the fool.
I pity the fool who don't recognize this icon from the 1980s. I mean, he had his own breakfast cereal.
I could do that if I had those powers.
Magneto's powers of controlling magnetic fields can really come to life, especially when Chevrolet already has a helium-filled car-shaped balloon flying around.
Virtually Real
Gamers who multi-play in the virtual world actually exist in cosplay in the real world.
S, M, L, XL
Wookies come in all sizes.
Who ya gonna call?
These guys not only dressed up for Comic Con, they're also members of the Minions of Gozer, a stage show at New York City's IFC Center.
The classic platoon
The Toy Story trilogy may be over, but little green Army men are still marching on.
Cyborgs are nerds too.
Terminators from the future have come back to our time -- and have been programmed to totally nerd out.
The Mario Family
What's funny about this family is that the mother seemed more excited to dress than the kids.
Mix and Match
The cool thing about cosplay is you can mix and match costumes to come up with a pink Darth Vader wearing a tutu.
Con of the Living Dead
Zombies will never die from popular culture -- that's because they're undead.
Group of Killers
These "assassins" followed the creed to pose as a group for each photo request.
Return of the Hut
Looks like Jabba slimmed down a bit to put the moves on Princess Leia in her immortal golden bikini from the Star Wars movies.
Good guy, bad guy
The Dark Knight might have had a scuffle with Scarecrow...if it wasn't so crowded.
Anime vs. ComicCon
Coincidentally, the New York Anime Festival was going on at the same time in another part of the Javits Convention Center -- but this cast of Sailor Moon didn't care!
Creepy nurses
Costumes ranged from the cute to the creepy, like this group of nurses inspired by horror-game-turned-horror-film Silent Hill.
The Death of You
When the grim reaper comes, you should at least find comfort that you died in a euphoria of geekdom.
Hard Times
There must not be much work for bounty hunters these days: Boba Fett is now playing tunes like the theme to The Legend of Zelda on his accordion, in hopes of landing an engineering job in New York City.
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