Never have nerds been sweatier -- or happier!

I love costume contests. I love the spectacle of it; I love the
energy; I love the fan interaction there. That's why I love Wizard World's contests, but before every contest, everybody runs around and takes pictures of costumes that they like. It's really fun!

It's GALACTUS, Devourer of Worlds! He is holding a Silver Surfer action figure, and telling him to find worlds to devour.

Green Arrow and Black Canary, together at last! The Black Canary was a man who dressed up, to hilarious effect. Never have fishnet stockings been sexier. Rowwr! I believe the Green Arrow also appeared last year; this time around he had an Errol Flynn mustache!

I could not believe these guys when I first saw them! The Sentinel Mark V and Optimus Prime towered over everyone! It was insane. Optimus could move his arms, and the hands were set up so the person could control Optimus's fingers! I even shook his hand. Check out the slideshow for more on that; it really is a phenomenal costume.

Marvel vs. DC! Arghhhh!

And then the contest began! This time, The Diffusor was there to moderate everything -- apparently the winner from Stan Lee's "So You wanna be a Superhero. . . True Believer!"

I don't know him either, but all the costumers were supposed to go up the stairs, do their stuff, and then strut down. A little problem with this was that people were going up and down the escalators constantly, blocking the costumers! It made good shots tough.

Marvel Zombies The Thing plus Wolverine. These costumes were pretty creative! The Thing had a pretty sweet homemade mask covered in blood, and Wolverine even had the Wolverine 'do.

Optimus actually had a light-up chest that revealed the Autobot Matrix of Leadership! Pretty cool stuff.

Adam Strange! He was the guy standing in front of me for a while. He actually had velcro-attached, LED-equipped rocket packs! He yelled something like, "I was a middle-aged man when this started!"

This wasn't part of the contest, but a Mario was holding a Yoshi plushie up the escalator. Too adorable!

Later on, the Diffusor made a very interesting note about how a horde of fans tended to whip out their cameras, only when scantily-clad women came in costume. It really didn't help the stereotype (=sweaty, horny fanboys). Later, he also pointed out how hard people work on their costumes, for a few minutes of attention and gratification. He pointed out Hawkfirl's wings.

That is a pretty sweet pack of wings.

This was a really cute duo! Ash was all excited, but Pikachu crossed her arms and refused to get in the Pokeball! Too cute.

I managed to get a non-bad photo of the X-Men group. They were a latecomer who, as they were walking up the escalator, saw the contest and decided to fill out a form and enter! Good times.

So, the contest ended with people getting prizes.The decision process wasn't as exciting as last year's, mainly because the audience wasn't the judge. Apparently, there was an invisible panel who judged costumes by -I believe- effort and time investment. Appropriately, Optimus and the Sentinel marked high.

My feet were very tired by then, but it was pretty fun. I also had a lot of Cheez-its that day.

Just a reminder: This was a mere fraction of the costumes there. If you'd like to check out more, go swing by the slideshow! Funfunfun.

TOMORROW: I scramble whatever other photos I have and try to turn them into a farewell post to Wizard World. Be there!