Showcase Your Superpower with these 4 Stunning Comic-Con Costumes for Women
(Comic-Con Costumes for Women – Image courtesy of Unsplash)
I was a tween when my older brother took me to a comic book convention when I was a kid. This was long before 2008 when the first Iron Man film debuted. Before 2008, there was nothing cool about comic books, especially adults reading comic books – it was seen as a children’s thing. But something interesting happened to the Comic-Con industry – the evolution of cosplay and the advent of cosplay celebrities. The phenomenon of Comic-Con costumes for women also augmented the popularity of Comic-Cons.
Just as people believed that comic books were for kids and weird adults, many didn’t believe girls or women were into comic books either. Not only is that not true but there is a lucrative niche industry now for cosplayers and especially Comic-Con costumes for women.
While many everyday comic book fans cosplay for the fun of it, many others are influencers and small-time cosplay celebrities who visit Comic-Cons to cosplay for their own fans. A female Japanese social media influencer named Enako makes $90,000 USD monthly by visiting Comic-Cons all over the world dressed as anime, manga, and video game characters.
Many other cosplay celebrities and influencers make good money visiting Comic-Cons and cosplaying – especially female cosplayers.
So, whether you need some ideas for Comic-Con costumes for women, or want some ideas on becoming a cosplay influencer, you will learn what you need to know in this article.
But before we dive into the world of Comic-Con costumes for women, let’s briefly go back to the beginning to see how far the industry has come.
The Comic-Con
The first comic book convention occurred in 1964 and was attended by a few people. Back then, it was not socially acceptable for adults to read comics. The first national Comic-Con, the San Diego Comic-Con, was launched in 1970 and probably only had a few hundred people in attendance.
As I previously mentioned, the pre-2008 comic book convention was seen as something that only appealed to children. Or goofy and socially awkward adults like the characters on shows like The Big Bang Theory.
However, the comic book convention, and the perceived norms that coincided with it, evolved over the decades.
Even though Hollywood is in the midst of a writers and actors strike right now, Hollywood movie studios have made it a point to showcase actors and projects at Comic-Cons for decades now. In many ways, the two are inextricably linked since comic book films make billions at the box office regularly.
Local restaurants and hospitality businesses usually run out of rooms to rent and services to offer the tens of thousands of comic book fans who make pilgrimages annually to visit multiple comic book conventions.
The Cosplay Industry
Another evolution of the comic book convention is the cosplay or “costume play” industry. Cosplay is a very sincere form of performance art where people dress up like characters from comic books, films, TV shows, video games, cartoons, anime, and other forms of comic book or fan-related media.
But the true art of cosplay is to evoke nostalgic feelings or memories of a comic book, video game, anime, or film relative to the cosplay being presented for onlookers. Or at least create a creative spin on the character being cosplayed.
Anyone can put on a costume, but you must be ultra-creative to cosplay.
For example, you can dress up like Spider-Man and go to a Comic-Con convention and have fun. Or, you can have a friend dress up like an elderly man, Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben, and lay on the ground pretending to be unconscious while you, dressed as Spider-Man, pretend to grieve over the body and shake a fist towards the sky.
Such a cosplay moment recreates the famous comic book scene in Amazing Fantasy #15 from August 1962. In that issue, Uncle Ben dies a preventable death – and a grieving Peter Parker, in his first adventure as Spider-Man, learns that “with great power comes great responsibility.”
This unknown cosplayer dressed like an old man and recreated the Amazing Fantasy #15 Uncle Ben death scene with four different Spider-Man cosplayers he bumped into at a 2020 Comic-Con:
If you are not a comic book, video game, anime, or cartoon geek, you may not get the nostalgic minutiae of cosplay, even if you appreciate the creative aesthetics.
Cosplay is ultra-creative performance art for comic book fans (and fans of every other entertainment genre), not just dressing up in a costume – and people are into it. While the original comic book conventions started out as comic geeks geeking out over comics in conference halls, modern Comic-Cons would seem off if there were no cosplayers present.
