Can this be? Rey and Kylo Ren working together? Say it ain’t so!
Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: my wife and I spent two days at the seventh annual Chicago Comics and Entertainment Exposition, where Midwest comics fans in particular and geeks in general gather together in the name of imaginary worlds from print and screen to revel in fiction and touch bases on what’s hot or cool at this moment in pop culture.
We expected new costume ideas to abound thanks to the interstellar success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the whole new cast of iconic characters for us to watch, study, follow, debate, and impersonate. We saw veritable armies of Rey and Kylo Ren parading around the show floor and claiming it as their own. We caught a mere fraction of a fraction of the Star Wars fans on site.
Rey and Mini-BB-8 steal the scene from Vader, Leia, and Actual-Size Yoda.
The only Finn we saw all weekend. With Eastet-egg cameo by Ramona Flowers.
The only Poe Dameron we saw all weekend wants YOU to join the Resistance!
Another Kylo Ren takes on a traditional Jedi who escaped Order 66. But not for long.
* * * * *
STAR WARS MERCHANDISE INTERMISSION!
Prepping your own all-Lego The Force Awakens fan-film for YouTube? Two different vendors are ready to hook you up with all the background extras you need.
Lego Kylo Ren: soon to be a costume variant, probably.
Lego Rey and Lego BB-8: both built to survive.
The folks at Funko brought Mega-BB-8, grand emperor of the kingdom of Funko Pop. Or Funko Pop! Or Funko POP! Look, I don’t buy the things, so I’m old and I have no idea which parts are or aren’t capitalized or punctuated.
* * * * *
And now, back to Star Wars costumes:
Stepping into the path of this much taller, briskly walking Wookiee was one of my more foolhardy acts in the name of cosplay photos.
Somewhere in the galaxy, Emo Kylo Ren is wailing and rending his garments at the sight of this version of his idol.
Strong will, tremendous leaping skills, Spider-Sense warning him of danger, dead parents, lousy at long-term romantic attachments because of the meddling of others…Jedi Spider-Man makes perfect sense.
Ahsoka Tano lives! And takes questions along with the Fairy Godmother from Shrek 2.
AN AT-ST lumbers onto the show floor. Right after Anne snapped this pic, a leg fell off. “IT WAS EWOKS!” she shouted.
This very special MCC series is far from over, but this was the very last photo we took on our very last day before we headed home — one last Rey hanging out with her new comrade Artoo, beeping merrily and welcoming her to the Star Wars Universe and the wild, wild world of convention cosplay legends.
To be continued! Other entries in the series so far:
* Part 1: C2E2 Kicks Off Our 2016 Convention Season in Style
* Part 2: Dance of the Mad Deadpools
* Part 3: We Are Here For Supergirl!
