This is part three of my never ending love letter to Maya Lopez aka Echo aka Ronin. I just can’t help it, okay? Before anyone asks, yes, that is the top that I use for my Echo costume. When I originally bought the top that I used as the base a few years ago, I thought it’d be fun to wear with something high waisted. And hey! I finally followed through with it.
Thank you again to Heather of Zhobot for the photography!
Echo Top: American Apparel / Custom DIY
Leather Skirt: Local place in Italia
Nude Heels: BCBG
Black Wristlet: Coach
Earrings: Express
Earth’s Mightiest Heroines! The Avengers that no villain can defeat! Not even those villains up at the top.
I was originally tapped for this shoot back when the fabulous Socies (aka, She-Hulk) organized it last fall. She asked me to take part in the shoot and I was happy to do so. Unfortunately, I had to withdraw when I wasn’t able to make the convention. (Wait for it.) When the planets aligned for me less than a week before con, Lin decided that I needed to be in the shoot again. And also that she hated me and enjoyed my pain because oh god this costume was NOT meant for Atlanta heat. So she threw her Miss America jacket and fuzzy hoodie at me and told me I had to do the costume. That’s how we do it here at White Hot Room: clothesline each other into costumes.
Avengers versus Loki
All credit for the pictures of the group goes to the wonderful Danny Hunter! You can see the entirety of the shoot over at his Facebook. The ones of just myself and Jenny as Kate Bishop were taken for us by our friend Maggie.
Let me count the ways in which I adore Maya Lopez except not actually because we’d be here all day. I’ve loved her from the moment I first encountered her in the pages of New Avengers and then I somehow found it within me to love her even more once I had the chance to go back and read her appearances in David Mack and Joe Quesada’s Daredevil. (Her two arcs are absolute works of art, by the way, in every sense of the word. Everyone should read them.)
I first put together my Echo costume in August of 2011 for the giant Avengers shoot at Dragon*Con which turned out to be both incredibly fun and incredibly exhausting. The costume construction wasn’t terribly hard and was mostly a matter of finding the right pieces. The trickiest bit tends to be the “gloves” since I choose to wrap them up my arms each time in boxer style because I like the look. I’ve been looking for the chance to wear this costume again ever since that Dragon*Con and get some better pictures. The opportunity presented itself this year at Eastern Shore Fan Con a few months back.
Much thanks to Heather of Zhobot for these pictures!
I bet you can spot the former ballerina in the pictures below. I promise that I try to look like I can kick some butt but inevitably, the ballet training leaks out.
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I know. It’s not a geeky fashion outfit post but I promise that we’ll get back to those soon. This book was just too good not to write about!
Yesterday saw the start of another Marvel NOW book with the release of New Avengers #1 written by Jonathan Hickman and with pencils by Steve Epting. This was the first book announcement for new Marvel NOW ongoings to really catch my attention several months ago and it’s the book that I have been anxiously awaiting ever since. And boy oh boy did it deliver!
New Avengers reunites the biggest time bomb of a team in recent comic book memory: The Illuminati. No but really: this team is the WORST idea ever. Just ask the Black Panther. He’s objected since the group was first proposed and he still objects even now as he pulls them together. These men are the rich, the geniuses, the powerful, and some of them are even kings. That many egos in a room is bound to backfire spectacularly one day even with Captain America playing referee. This issue shows Iron Man, Captain America, Namor, Doctor Strange, Black Bolt, and Mister Fantastic all arriving in Wakanda and answering T’Challa’s summons. (See what I meant about a lot of egos?)
Hickman uses this first issue to beautifully set up both the book and arc, making it fairly accessible to readers who might be newer to the Illuminati. (If you’re remotely intrigued by the Illuminati, I’d definitely suggest going and checking out the wiki entry just so you have a more completely idea of their history.) At the same time, the issue doesn’t feel like it was a filler introduction but instead tells its own story.
The last six pages of this issue are absolutely stunning and I don’t mean that purely from an artistic standpoint. Everything about them is perfect from the words, to the art, to the lettering. It drives home not just how desperate T’Challa is to save the world but also the caliber of team he’s reuniting. If anything, his invitation to Namor should emphasize the gravity of the situation. “Save me from what we are about to do” reads the final words of this issue. They’re going to save the world but who knows what the consequences might be. In all honesty, buying this issue is worth it even if it’s just so you can read these last six pages. (Yes, they are that perfect.)
What I’m really looking forward to about this book though is the team itself. Throughout Bendis’s run on the the Avengers, I always found myself intrigued by any Illuminati plot line because it’s wonderful watching all them play off each other while trying to save the world. This is really the first time we’ll be seeing them work more as a team instead of a secret society and I think it will be those team dynamics that make this book great. I want to see the friction between T’Challa and Namor. I want to see Tony and Reed play ‘I’m the smartest person in the room’. I want to see how Steve is going to adjust to being a part of this group. I want to see how a team with three kings works. This is a book that is as much about how the team works together as it is about the plot. If I want to read about a team that works well together most of the time then I’ll pick up my X-men or Avengers books. But that’s not this team. Let’s see this team get out there and save the world or possibly destroy it.
In short, the first issue of this book absolutely lived up to my expectations and I cannot wait to see where Jonathan Hickman takes us on this wild ride. Illuminati Assemble!
We’re introducing something new today! Starting this week, we’ll have a weekly feature called Cosplay Tuesday, where we’ll feature one of our costumes and talk about it a bit more in depth.
First up is Bria’s Echo!
I first made this costume for the Avengers vs Villains photoshoot at Dragon*Con 2011. I fell in love with Echo (aka Maya Lopez) the very first minute she appeared on the pages of New Avengers. Of course, she was wearing the costume and codename of Ronin back then, but that didn’t make her any less awesome. Originally, I wanted to try and do the Ronin costume, but wasn’t comfortable trying such an ambitious project at the time. (Don’t worry, I made it for D*C the next year!)
Some costumes are mostly sewing, others are mostly buying. This one was a little bit of both, combined with a fair amount of luck! I found the pants for incredibly cheap months before I started really working on the costume. Where I really lucked out was with the top. I breathed a very loud sigh of relief when the top popped up on the American Apparel website.
What took trial and error were the triangles and the gloves. The triangles are 1″ equilateral triangles of white fabric sewed to the top. I eyeballed where to put them, so sorry that there is no awesomely good tutorial here. (I’ll admit that I made the silly mistake of originally sewing them to the wrong side of the shirt and cursing a lot as I took them out and redid them.) The gloves aren’t really gloves and more like very loooooong strips of grey fabric that I wrapped around my hands and arms. I originally had wanted to try and attach them to gloves somehow but struggled with how to make it work, so I went the route of several yards of fabric strips and lots of double sided body tape. I’m actually rather satisfied with how it worked out because I felt like the boxer-style gloves felt more organic and more like something that Maya would do.
And, of course, the costume isn’t complete unless you find a friend with tiny hands to smack you in the face with white paint.
I’m planning on making some upgrades to the costume, including perhaps adding another triangle to the top, adding feathers to the gloves, and maybe letting Maya level up with the weapons.
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You can check out more pictures on the actual Echo costume page here!