Comic-Cons and cosplayers are inextricably and lucratively linked now.
Depending on which statistic you refer to, the Comic-Con cosplay industry was worth over $34.5 billion in 2022 and will only become more prosperous in the future. And women cosplayers and comic book geeks could be part of the key to that lucrative future.
Comic-Con Costumes for Women
There is a micro-niche industry of female cosplayers who visit comic book conventions for fun or to progress their social media influence careers.
Many female cosplayers creatively play around with the ideas of their costumes – some race bend or gender bend their costumes to create a fresh take on a character.
While there are a lot of female cosplayers who cosplay for profit, many other cosplayers do it for fun and camaraderie with other comic book fans who visit Comic-Cons.
So, here are four stunning Comic-Con costumes for women to amaze or influence your costume choices when you visit Comic-Con.
Cutiepiesensei Cosplay as Nubia
Cutiepiesensei Cosplay is an entrepreneur, fashion company owner, and well-known international cosplayer with over 500,000 followers on Facebook. She regularly visits Comic-Cons dressed as popular characters like Nubia, a black Amazonian warrior who grew up with Wonder Woman on the island of Themyscira.
Whenever CC dressed up as Wonder Woman, people would ask if she was Nubia, so she decided to cosplay the character.
Nubia’s costume color themes lean heavily more on gold and yellow tones than red to differentiate it from Wonder Woman’s costumes. And before anyone starts to believe the “woke mob” created Nubia last year to specifically make them angry, Nubia is over 50 years old. The character was created for DC Comics in 1973.
Cutiepiesensei Cosplay as Catwoman
In this photo, Cutiepiesensei Cosplay cosplays the famous purple Catwoman costume that the character wore in the comic books. Do you know how Iron Man upgraded constantly his armor in the MCU films? It is the same thing in comic books – characters usually upgrade or redesign their costumes whenever a new writing and art team comes along.
Any comic book fan who sees this purple version of the costume will automatically evoke nostalgic memories of reading Catwoman comic books from the 1990s when the character’s costume was purple.
Since Cutiepiesensei is an entrepreneur, and model, and owns a fashion business, her Comic-Con costumes for women-inspired outfit looks custom-made.
Ivy DoomKitty as Doctor DoomKitty
Ivy DoomKitty is a popular model, social media influencer, gamer, and international cosplay model who has over 2.9 million followers on Facebook. She has a massive fanbase who go to Comic-Cons to see her newest cosplay modeling inventions.
One of Ivy DoomKitty’s most well-known cosplays in the genderbending Dr. DoomKitty persona which is very creative and a provocative reimaging of the iconic Dr. Doom character. She debuted it in 2013 but it is still popular on social media today.
Panadonia as Squirrel Girl
Panadonia is a relative newcomer to the cosplay world and has 10,000 followers on Facebook. This 2019 photo of her at a Comic-Con cosplaying as Squirrel Girl is very popular and showcases her inventiveness.
The costume looks mainly homemade but it is impressive for evoking the style and image of Squirrel Girl. Squirrel Girl is a Marvel superhero and nanny who has the power to control squirrels. While it may sound laughable, the character once defeated Dr. Doom – with squirrels.
Conclusion
You don’t need to pay a tailor or theater/film industry tailor expert to create a custom costume for you. If you are a comic book fan, then you can recall your favorite comic book characters to moments to brainstorm a cosplay that suits your personality and budget.
If you are looking to become a social media influencer and cosplayer who makes hundreds or thousands of dollars monthly, then take it slow. Visit a few Comic-Cons, talk to cosplayers who will give you advice, and learn how to organically gain a following and how the business works before you start investing in costumes.
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Allen Francis is a full-time writer, prolific comic book investor and author of The Casual’s Guide: Why You Should Get Into Comic Book Investing. Allen holds a BA degree from Marymount Manhattan College. Before becoming a writer Allen was an academic advisor, librarian, and college adjunct for many years. Allen is an advocate of best personal financial practices including saving and investing in your own small business.
