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Fans Do Cool Things

Genderswap And Other Alternative Cosplay From Comic-Con 2012

by Jill Pantozzi | 3:32 pm, July 18th, 2012



  1. 1.Superhero Disney Princesses Superhero Disney Princesses

    Cosplay is fun no matter what but when you've been doing it a few years, you start to think outside the box and see how you can mix things up a bit. There's also those first-timers out there who want to start with something a little less complicated (what am I saying, cosplay is always complicated!) that's more of an outfit than a costume yet still portrays their favorite character. In the last few years, genderswap and alternative versions of costumes have gotten popular in the cosplay world. Here's a collection of just those kinds of cosplays from Comic-Con International 2012.

    (via Eurobeat Kasumi Photography)

  2. 2.Kratos from God of War Kratos from God of War

    (via DTJAAAAM)

  3. 3.Black Widow Black Widow

    (via DTJAAAAM)

  4. 4.Halo Halo

    (via CheekHabit)

  5. 5.Wolverine Wolverine

    (via ComicsAlliance)

  6. 6.Steampunk Lara Croft Steampunk Lara Croft

    (via Bitspitter)

  7. 7.My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

    (via PsikickConphoto)

  8. 8.Geordi La Forge Geordi La Forge

    (via io9)

  9. 9.Blue Beetle & Booster Gold Blue Beetle & Booster Gold

    (via W10002)

  10. 10.The TARDIS The TARDIS

    (via DTJAAAAM)

  11. 11.Indiana Jones Indiana Jones

    (via Rick R. 1)

  12. 12.The Avengers The Avengers

    (via uncle_shoggoth)

  13. 13.Leia and Han Leia and Han

    (via WeKnowMemes)

  14. 14.Cyclops Cyclops

    (via DTJAAAAM)

  15. 15.The Rocketeer The Rocketeer

    (via P1LaughingMan)

  16. 16.Tintin Tintin

    (via Sebastian Jesperson)

  17. 17.The Avengers Bunnies The Avengers Bunnies

    (via Sebastian Jesperson)

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  • http://twitter.com/VoodooDarling Voodoo Darling

    It’s called Rule #63. Rule #63 states that for every fictional character, there exists a counterpart of opposite gender.

  • Joseph Fishbeck

    Shouldn’t it be “Sex-swap And Other Alternative Cosplay From Comic-Con 2012?” A gender-swap cosplay of Black Widow would likely look exactly the same because gender is not necessarily tied to biological features, but sex is.

  • http://twitter.com/giapet gia manry

    Haha, I love Belle’s book mallet.

  • http://twitter.com/giapet gia manry

    Understood, but I expect that if you tried to hold an event at Comic-Con called “Sex Swap” people would get the wrong idea… :)

  • mea.glitch

    Nice collection.  My personal favorites are Rule 63 Black Widow and Beetle/Booster, though rule 63 Nick Fury looks bad ass!

    Is it my imagination, or is the 3rd bunny from the left in that last image supposed to represent Agent Coulson?

  • http://profiles.google.com/mkjonese Emma Jones

    God DAMN the genderswapped Black Widow, Han Solo and Rocketeer were hot. Good job on the outfits all around, of course.

  • Anonymous

    Pretty sure the My Little Pony characters are female to begin with… I guess they’re here under ‘other alternative cosplay’.

    That Tintin was awesome – best cosplay I’ve seen of the character, male or female.

  • Anonymous

    if you live in toronto, you can see rule 63 Black Widow as part of the underground peepshow – unless my eyes deceive me, that’s Barely Legal Lelando

  • Anonymous

    Sex is generally biological, but gender is socially-constructed definitions of what is masculine and feminine. So no, a gender-swap cosplay of Black Widow would NOT look exactly the same, because by it’s definition it’s swapping the feminine with the masculine.

  • Joseph Fishbeck

     Can you help me understand this better?

    In Marvel Comics Black Widow is female sex and female gender. In this cosplay based on Black Widow, the person playing her appears to be male sex and we don’t have enough information about eir gender. Isn’t the term “sex-swap” more accurate from the information we have than “gender-swap?”

  • http://www.thenerdybird.com/ Jill Pantozzi

    You’d be correct!

  • Terence Ng

    Several of those Bunnies do not look please, namely Hulk Bunny.

  • Anonymous

    agent coulson bunny wins.

  • http://twitter.com/captainsharmie captain sharmie

    it is!

  • http://www.facebook.com/eric.lindberg3 Eric Lindberg

    The genderswapped Rocketeer could totally be canon! She looks like Cliff’s girlfriend, Betty (Jenny in the movie), wearing his uniform.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_IGRK4BKTKC5RGO56RXTUEVFJSM ainok

     Genderswap is one of those terms often used in fannish activities, so it’s entered the lexicon, basically. It’s less about absolute accuracy (because language is fluid like that) and more about all the associations the term has acquired over the years.

    At this point I doubt you’d be able to get people to start referring to it a sex-swap, but you’re welcome to try.

  • http://geekpinata.com/ Crystal Lynn

    I adore Leia and Han. Dat Cyclops though! <3

  • http://geekpinata.com/ Crystal Lynn

    ALSO I was *just* telling my friend the other day that I used to put a banana clip over my eyes when I was little and pretend I was Geordi. Um, pretty sure she did just that for this cosplay. AWESOME!

  • Anonymous

    I think in this case it has more to do with the presentation of the gender of the character rather than the cosplayer.  I think, in theory, cosplayers try to also roleplay the character in addition to just wearing the costume.  Black Widow presents as female in the movie, and here she’s presented as male, so even if the player is gender fluid in some way, the character isn’t, ergo gender swap.  

