Pros at Cons

I hope it's no surprise at this point to anyone reading this that the Cooks, and many in their extended social spheres, are what can be kindly described as "pop culture connoisseurs." Alternatively, we also answer to "comic book fans," "movie buffs," or most succinctly, "geeks." Put some respect on it, thank you very much.

An avid subscriber to actor/writer Simon Pegg's views about geekdom for many years now, I've always worn my excitement to all things superheroes, sci-fi & suchlike on my size-medium sleeve, and I'm happy to report that, pop culture-wise, certainly, the rest of the mainstream world finally seems to be catching on to this good thing we've been raving about since we were old enough to run around the house in Spider-Man pajamas (just me?). A fun fact for any who haven't already heard it: rather than the traditional route of One Fish, Two Fish or The Very Hungry Caterpillar, this humble author actually learned to read in the pages of comic books. At a vulnerably impressionable age, my dad Patrick got me a then-new copy of The Essential Spider-Man, a black-&-white anthology reprint of twenty-five or so original Spider-Man comics from the early 1960s... that selfsame frayed volume retains a spot of prominence on a shelf in my bedroom, a decent amount of its pages bearing the chocolate fingerprint stains of six-year-old fingers, and rarely do more than a few months go past at a time before I take it down and thumb through it again.

Given such an upbringing, therefore, it should be no surprise that the Cooks and all manner of extended friends and family have added a pilgrimage to Comic-Con as part of their annual schedule for the past few years now -- and where better place to have it than our own beloved Beantown?

If you're a people-watcher (I could personally list it as a resume skill), there really is no more unique event to walk around at, open-mouthed, for the whole calendar year. We all had our cameras constantly at the ready to pose with the thousands of "cosplayers" -- people who dress up in startlingly elaborate and detailed costumes of their favorite fictional characters -- who made the convention center feel like a Mos Eisley cantina of comic book characters come to life.

Scroll through at your leisure at some of the craziest or most incredible sights we saw that day --including more than a few celebrity guest cameos! -- but just like they do in Marvel movies, make sure you don't leave till after the end credits have gone and the house lights come up.

WARNING: dad jokes, fanboy insider references, and puns galore ahead. You've been warned.

Wonder Woman, finally opting for some non-invisible means of transportation

GET YOUR STINKING PAWS OFF ME, YOU DAMN DIRTY APE

"Whosoever holds this hammer --

-- if he be worthy --

-- shall possess the power of THOR!"

For all you Neil Gaiman fans out there -- Coraline's Other Mother, because there's no way your nightmares tonight could get any scarier, right?

... Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.
"Georgieeeeeee....."

With so many things wrong in this neighborhood, who you gonna call?

Did someone call for a Doctor?

*REGENERATION*

"Come with me."

*REGENERATION*

"I am not a doctor. I am the Doctor."

"No, no, no, dear me, no. I am the Doctor. The original, you might say."

*REGENERATION*

I for one think it's about time there was finally a woman at the controls of the TARDIS. Time and space can't hurry up quick enough, Doctor 13. 

But in the meantime, Heather's content to just swoon  here over Doctor 11, the single-handed savior of the bowtie industry and Heather's major longtime crush: the super-cool and friendly Matt Smith...

And then fistbump with his bestie traveling Companion, the equally cool and exponentially more Scottish Karen Gillan (those red locks of hers are also beneath the badass purple baldness of Nebula, for all you Guardians of the Galaxy people out there!)

Far off in another corner of a galaxy far, far away, this trio had the privilege to meet and have a full conversation with the man fluent in over six million forms of communication -- the uber-posh and downright pleasant Mr. Anthony Daniels, Star Wars' iconic C-3PO himself.

And a good thing we did, too, or there would've been no one to shut down all the garbage mashers on the detention level for us.

Where there's C-3PO, OF COURSE there has to be his number one friend and rusty bucket of bolts, R2-D2.

Less friendly was (this INCREDIBLE cosplay of) reformed Empire droid K2-SO, who kept delivering slaps in the face to Rebel scum

"Quiet! And there's a fresh one if you mouth off again."

The costumes here were all truly of the First Order

Punch it.I gotta admit -- sitting in the pilot's chair of the Millenium Falcon (with Nien Nunb even in the background!) was, as they say, "a bit of a moment."

In a day full of them, thanks in part to these amazing Amazons.

For lunch: chimichangas all around

As prepared by the only deadliest sharpest finest adamantium cutlery.

For lunch costs, and all the other MAJOR dents in our bank accounts caused by the armfuls of swag we each brought home afterwards, the preferred method of payment was "checks with little poodles on them," property of Bikini Bottom's most ticklish reformed criminal mastermind

In terms of the wickedest being beneath the waves, however, there was only one contender. Heather and I were speechless.

