We arrived at New York Comic Con bright and early on Saturday morning. This was beyond a doubt the most crowded of all of the days, but I have to say that the staff truly knows what they're doing; the lines were long, but moved fairly well, and it was an orderly sort of chaos, if such a thing exists.

I had become pretty worried in September when I finally accepted that the "semi-permanent" was not going to be out in time for New York Comic Con, but thank heaven Patti and Steph came to the rescue. Patti had gotten her hands on the base materials for a Rogue wig for a costume set they're planning for themselves, and when it became apparent I was going to have black hair for the near future, they generously offered to let me borrow it. Patti swears to this day it hadn't been "styled" yet, but honestly, I think the unstyled wig I wore to NYCC this year looked even better than my own hair with colored bangs had back in 2010. I certainly received a lot of compliments!

In addition, with Avengers versus X-Men just wrapping up, I had been reading more Marvel comic books, and enjoying them, than I had in years . It was a good time to be a fan again, and it didn't hurt that I figured quite a few other aficionados would be dressing up from the X-universe. After all, most of us got into the con scene in general and cosplay specifically to meet other people who love our fandoms. But I'll be honest, even that wasn't my main reason.

No, my real reason was that CHris was putting together an X-Men photoshoot, and asked me if I wanted in. I probably would have said yes anyway; I like hanging out with CHris, and he knows good cosplayers and photographers. But this year, I would have dragged myself through broken glass to be there.because he had invited me last year, and I skipped (I didn't want to cosplay Rogue two years in a row, and I had other costumes on my agenda), and missed the photoshoot, and THIS HAPPENED.

I COUL D HAVE MET SETH GREEN. I COULD HAVE POSED WITH SETH GREEN. I BET SETH GREEN LOVES ROGUE AND WOULD HAVE LET ME KISS HIM. AND LOUIS WOULD HAVE BEEN JEALOUS, NOT BECAUSE I WAS KISSING OTHER MEN, BUT BECAUSE HE WOULD ALSO JUMP AT THE CHANCE TO KISS SETH GREEN.

Regrets, I've had a few. But then again, NONE AS BAD AS MISSING THE CHANCE TO BE X-MEN WITH SETH GREEN.

We got to the con with time to spare and made a quick circuit of the main floor, but honestly, I was WAY too excited to keep my mind on anything other than the photoshoot. After watching me dance in place no matter where we were for about a half an hour, Louis agreed we could head over to the meeting spot we had decided on and wait for the rest of the group.

It was a good decision! Louis was able to sit down for a bit to rest his feet (and also ventilate a little bit; the Vash wig is really awesome but it also traps heat like you would not believe), and as we were near one of the main entrances to the con, I was able to see and photograph quite a few passing cosplayers that I might have missed otherwise.

This turned out to be a good idea in another way as well-I ended up seeing quite a few X-Men related cosplayers who had not been part of our initial planning sessions, and, well, the more the merrier! I was able to convince an impressive Mystique and Magneto pair to join us, which would have made me happy regardless as they both looked incredibly spot on, but also had a special significance to Rogue.

Soon enough CHris and his friends joined us, introductions were made all around, and we started the trek to the end of the Jacob Javits center that is made almost entirely of windows. During the walk, we spotted more X-Men cosplayers and shouted at them to join us, so pretty soon we had quite the X-Caravan going. (I would not be at all surprised if X-Caravan becomes a title at some point.)

Of course, we weren't the only group using the windows--the large, open space, which is usually much less crowded than the rest of the con because it isn't really near any of the programming, and the abundance of natural light make it a popular spot for photographers and their subjects. But since the space IS so large it's possible to have multiple shoots going at once without getting in each other's way.

Our photographer, Misty Autumn, had us take some full group shots first, and then started splitting us up into sub groups, and then couples. While I was waiting for my turn, I was texting my friend Richie to see where he was, and to let him know what Louis and I were up to. Pretty soon, I saw his silly awesome fedora above the crowd, and before I could stop to consider the consequences of my actions, I flung myself into the air and landed on him.

"Wow," I heard CHris say behind me. "Our Rogue can fly!" Thankfully, Richie caught me, and I did not give either one of us a concussion.

Rich's best friend Helene was with him, dressed as Wonder Woman--I swear, that girl levels up every single time I see her, her craftsmanship is amazing . The four of us sat and talked about what we had been up to, both at the con and in life in general, until I was called back into place for pictures.

I had never met or worked with Misty Autumn before, but she was a sweet girl with a great sense of humor and an open mind, and she was great at brainstorming poses, and didn't bat at an eye at some of the goofier stuff I wanted to try, like climbing the scaffolding of the windows (I apparently had decided I was going to risk head injuries virtually every way I could think of.)