  • Amanda Murray

    The gender of the person cosplaying is irrelevent. If they are cosplaying a male version of a female character or a female version of a male character, they are gender swapping. It is, in fact, the GENDER of the character that is being swapped, not the sex. The sex is irrelevent.

  • Amanda Murray

    I’m gender swapping Cyclops at FanExpo this year, so it was very cool to see someone else’s take on it.

  • http://www.thenerdybird.com/ Jill Pantozzi

    I…might have done that too when I was little.

  • Joseph Fishbeck

    So in this case it’s accurate to use “gender-swap” because for the purposes of the fandom, when one of the two traits (sex or gender) is swapped, the situation is generalized to “gender-swap.”

    So far this semantic explanation makes sense to me, but above commenters brought up other points that I don’t yet fully understand.

  • Anonymous

    You are not the only one…

  • Anonymous

     That might actually be the case. In the first collection of “Rocketeer Adventures,” one of the stories features Betty rescuing Cliff in that exact outfit (though she ends up losing the coat by the end, of course. Ah, Betty).

  • Anonymous

    Fantastic. Proof that I am not nearly stunning enough to try cosplay. And no Princess Tiana Superhero cosplay? Wah

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Amanda-LaPergola/81300432 Amanda LaPergola

    I want to go to there.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Amanda-LaPergola/81300432 Amanda LaPergola

    Man-Leia, you just completed the last level of ComicCon.  A winner is you!

  • Anonymous

    I am so incredibly attracted to Tin Tin. And I never ever ever thought that sentence would be something I would ever end up typing. Kudos.

  • http://oaktree.dreamwidth.org/ oaktree

    Lol I know Black Widow. Friend of a friend. Small world…

  • http://twitter.com/coreyregalado Corey Regalado

    Check out this AWESOME sex-swapped Rikku cosplay. http://www.queerty.com/photos-meet-the-heroic-hunks-of-san-diego-comic-con-2012-20120716/2/

  • http://twitter.com/coreyregalado Corey Regalado

    I’m gonna disagree here. You could dress in traditional female garb and still call yourself a man. There’s a difference between transvestites (cis men who enjoy dressing as women typically do) and transgender women after all. Gender, to me, is not defined by the artifacts we adorn ourselves in. It’s always been internal.

  • http://twitter.com/coreyregalado Corey Regalado

    I agree–with conditions!: If the cosplayer is fully in character, pretending to be Black Widow as well as dressing as her, then I consider it a gender swap.

  • http://twitter.com/bamboo_princess bamboo_princess

    Geordi for the win!

  • Anonymous

    I need to get into sick shape so I can be part of this Disney Princess Superhero group. I know like 12 out of the 16 of the characters. I think the Pocahontas (even though we just see the face) is my fav. Although the Bell hammer is pretty bad ass.

  • http://twitter.com/embiguous Emily O.

    Wow! Thanks for posting my Han Solo cosplay! What an honor!

    http://www.thestylishgeek.com

  • Kristi Falkowski
  • Anonymous

     I think this might be a more common occurance than previously suspected. I did it too.

  • Anonymous

    Ahh! The boots! Thanks for sharing :D

  • http://twitter.com/embiguous Emily O.

    I have been hearing that a lot ever since SDCC!

  • http://twitter.com/embiguous Emily O.

    Thanks!! That’s my Han Solo! :) I’m just starting to post some tutorials here as well – http://www.thestylishgeek.com

    Rocketeer is Riddle (http://www.himearts.com/)

  • Mary Trujillo

    Leia and Han: 
    White dude with Asian girlfriend attempting to break a stereotype = breaking even on stereotypes while remaining a stereotype? Hmmmmmm…

  • http://twitter.com/KateDrewThis Katharine Tapley

     I figured out everyone except for the black and white girl in the front row. Also: WHERE was Ariel?

  • http://twitter.com/embiguous Emily O.

    Actually, we’re not a couple. He’s a random guy I ran into in the aisle and knew we had to get a pic together!

  • http://twitter.com/miriamjoywrites Miriam Joy

    Love Hawkeye! He rarely gets cosplayed let alone gender-swap cosplayed :D

  • http://www.justplainsomething.com JustPlainSomething

    It was meant to beeee!

  • http://twitter.com/princessology { chaka; }

     That Tiana was me! I was at a Breaking Bad panel when they took this picture, lol. Tiana <3 Walter White!

  • Anonymous

     Lol I imagine with such a huge group of people time management becomes an issue.

  • Anonymous

    For some reason I thought Ariel was the girl in the pink with the G on her belt. But, that wouldn’t make any sense. I’m stuck on the girl in the pink with the G belt, the girl in the black and white, the girl that is standing behind Merida and the girl next to her in purple standing behind Esmeralda. Also missing is Tiana.

  • Anonymous

    Yup, did that all the time too.

  • Anonymous

    Is the girl with a G supposed to be Giselle, from “Enchanted”?

  • Anonymous

    Maybe I haven’t seen that one. I think the girl behind Merida is suppose to be Jane from Tarzan (maybe Simba?), I say that because it looks like she has on a lepord print corset. And the girl in purple behind Esmeralda may be the girl from a movie I didn’t even know exsisted that has to do with Atlantis(?). And I’m still stuck on the girl in black and white lol.

  • Anonymous

    Yeah, I’m pretty sure the girl in pink with the G is the princess Giselle from “Enchanted” because she had red hair and wore pink sometimes. I think the girl behind Esmerelda is the girl from Hercules, named Megara? The costume is similar. But the black and white costume is still a mystery…

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