Getting In Character: Cosplayers’ Boston Comic Con Costume Preview

Cosplayers put long hours—and a good chunk of change—into building their own costumes so they can spend a few days a year inhabiting their favorite works of fiction. From August 8 to 10, when Boston Comic Con hits town, they’ll finally get to strut their stuff for fellow fans. Here’s a preview.

By S. I. Rosenbaum· 8/6/2014, 1:00 p.m.

Captain America

Backstory: What if Marvel’s patriotic superhero had been born Stephanie instead of Steve?
Under the Mask: Tori Queeno, 22, a professional costumer from Bridgewater.
Why: “I love doing female versions of my favorite characters, because a lot of the time they’re the guys.”Photograph by Jared Leeds

Photograph by Jared Leeds

Ms. Marvel

Backstory: A teenage shapeshifter, and Marvel’s first Muslim superhero.
Under the Mask: Lisa Johnson, 26, an aerospace engineer from Cambridge.
Why: “She’s the kind of character I wish I’d had when I was 12, when I was getting frustrated that superheroines were so sexualized. It’s refreshing to have a character I don’t have to excuse anything for.”Photograph by Jared Leeds

Photograph by Jared Leeds

Storm

Backstory: Weather-controlling mutant, fashion icon, and key member of the X-Men.
Under the Mask: Aisha Beauchemin, 30, a grocery-store customer-service leader from Leominster.
Why: “I feel very strong, I feel very wise in that costume. I feel like a totally different person—that’s who I want to be. For all my faults and flaws, once I’m her, I feel flawless.”Photograph by Jared Leeds

Photograph by Jared Leeds

Louis Vuitton Stormtrooper

Backstory: A foot soldier from Star Wars’ evil empire who somehow joined the one percent.
Under the Mask: Jonathan St. Pierre, 28, a graphic designer from Auburn, New Hampshire.
Why: “If you’ve seen one Stormtrooper, you’ve seen them all, right? But you’re going to remember the guy running around in Louis Vuitton.”Photograph by Jared Leeds

Photograph by Jared Leeds

Khal Drogo

Backstory: The barbarian king from Game of Thrones.
Under the Mask: Estevan “Milo” Martinez, 27, a Web engineer from Cambridge.
Why: “I love to glare at people, but you can’t really do that in modern society without being labeled an asshole.”Photograph by Jared Leeds

Photograph by Jared Leeds

Daenerys

Backstory: Khal Drogo's dragon-hatching queen from Game of Thrones.
Under the Mask: Kaitlyn Webster, 27, a Ph.D. biology student at UMass Boston.
Why: “We’ve been making costumes together since 2006. We’re huge nerds.”Photograph by Jared Leeds

Photograph by Jared Leeds

Thor

Backstory: The Norse god of thunder, as reimagined by Marvel comics and, more recently, Kenneth Branagh and Joss Whedon.
Under the Mask: Tim Roberts, 24, a machinist from Walpole.
Why: “I’ve always been into Norse mythology. And I can pull off Thor. A lot of people, after they meet me, consider me to be Thor.”Photograph by Jared Leeds

Photograph by Jared Leeds

O-Ren Ishii

Backstory: A deadly assassin who battles the Bride in Tarantino’s Kill Bill.
Under the Mask: Lei Ann Resurreccion, 40, an acupuncturist from Watertown.
Why: “She’s badass. She’s a cool cat. You look at her and you’re scared of her.”Photograph by Jared Leeds

Photograph by Jared Leeds

Jack Frost

Backstory: The spirit of winter and champion of childhood in Dreamworks’ Rise of the Guardians.
Under the Mask: Konner Jebb, 20, student at Providence College.
Why: “The movie made me tear up and cry. Jack has a lot of personality traits I see in myself, that I want to be more apparent to people.”Photograph by Jared Leeds

Photograph by Jared Leeds

Getting In Character: Cosplayers’ Boston Comic Con Costume Preview

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Captain America

Ms. Marvel

Storm

Louis Vuitton Stormtrooper

Khal Drogo

Daenerys

Thor

O-Ren Ishii

Jack Frost

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