What was that about blasts from the past, you ask? Well, even though most of you out there are rocking insanely fast connections and souped-up machines these days, I still feel the need to limit galleries to 8-10 photos for those of us with older technology (hey, old habits die hard)... which would have left us with a 2-3 image gallery at the very end. However, in browsing my old photo archives, I happened upon the photos I took when I attended the BCC in 2006. So in the interest of improved photo distribution, let's kick off this installment with a few images from yesteryear!

First up among the 2006, photos, we have Black Widow and... I don't know who the other woman is supposed to be. Typhoid Mary? Fill me in. What's perhaps even more interesting than the cosplayers themselves, however, is the wall of Marvel Legends behind them -- and the comparatively low prices those figures commanded several years ago. Actually, you can probably get those figures on eBay for around the same prices today (shipping might make them a chunk more), but consider that those were convention markup prices. At this year's con, sellers were asking $20 for freaking 1st Appearance Thing.

Um... yeah. You know, this is something I surprisingly didn't see a lot of in San Diego or at this year's BCC. Sure, we saw women cosplaying as male characters at SDCC (often to super sexy effect), but there was nothing so horrific as these male-to-female sweet transvestite versions of Supergirl and Wonder Woman. I just hope you weren't eating anything as you browsed this piece.

And here's the last of the 2006 BCC photos that I have on hand. I'm not sure whether the leftmost cosplayer is supposed to be Blade or someone from The Matrix, but the other two are clearly symbiote Spider-Man and Blade. In any case, these costumes are pretty cool, and you've got to admire the guts of the person who shimmied into that Spidey suit for our entertainment.

Flash forward to 2010, and -- hey, waitasecond. Didn't we just see that Blade? We did! Four years later, the same dude is at it again. We salute you, sir. And this year, Blade finds himself joined by none other than Snake Eyes and... another dude from G.I. Joe, I think? Excellent partners to have in a battle against the bloodsucking hordes, if I do say so myself. How cool would it be if Snake Eyes and symbiote Spidey are also the same cosplayer?

Ares appears in the background of multiple shots that I took at the con -- ubiquitousness befitting of a literal god -- but here he stands front and center. I really like the thematic contrast between the god of war in the center of the picture and that guy who looks like he's eating an ice cream cone not far behind.

See, there's Ares again in the background. But enough about him -- let's talk about Batwoman and Batman Beyond! I really like Batwoman's costume (to say nothing of that steely gaze), and those boots are pretty nice. I really like Batman's costume too, but those sneakers aren't as nice. And hey, TAO... is there anything you'd like to add here?

I have no idea who these two are. Well, I get Little Red Riding Hood motif of the woman's costume, but I'm unfamiliar with the specific property -- and unless the guy is supposed to be the Marquis de Carabas from Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, I've got nothin'. Still, their costumes are bloody wicked, and not just because Red is carrying severed chunks of werewolf in her basket.

Finally, we have DOOMSDAY -- the first Doomsday I've ever seen, in fact. And with all of that padding, I imagine it'd be pretty hard to hurt this Doomsday in a fight. Just like the real thing! It's too bad there wasn't a Superman cosplayer (at least not that I saw) at the con; the two of them together would've made for some pretty wicked photos.

See you next time, when we'll be living entirely in the present (that is, the very recent past) and not scarring your eyes with drag queen Supergirls or Wonder Women with hairy chests. You hear that? That's the sound of you and every other reader breathing a collective sigh of relief.

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Can't get enough of those cleverly clad cosplayers? Check out previous galleries here!