I've never known anyone who cosplays Gambit personally, but we had another Rogue in our group, Emma, and her boyfriend Harold had dressed as 90's era Gambit. Misty and I asked Emma and Harold if either of them would mind if I "borrowed" Gambit to pose with--nothing inappropriate, of course, and anyway Louis was right there as well, but Emma and Harold were more than kind and let us take a few pictures together.

I have to tell you; honestly, between Misty's photography skill and Harold's natural charisma, we ended up taking one of my favorite pictures of the entire con. I can't begin to express how wonderfully the photo came out, but if you head on over to my Rogue page, you can see it for yourself. Misty, Harold, Emma, thank you so much. You definitely made my inner Rogue fangirl happy.

Once the photoshoot was over, Louis and I started texting my friend and coworker, Ed. Ed and I met at work, but we didn't realize how much we have in common until he came to my desk to fix my computer (he's in the IT department) and recognized my Ouran Host Club desktop wallpaper. Bonus! It's wonderful when you meet a kindred spirit in the least likely of places. Ed and Lou and I had become good friends, going to parties, playing Munchkin, and having some gaming nights, and I encouraged--okay, practically coerced--Ed to fulfill his lifelong dream to dress up at one of these conventions.

We knew Ed was dressing as Deadpool--the problem was, so were about 500 other people at New York Comic Con, and Deadpool's costume covers every inch of the cosplayer, from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet. Not even Louis's facial recognition skills could help us now. How were we going to find Ed? Oh, sure, he could see us--but Ed's a notorious prankster. We had no idea if he'd be up to something, or if so, what.

Ed texted us that he would be waiting for us at the entrance to what I still think of as Artist's Alley, though to be honest it had quite a variety of merchandise, so I'm not really sure what its official designation would be-nevertheless, we had to leave the main exhibitor area, go through the narrow passage that connects the two halves of the Javits Center in the middle, and come out the other side.

On our way through we lucked out by bumping into DJ Ranma S, whose baseball prowess I also tested by throwing myself bodily into his arms. (He was equally good at not dropping me.) But we both had people to meet at opposite ends of the convention center, and thankfully Ranma is one of the few people I manage to see more than once a year, so after a quick picture or two we continued on our separate ways.

We made our way over to the entrance I mentioned, and I was immediately distracted by other cosplayers, because I suffer an intense ADD attack any time I've overstimulated by masses of awesome people in awesome costumes. We looked around for Deadpool, but to tell you the truth, we heard "BANG BANG BANG!" well before we saw him.

Ed! His costume was amazing . His weapons arsenal was extensive. His sense of humor, entirely unpredictable. He was entirely in character. He had become Deadpool.

Louis was ecstatic . I think he had even more fun with Ed being in costume than Ed did! Granted Lou's a pretty big Deadpool fan, but in this day and age, everyone's a Deadpool fan, you know? He's a great character, you can't help but be a fan. Louis was delighted, and Ed absolutely fed into that, and walking around with the two of them was like having a constant comedy team in my ear for the rest of the day.

With Ed in tow we decided to show him around the con. Louis took the lead as he had the most experience, both because he had been there two days compared to my one, and because I spend less time looking at the booths and more time people-watching. We stopped a LOT. Granted a great deal of that was my fault; every time I see a costume I really appreciate, I want a picture. And Vash of course is usually asked for a photo as well. But far and away, everyone wanted to take their picture with Deadpool, and Ed posed with EVERYBODY. It was a blast!

Much like the car exhibit of the previous day, there were a lot of displays besides just comic books and the usual expected merchandise. Madame Tussaud's, located in Times Square, had a wax sculpture of Chris Hemsworth as Thor, and there was easily a 15 minute long line waiting to take a picture with him. I like Thor, but not enough to wait online just to pose with a life size action figure, so we were originally just going to pass by, until one of the attendants shouted, "Hey, Rogue! Come take a picture with Thor!" "The line's too long!" I shouted back. "Nah, come on up here!" So that's how Deadpool and Rogue ended up joining forces with a random Dr. Doom to try to steal Meow-meow--I mean, Mjölnir.

We conducted a complete circuit of the show floor. Again, I wasn't there to really hunt up old back issues that I needed for my collection, or collect newly released merchandise exclusive to the con. I took pictures. So many pictures. Every X-Men character I could find. Anybody who had any relation to Deadpool-and considering Deadpool is now on the cover on comics he doesn't even appear in, that's almost everybody. And through it all, the constant undercurrent of, "Bang, bang! Bang bang bang!"

