Echoing Box Office Successes, Houston Cosplayers Spared No Expense in 2019

Mark Herman Reyes December 23, 2019 4:00AM

Photo by Mark Reyes

Fandemic Tour Houston 2019.

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There's no forgetting the childhood joy of turning a towel into a makeshift cape to act out the adventures of Superman. It seems we never outgrow that thrill, a phenomena that we observed this year at Comicpalooza, Fandemic Tour Houston and even the Texas Renaissance Festival.

Our love affair with comic book characters continued to the silver screen when Christopher Reeve donned the cape to embody Superman and battle the villainous Lex Luthor in 1978's action adventure flick. [Note, that cape just sold at auction for $193,750.]

Sure, there were earlier comic-to-film releases, but at the time Superman: The Movie was the most expensive film ever made and ushered in the whiz-bam-bang special effects that we've come to demand and expect. Superman was the granddaddy of a new genre, with Hollywood scriptwriters creating new scenarios for already established characters and embracing themes from both the DC and Marvel universes. We never looked back.

If Superman was the tipping point, Robert Downey Jr. opened the door for the entire Avengers franchise when he took on the role of billionaire engineer Tony Stark in 2008's Iron Man. Nobody saw that coming, and just think about what's been unleashed since then: The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity Wars, Ant-Man and The Wasp, Captain Marvel, and Avengers: Endgame.