Zachary, no help at all, just kept joking at the situation.

With all these villains lurking around, there was only one team who could Assemble to Avenge the day. After years and years, I finally got to join their number!

As you've no doubt gathered from this barrage of pics (chosen from out of, I promise you, dozens, if not hundreds more), it really is something of an event to be a part of. In my opinion, it's the kind of event you should want to be a part of, nowadays especially.

Simultaneous to these goings-on in our cool corner of the world, rioters and protesters were clashing in Charlottesville, VA, with heartbreaking results. While I'll take any opportunity I can to talk your ear off about the latest plot details for the upcoming Avengers movies, I can't lie and say that I was undisturbed or willfully asleep to the historic and horrible events that were happening elsewhere; they struck a jarring chord with me, deeply, as some idealistic part of me hopes also happened to all decent Americans. The narrative on display there (and on your news station of choice, most likely, in the week now since), of naked hatred, prejudice, exclusivity, and violence, should have had no business here in 2017... but we're long since past any false ideas of "there's no way this could have happened in our country" anymore.  It did happen, and in doing so, the proverbial rock of American society was upturned to thrust an ugly, ugly underside into the spotlight. As uncomfortable as it was - and is, and will be - for many of us to confront it, it's been there all along, and not everyone has been so privileged as to be able to ignore it until now, not when it exists as an entrenched part of the system for so many.

As whole ethnic groups and other minorities that make up the basic fabric of our society have faced this latest, horrifyingly blatant round of discrimination, there's been a lot of chatter to the tune of "What can we do against it? How can I, an individual, counter these kind of atrocities?" The most practical answer is probably no further away than a google search and donation (of time and/or money) to a PoC, feminist, LGBTQ+, immigrant/refugee, poverty, and/or general peacekeeping aid group who does that kind of work daily, on the front lines of their respective issues.
But what about the longer-term, harder fix of internal adjustment? What about the soul-searching that's needed to bring us to the other side of this? What behavioral model do we have that's everything opposite to what went down in Virginia (and other places across the country)?

And here's where it all comes back around.

While my Twitter feed was delivering livetime more and more discouraging updates about the state of our beloved country , I needed to look no further than my immediate surroundings at comic-con to find hope again. There, up and down every aisle, thronged dozens deep in places, were tens of thousands of people -- of every creed, color, gender and sexual identity, age, body type, and class -- gathered together, peacefully, in celebration of: what?
Celebration of creativity. Of passion. Of inclusivity. Of a shared community experience. Of modern day heroes, pillars of our 21st century culture: an undocumented immigrant from the planet Krypton who has become a literal embodiment of Americana and the American Dream; a space princess-general who has no time for your male posturing; a team of superpowered mutants, ostracized and persecuted because of their from-birth identity as outsiders; a lower-class Brooklyn kid who, after an issue-one splash cover punching Adolf Hitler unconscious, has been identified since his first appearance with defeating Nazis and everything they stand for. And forget all simple notions of black or white or brown or Asian skin color... there were people walking around that were purple, orange, green, metal, tentacled, scaly, and a whole bunch of other stuff I don't even know about (there was some weird stuff, honestly). These are the ideals we set for ourselves to reach, that we have consciously and societally raised up as the individuals and themes worthy of adoration, no matter how fictional they may be. It's pretty special to see such a large gathering have such unbridled enthusiasm for all those things and more besides, and it's a reason much better than people watching why I'll never tire of going to one of these events.

You may well scream that I've been corrupted by the "liberal Hollywood agenda," that I'm living in a ludicrous fantasy world, that all of this sad rambling is out-of-touch, privileged preaching that has no effect on the actual world we live in.

Well, ok. I respect that.

But what could happen if that comic-con mentality was applied to other things? For every hate-filled gathering by hooded tiki-torchlight, there's a gathering of superheroes populated by the part of humanity that I choose to be a part of, that recognizes, celebrates, and aims to spread positivity to as many people as possible? Could they, say, gather tens of thousands of strong, of literally every sort and type, to march through Boston in a peaceful yet awe-inspiring display of multiculturalism, love, and tolerance, drowning out and altogether preventing the hatred we saw only a week ago in Charlottesville? Or carry on the same fight in smaller, more everyday ways that seldom make the news, but which still allow me to retain hope in a country that never needed to be made great again... because it was already great?

Imagine if that could happen.

"My faith's in people, I guess. Individuals. And I'm happy to say that, for the most part, they haven't let me down. Which is why I can't let them down either. I know you're doing what you believe in, and that's all any of us can do... So no matter what, I promise you, if you need us - if you need me - I'll be there."