Casual Silver Banshee cosplay

I've got several days of leave to take before the end of March so I've now got 3 or 4 day weeks for a while, which is great, and most importantly, allows me to nap on the sofa on Friday afternoons while I re-watch Smallville, which I'm sure most of you know I love.  Smallville is my go to telly series for when I'm ill or don't want to think, or have a lazy day planned, so I'm currently on season 10.  Today I watched:
Warrior (which had Lois in an Amazon Princess outfit which is glorious)
Persuasion, which had Lois gaining the values of a traditional 50s housewife, while still being quintessentially Lois
Conspiracy, which is really, really quite dark
and Escape, which has Lois and Clark on a romantic getaway, to the same place that Oliver and Chloe go to, not for romance, but for a dirty weekend.  It's also got the Silver Banshee, whom I love. Particularly, I love her costume, so I got to thinking what could a casual Banshee cosplay look like.

This is the traditional Silver Banshee costume:

Now because I like the aesthetic so much I would love to do a true to the comic version of this costume, but I'm not sure I'd ever have the confidence to wear something so form fitting.  I also have a thing for Marvel's Black Cat's costume (it must be the monochrome), and a while ago I saw a great casual cosplay on tumblr.

Long story short, I was inspired by Smallville's episode and the Black Cat costume to come up with a casual outfit for the Silver Banshee.
These are the rules I'm playing to:

• It's con casual, not everyday casual.  So it's something that needs to be recogniseable to other comic fans.
• The outfit must ape the banshee's costume enough to be recogniseable but must consist of ordinary clothes I would myself wear everyday.

I found these items online which I thought would work:

 

Hair extensions from La Demoiselle on Amazon

Bangle by Liquorish from ASOS - to be worn one on each wrist
Black scoop neck top from Dorothy Perkins
Monochrome Top from Asos collection
Skinny black lisbon jeans from Asos
Boots from this ebay seller - they are called Oxford Roma and come from China.  I'd rather people bought goods from a UK shop though.

At a con you'd want to do Silver Banshee makeup, then I think you'd be recogniseable. What do you all reckon?

Alternatives:
Instead of the jeans you could do black tights and a black lycra mini skirt.  Instead of the tops I've chosen you could do a tight black vest, but then you'd need to sew on white panels to approximate the Banshee's vest.  This version would probably only work for summer.

Things I have learnt:
I hate clothes shopping, even virtually, and even when it's costume related.
I don't know the terms for enough types of garments to search effectively.
I'm probably not cut out for these sort of posts.

Marvel purchases from LSCC

Daredevil End of Days 3 I bought direct from David Mack, because Echo is in it.  She's now a teacher.  I suspect from the way that Ben Urich is talking away from her in most of the conversation she's rather an annoyed teacher.  The scenes with Elektra were also good.  Ignore the cover, she's not actually dead.  I would like to buy the rest of the serie snow, but probably in trade.

Black Cat 1 (of 4) was OK.  Discounting the costume, I don't really see the draw in Felicia Hardy.  She's just like Catwoman.  I suppose she's got better taste in lovers.  And her costume is really awesome.

Fantastic Four 1
This certainly makes Fantastic Four 2 make more sense.  It sets up why the FF are going into space.  Reed Richards comes across as a manipulative arrogant bastard.  I'm not sure even Batman is that much of a secretive git.

Black Panther Prelude to Doom War
This is th first issue I've read where Shuri is the Black  Panther, not T'Challa.  She's a very different character and possibly not the best choice to be the Black Panther.  She's impetuous and rash.  She doesn't think things through and she's not really in touch with the Wakandan people.  I'd like her to succeed, but from this issue I don't think she will.
Namor is revealed to be a badass.  I now get his appeal.  He's far scarier than his DC analogue - Aquaman.

Coming out in comics: Black Cat

This probably isn't news to anyone else but as I don't read much Marvel I don't know a whole lot about the Black Cat.  I have heard rumours that she's bisexual but I only got proof of this when I read the MC2 Spider-Girl series.  In it, Felicia Henderson is now 40 something and has a teenage daughter called Felicity.  They don't have a great relationship.  Before this particular issue, we had hints that Felicity was unimpressed with her mother's love life, but we didn't know for sure who her partner was until this page, from Spider-Girl 53:

Ok, so it's not explicit, and I guess that if you were particularly blinkered and maybe naive you wouldn't see it, but it's fairly clear that Felicia and the woman in the top right hand panel have just moved apart from a romantic clinch.  And that Felicity isn't too happy about it.  Nothing more has been said about this, and seeing as I'm now at issue 73 ish I don't hold out much hope for this being looked at again.  We shall see.

Eek I forgot something!

The Black Cat and Spider-man trade. The best part in it was when Spidey and Felicia had defeated Scorpia and she'd been put in gaol. They turned up outside her cell needing more info. Their method of getting the info out of her is to annoy her into submission - Spiderman flicks web balls at her head and Felicia starts singing 'Memories' from the Cats musical, badly. They do this until she gives in from frustration - about 2 seconds.

My point is that that is a much more interesting way to get info out of a bad guy. Sod the huge fights, superheroes should comedy annoy them into giving up.

It’s the ultimate man-cave!

Featuring spoilers for Spider-Man and the Black Cat trade, Booster Gold #21 (+ Blue Beetle back up), Action Comics #878, the Flash Rebirth #3 and Red Robin #1
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Spider-Man and the Black Cat trade, comprising issues 1 – 6

I think you all know that I don’t usually read Marvel, but I saw this trade in the second hand shop and plumped for it. I’ve always had a soft spot for Spider-man - for years he was my favourite superhero, despite not reading comics or watching any animated shows, and the boyfriend bought me a wall hanging of Spidey vs Venom. I have been aware of the Black Cat for a number of years and have really liked the look of her – white hair and an awesome costume. So when I saw this trade and noticed the writer is Kevin Smith with art and colours by Terry and Rachel Dodson I went with it.

