I mean... some people I know would possibly wear a spandex-costume if it wasn't too revealing or flattered their figure enough... (*cough* Poison Ivy *cough* Power Girl *cough*)
... but is that ALL there is?
I mean... as I said before... I'm 6'2" and a semi-husky 210lb... I'm not small. Despite my love for some superheroes, I simply don't or wouldn't feel right wearing some costumes - like Spiderman.
(I'll probably do Venom at some point in the future, though... maybe even the pointy-toothed shark-smile and a latex articulating jaw, but I digress...)
I like Peter Parker - I *identify* with Peter Parker to an extent... and well... who doesn't really... it's how he was designed... the 'underdog' 'everyman' hero with foibles and weaknesses and 'humanity'.
But Peter Parker is (depending on the source material) anywhere from 5'8" to 5'10" and a lean 165lb... WAY smaller than I am). I kind of feel that I would be doing the character a disservice to wear that costume.
How weird is THAT, right?
Marvel Comics I have found to be far superior to DC in regards to 'three-dimensional' character development... consistently pulling out heroes that don't forget who they were before they put on the cape... and even WHEN they're wearing the cape.
Is there more to it... or am I merely trying to nerdily justify which characters I want to portray and which I do not? I mean... some characters simply LOOK cooler than others... which is obviously a factor... and usually enough for most people (Hence the sheer humber of Batman costumes out there)... but cosplayers seem to take things a bit further... and identify with certain characteristics within their chosen characters' mindsets...
... which is why we get looked at askance... we read the comics not just to look at the colourful action shots, but to immerse ourselves in the lives of our favorite heroes (or villains)... to reaffirm that bond of appreciation and understanding - of empathy - of the character's foibles, life and all that happens within it.
(It's also why real 'fans' of comic characters get passionately upset when the storylines of their favorite characters are ret-conned.)
("Ret-con: Short for 'retroactive continuity'... a process by which the creator/writer/editor of the comic or character drastically (or subtly) alters the timeframe and process of a character AFTER significant events so as to fit the character's current story to an event that happened in the past)
Cosplayers - serious ones - love the characters they portray... or else they wouldn't spend so much time crafting the costume OF that character and subsequently wearing it.
My initial thought is this:
Which of Jung's Archetypes - the Persona, the Shadow, the Soul or the 'Wisdom' - are cosplayers adopting when they put on the costume?
The easiest would be to say 'Persona' - the face they show the world... but that would not only be naive of Jung's philosophies, it wouldn't even be completely accurate... as the *character* underneath the costume is what appeals to the cosplayer, not necessarily the 'face' of the spandex mask itself.
It's never really simple, is it?
The 'Persona' in this instance is the character underneath the spandex... the appeal to the mask behind the mask... so is it a multi-layered Persona... or something altogether different - a sort of reverence to the Soul of the character?
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