My First Time Cosplaying at San Diego Comic-Con as a Seasoned Con Goer

Any fellow San Diego Comic-Con attendee, or general con goer, will tell you the first question anyone asks when they say they attend is, “Do you dress up?” And for me, every time the answer is: “Nope! Love seeing it, but not my thing, I’m too busy at SDCC.” Until this year, apparently. Last Halloween, my friend did a very cool Red Robin costume (is it still cosplay on Halloween?) and my jealousy immediately pulled me into an unhinged spiral of spending all my time and money on building myself a cosplay for SDCC. I chose none other than Red Hood, Jason Todd, my favorite Robin, the yang to Red Robin’s yin, my emotional support Outlaw, but as my version of him. Mostly to avoid sweating through a heavy leather jacket on the show floor. But by doing a fanon amalgamation of my favorite looks, I had the freedom to avoid accuracy paralysis, which I imagine is the plight of many cosplay creators, and I was definitely feeling it as I began. A lot of my pieces were consistent with typical vigilante armor, but I went with a battle vest with motorcycle club patches instead of the comic-accurate brown leather jacket. I had guns that simply looked cool to me instead of trying to use realistic gun...