Youngsters love Overwatch, don’t they? Here, have some Overwatch.
Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:
In 2019 my wife Anne and I attended our very first Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia. We returned home to Indianapolis with a plethora of new memories, hundreds and hundreds of photos, and a shared suspicion that we’d return someday. Not every year, but someday. In the year of our grand pandemic 2020 we attended exactly zero conventions for easily guessed reasons. In 2021 several cons made their comeback plans, but Dragon Con stepped up hardest and made us some offers we couldn’t refuse. We didn’t have to think long or hard before accepting the special rules under which this pandemic-era show would be held…
Yep, more costumes from that annual cosplay parade. Downtown Atlanta was busy and bustling with hundreds and hundreds of fans dressed to the nines and showing off their fandoms and their togs. We recognized quite a few. Our knowledge bases and pop-culture consumption habits don’t cover all of them. Media and genres range far and wide and hither and yon and recognizing every single name is impossible unless you’re the Dragon Con staffer who processed their parade application.
In this gallery and the next one, many of the photos sport one or more characters we couldn’t put names to and Google failed to lend us a hand. Or it’s our aging brains holding back on us, which happens a lot. Some might also be the cosplayers’ own original characters that we never stood a chance at guessing. I hate posting costume pics without at least trying to identify the subjects. If you see someone you know, please feel free to shout it out. We do enjoy learning about new universes we don’t know, and we appreciate reminders of the ones we’ve forgotten. Enjoy despite our inadequate geek taxonomy!
Because YOU demanded it, probably, have some more Overwatch.
Dragons always lead off the Dragon Con parade, but we never know if they’re specific dragons.
This purple astronaut had friends dressed in different colors and with other objects glued to their helmets.
Action roller skater.
One of several folks among the Official Wings of Dragon Con, a green sorceress or witch or fairy?
Probably an angel?
Is there an anime hero who was once bitten by a radioactive peacock? Or am I overthinking this?
Darker winged avatars of some land or another.
I want to say the guys from Sliders just because of the John Rhys-Davies resemblance, but I wouldn’t know.
I once checked out a VHS copy of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai at our local library. The tape was two plays away from disintegration. The movie has never crossed my path since. Maybe someday it’ll stream on one of my services and then I can name any of these fine citizens.
Beetlejuice and anonymous armor.
I know Dr. Lazarus and the toothy pint-sized alien from Galaxy Quest, but I feel like I should recognize the dress and yet I don’t.
Shakespeare? Another bard? A filker?
“Stabby Red Blob and Elf”, the new sitcom coming this fall to Adult Swim!
Add the Fallout games to the list of Things I May Recognize One Day, up there next to the aforementioned Mr. Banzai.
The “Relic Seekers” team, comprising adventurers whose MacGuffins are all ancient objects that don’t belong to them. Indiana Jones, young Lara Croft, and Nathan Drake are the easy ones. As for the rest…?
Cortana and associates from the 405th Infantry Division costuming club.
Is this Borderlands Vault armor from the third one? I don’t have a PS4 or PS5 yet.
Won’t someone please bring honor to this red armored samurai and label him?
In the Middle-Earth cohort I recognize Galadriel, distant Legolas, Gandalf, and Tom Bombadil. But at far left…that isn’t Strider, is it?
The “Dragon Con Over 40” squad is totally our age bracket, but all those mystery guests in the front row make me feel 70 for my ignorance.
This Black 1970s painter marched next to a bleak Bob Ross, but as to his own identity, I’m drawing a blank.
As soon as I even think about pegging this as Lewis Carroll’s White Rabbit, someone will pop up and “well actually” me with a paragraph about whatever anime spawned it.
Another creepy killer from Atlanta’s own Netherworld Haunted House, insisting Halloween will go on. But I have no idea if Netherworld’s cast have names.
…and we have one more batch of strangers still waiting their turn in our lineup.
To be continued! Other chapters in this very special MCC miniseries:
Part 1: Return of the Jazz Hands
Part 2: A Cosplay Sampler
Part 3: Some Cosplay Parade
Part 4: More Cosplay Parade
Part 5: Still More Cosplay Parade
Part 7: More Cosplay Parade Stumpers
Part 8: Last Call for Parade Cosplay
Part 9: Winding Down the Parade
Part 10: [coming soon]