This was also when we stumbled into the most coincidental meeting you could possibly imagine. Many years ago--I forget how many now, but it was well before Louis and I were married, so at least five years, probably a lot more, we had organized a Crew outing to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show live at the Bow Tie Chelsea Cinemas on 23rd Street, and we had all brought some friends--Matt had brought a friend of his from work that he introduced us to, whose name escapes me right now because I'm a terrible person (and I'm also bad with names.)

Years later, Grandpa treated Louis and I to Dorney Park for my 30 th birthday. We were on line for one of the roller coasters when the Time Warp came on, because my birthday is in late October and Dorney Park was already in Halloween Haunt mode. All of a sudden, we felt a tap on the shoulder, and we turned around, and it was Matt's friend! She was there as a guest of a couple that lived in the Lehigh Valley, and as they were waiting in line for the same roller coaster, Matt's friend heard the Time Warp and started telling her friends the story of the time she went to see Rocky Horror live in New York City, and as her eyes happened to fall on us, she said, "Matter of fact, I saw it with those two people right there!"

And as we made our way to the back of the exhibitor's hall, we ran into her again! Louis spotted and recognized her this time, and we went over to say hello, and introduce Ed, and she introduced us to her daughter. We joked that it didn't seem right that Rocky Horror wasn't playing in the background this time!

After wandering a bit more, we passed by Hannah Minx's booth. I'm sure quite a few people are familiar with Hannah Minx's YouTube channel, both for her Japanese lessons and her anime inspired fashion tips, but the main reason Louis was familiar with her was because Elvira herself, Mistress of the Dark, had made a parody video cosplaying Hannah Minx! Maybe we're a bit...macabre, but to me, there is no higher honor.

She was charging a fee to take pictures with her, and as we were on a budget we decided to skip, but Louis really wanted to grab a picture of her if he couldn't have one with her. It was a little difficult with so many people walking the aisles, but he did manage to grab one. He got a little nervous, though, because it seemed like she was looking over at him a LOT. At first he thought it was his guilty conscience because he was trying to "sneak" a pic rather than pay for one, but he found out later that Vash the Stampede is one of her favorite anime characters! If he had just gone up to her he might've gotten a picture for free! Ah, well, live and learn.

And then...and then...

There's this writer, Jeff Kaufman. And he had a booth to promote his new graphic novel, Whore. He had two go-go cages--excuse me, "jail cells"--that anyone could get into and dance, because, you know, his new graphic novel was called "Whore". I can't really fault him for that. And apparently if you danced for 20 minutes, you got a free copy of the book.

I can attest that at least one dancer got more than just a free book. When we passed by, there was a...you know what? No. I can't possibly describe what happened next. You're just going to have to look at the pictures. And hope that you, too, get to experience something this magical at some point in your life. Go to cons, that's all I can say.

That was pretty much the finale of the day for us, I mean, really, what could possibly top that? We came, we saw, we watched Deadpool put dollar bills in a man's briefs, it was time to run away and rest to cosplay another day.

Wolfwood and Vash

Psylocke

It's difficult to take good pictures in crowded convention areas

Classic Vash

Rogue and Gambit

Magneto

Hey, according to Age of Apocalypse, this is canon.

Mystique

Mother and daughter

Arch enemies of the X-Men

This was the spot we agreed to meet before our photoshoot

Of course, if you put this many X-Men cosplayers together in one spot, a photoshoot WILL commence

And we could not...

Get...

MOVING!

Even when we got to where we were going to do the photoshoot, we still got pulled aside.

The ladies of X-Men

Plus CHris

And Magneto!

Basically we were pulling X-Men cosplayers out of the crowd as we walked.

Killer B vs X-23

"And this is me with the king of Wakanda"

Hi Ranma!

I don't know how we're going to combine our powers, but evil doesn't stand a chance.

Yay Joel!

This would probably be more impressive without the "Madame Tussuads" logo in the background.

A villain, a former villain, and an anti-hero

Attack!

Not helping, Deadpool!

Still not helping!

All right, we should probably step in and diffuse the situation.

You know, this seems like a good idea for a monthly title.

I love Star Trek.

I smile stupidly sometimes. Okay, a lot of the time.

I LOVE meeting other X-Men cosplayers!

A LOT of people asked them to pose together. It was pretty cool.

See, this is the problem with sneaking pictures.

Don't ask. Just...don't.

Richie and I

"That girl is poison..."

A posed recreation of my original leap.

"Attack!"