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Here we are at the end of my Comic Con wrap-up, and we end it on the unexpected experience of helping some friends out for a wild day. Cosplay is a big part of any convention, especially Comic Con. I’d unknowingly foreshadowed the importance of Saturday in regards to it being the big day for the best cosplay when I was talking to someone during the Adult Swim panels. Saturday is the busiest day of Con, and so everyone brings out their best cosplay, and it was the day that the steampunk versions of DC’s characters arrived to take photos.

I don’t think anyone expected the group to be as big a hit as they’ve become, but they earned it with the amount of work they put into their costume. I didn’t get to take as many pictures as I’d have liked because I was busy helping out, but that made up for it. The level of detail into each costume and prop was incredible. If you were to just look at a single item of any one of the groups’ outfits and such, you’d see a lot of love and care put into them. The glowing effect of Poison Ivy’s mister, the designs on Nightwing’s billy clubs, the scars of Two-Face, the crossbow of Huntress, and more. The group deserve all the praise and attention they get.

The group was led by the wonderful Eddric Lee, photographer and wrangler of the group. He handled not only taking photos and leading everyone to different locales for shoots, but also made sure that other photographers got great shots. He knew what he was doing and handled anyone coming up for photos politely and professionally.

The following photos were not taken by me, I’ll let it be known who took each photo. Most of these were taken by Mike Rollerson, I believe, though if I’m wrong I will give credit where credit is due. They are fantastic and I will explain who is in each photo, and some of the adventures I had helping out behind the scenes.

This is the Batman of the group as played by John Wilson. I wish I could have gotten a photo of all the goggle-wearing characters with them on their eyes, they looked great that way. I was often running around making sure the group had plenty to drink, because if you couldn’t tell, these outfits were very warm.

Chrissy Lynn was Catwoman again, but this time she really upped the ante by making the steampunk gear that a cat burglar of the time would use. Her claws made it somewhat difficult to use things, so I’d often help her out with opening water bottles and such.

Samantha Terry was Nightwing, and really out of all the props everyone had, her billy clubs were my favorite. Mainly because I helped her put them away and get them back out from her back holsters, so I got to play with them, letting a childhood dream of fighting with Nightwing’s weapons occur.

Robin was played by Kacia Castelli. I like to imagine she was either Stephanie Brown or Carrie Kelly running around in a steampunk Gotham. Now I want to see Dark Knight Returns done in a steampunk setting. Fanfic writers, get on that please. Or at the very least, direct me towards the pre-existing ones.

Here we have Nobo Fett as Power Girl and Molly McIsaac as Wonder Woman ready to fight and defend the convention center. My friend Geardrops and I were also helping the group carry anything they themselves couldn’t hold due to the limits of their costumes.

J. Lance Moose was the Reverend Dr. Syn Johnathan Crane, the Scarecrow. Remember how I said some of the outfits had limits on what could be carried? Lance built pockets that blended seamlessly with his outfit. I saw this same tactic by a Lady Loki with a near invisible bag she had made to blend in with her outfit until she needed something. Lance even gave himself room to keep improving upon his outfit so that he could add some sort of fear toxin device on one of his arms.

Once again, Comic Attack’s own Mac Beauvais was in costume, and this time she’d taken her Poison Ivy cosplay and given it the steampunk twist. She had a bustle made by Johnny Bias, who you’ll see further down. The mister, which she made herself, was glowing green with hidden LED lights. I was often helping Mac in and out of her boots since they were quite rough to wear for the entire day.

Ryan Beauvais was in costume again, this time for his first real group cosplay, and boy, what a way to start. His Two-Face scars told a story of a man torn apart by the technology of his world; gears were embedded in both his skin and suit. I was often times playing with the massive cannon of a gun Two-Face had. Now I know what it’s like when God wields a gun.

Johnny Bias, remember him from the Poison Ivy section two paragraphs ago, was the Riddler. He had a cane that looked like it’d have anyone questioning what they were doing going after the Riddler. He helped build several of the other props used by the group, and they were all top notch.

Here’s Molly McIsaac as Wonder Woman again. I liked this photo since it’s another heroic looking shot with the same colorization as many of the other photos. So it’s put up here.

I unfortunately couldn’t find more photos of the other members. So instead I’ll let you know the group also had Golden Lasso Cosplay (she was Wonder Woman in the Cosplay for Charity event) as Batgirl, Rochelle Anne as Zatanna, The Huntress, Nikki Costa as Harley Quinn, and Brian Ward as Green Arrow.

This group was so amazing that DC wanted their picture, too. In fact you can find many members of the group all over the internet on sites like Entertainment Weekly and MTV. They earned it, getting to be up all over the net for the hard work they put into this.

So that was my San Diego Comic-Con 2012 experience. I ran around helping folks out doing a bunch of little things to make sure things ran smoothly. I got to see some panels, the only panel I missed was the Legend of Korra panel, and that’s because they had it at the same time as the Venture Bros. one. I got to meet all sorts of cool people, and speaking of such, I think I’ll end this article with some more pics of nice people.

I debated asking her to tell me I was a decent metalbender, because that’s some hardcore validation from a Bei Fong.

I ran into Ali Kay and Bethany Fong twice, here during my cosplay roadie gig and on Sunday with a bit more Venture going on.

This massive Dalek seems like the perfect end to Con. Thanks to everyone there, Comic Attack, and you for checking out what were effectively my vacation slides!

Alexander Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net