Boy am I glad I did this is a bloody great book. Kevin Smith rocks, I loved his Green Arrow stuff and he has got a pretty good handle on these two. Black Cat is awesome – she’s flirty and glamorous and oh so cool and I am more than a little in love with her. The art is strong on the cheesecake and the low cut wardrobe but that’s part of who she is, it’s not gratutitous.

Hell, even the paper this is printed on is really nice, it’s quite thick, not quite card but definitely not thin like, say Dc’s Teen Titans trades.

Parts 1 to 4 are all very lighthearted and fun. Spidey and Felicia are on different cases but bump into each other when their leads take them to the same man. They then team up and there is much flirting and griping about how their previous relationship ended. They continue tracking down the bad guy, Garrison, Felicia decides to go directly for Garrison and leaves Spidey tied up so he can’t stop her. She then gets caught in a trap and arrested. Spidey gets Daredevil on side to help bust Felicia out only to find out that she’s already gone.

This brings us to part 5, Felicia has been teleported away by the brother of the bad guy and this is when it stops being quite so lighthearted. Felicia and the brother, Francis, are talking on a rooftop, I assume they already know each other, and it turns out Francis had been sexually abused by Garrison, his brother, for years, since childhood. Kevin Smith must have had an agenda writing this because there is a discussion on the motives behind abuse, the ‘fault’ of the victim, statistics on rape in America, the feelings after the abuse, how to deal with it and move on from it and the role of the police. It is also revealed that Felicia was raped at University (this had nothing to do with her decision to become the Black Cat).

It’s powerful stuff, it’s upsetting stuff. Not an easy read but really well done. Definitely recommended and if there are any more of these trades I’m gonna be hunting them down.

Booster Gold #21 feat. Blue Beetle back up.
More fun from Mr Jurgens. The title of this post comes from this issue and is spoken by Booster when he gets back to the Batcave. He has a point. I want a giant dinosaur. Good issue and Booster’s next task it to back in time and save Nightwing from the black Beetle who has just killed him. Should be fun.

The BB back up was also good and makes me wish that I’d bought the BB ongoing. Oh well. Jaime gets to fight a giant robot named Thinko. The fight goes on for three hours, much to the chagrin of his friends. Thinko is destroyed but a new threat in the form of an army of Unimate robots arrive declaring the human race imperfect and therefore in need of cleansing from earth. How does the dude who designed Unimate know that he’s not going to be destroyed after everyone else has been killed? Everyone knows robots can easily turn on their masters.

Action Comics #878
Again with the advertising for children’s books. The inside cover features an ad for fluffy children’s book with characters named Tumtum and Nutmeg (mice), Haggy Aggy and a book titled Jurassic Grampa and The Mousehunter. It even has a quiz titled ‘What (book) fits your personality best?’ which indicates to me that they think kids are reading the comic. Yet in the first few pages we see the bad guys land near an old lady’s house, ask about the state of her bed, kill her, destroy the house and have sex on her bed with the lady’s still frozen body next to them.

Not a kid’s comic!

As for the rest of the comic, not bad. Thara looks rather young in this, but that makes sense as her and Chris are revealed to be in relationship, and if she was in her mid 20s, as she’s looked in other books, that would be wrong and weird. As it is they make a lovely couple.

The art is good. Basic, not much detailing, but good. I really like Chris’ golden band round his forehead.

The Flash Rebirth #3
Wow, this was so much better than the previous two issues. No more long flashbacks (arg!), we’re actually dealing with the here and now. The first page featuring the puppets looked great. I really like how they are using representations of the heroes to move the story along.

Bart arrives and asks Barry if he knows anything about Max. Unfortunately he doesn’t. I’m really glad they are bringing that up and not just forgetting about Max Mercury. The power of the Black flash courses through Barry and he has to tell the other Flashes to run in order to save themselves. He then screams for Hal to get him out of the area. I think this is a really great touch – it shows how implicitly they trust each other and how well they work together.

Barry then asks to be let out and decides to run back to the speed force as he doesn’t belong back on earth and he doesn’t want to endanger those he loves. Superman races beside him and tries to talk him out of it. Flash easily outraces Supes. As it should be.

Barry runs to the speed force and meets Max Mercury and Johnny Quick there. Johnny is seemingly destroyed when he touches Barry but then we see it is actually the Reverse Flash who has done this. Obvious villain? Maybe, but it works, it fits. I like it. And I’m really hoping for them to bring Max back.

Red Robin #1
It’s Tiiimmmmmy! Oh yeah, I’m happy :D
My wallet and my shelf space won’t be happy as I see this is an ongoing, but I’m happy.

I hate the costume. It’s awful and doesn’t look like Tim. I can see why they’ve chosen that one, but I think it’s crap. Tim angsts some more, but I think he’s entitled to it. His world just keeps falling apart bit by bit. Family and friends all die, then Bruce his adopted father dies, and then Dick takes away the Robin costume. I mean, he’s only a teenager and we’ve seen his unstable tendancies, caused by grief – futureTim and attempting to clone Connor, so you’d think Dick would be drawing him into the fold and letting him know he’s loved. Or no he just gets pushed out. Dick Grayson, you suck. Tim needs to be with people, not be isolated. He now thinks all he’s got is Bruce Wayne and lord knows that man isn’t a healthy parental figure.
Hopefully Steph will catch up with him properly and he’ll get some support from her. Or Bart and Kon will come find him.