Halloween is once again upon us! That means it's time to take a look at the world of nerd-related Halloween costumes! This is my favorite time of year, and this is my fourth year covering the world of costumes. Seriously, Halloween is awesome for everyone. You get to dress up as your favorite character, run around the streets of your local town, and you won't be judged as much as you normally would.
Last year, we took a look at some good costumes, some bad costumes, and some sexy costumes, or as I call it "The Good, The Bad, and The Sexy." I figured we may as well stick with the format, since it just works. Most of the costumes selected this year are new for 2012, and a couple I've just never seen before. Here's a few of the best looking costumes we've seen this year that are all available for purchase online.
X-Men Mystique
I came across this Mystique costume by random chance, and I'm ever so happy I found it. It can be extremely hard to find good looking women's costumes that are not only accurate, but ones that aren't just created to showcase the lady's T&A. It actually matches the comic book version of this character extremely well, which is surprising since so many halloween costumes based on comic characters either translate terribly or just look awkward.
The actual costume comes with a blue bodysuit, which is attached to the white tunic. You'll also get the white gloves, the skull belt, and the red wig. All you need to make this complete are some white boots, and some blue facepaint. Sure, you're probably tossing in another $50 for the costume, but wait until you see the looks on everyone's faces when you walk into the party and people ask, "Are you an alien?" And you respond with sadness in your heart, "yeah, sure."
This Mystique costume is not only great looking, but it's pretty affordable. It will cost you $74.99, which may be a little bit more than most people are willing to spend, but looking good will cost ya.
I'm glad this costume exists for numerous reasons. We see a lot of Spider-Man, Captain America, and Wolverine costumes, and lots of the time, they try to turn those costumes into a female "sexified" version, and it always fails. Here we have a classic female Marvel character costume done right.
Awesomeness - 9/10
Price - 7/10
Overall - 9/10
Black Lantern Batman
And the award for most oddly specific costume relating to a 12 issue mini-series from DC comics goes to, Black Lantern Batman! It's being sold as "Zombie Batman," but that symbol on his chest tells me and other Green Lantern fans that this costume is from the few panels of Blackest Night where Batman's body rose from the grave and the Bat-Zombie helps bring some characters who died in the past, that are now alive to the Black Lantern Corps. All that info for one little costume.
Black Lantern Batman comes with everything you see here except for the black boots and the black gloves. The problem is that the mask is only a half-mask, so the back of your head is vulnerable to attack. This is why you have to spend forty more dollars on this mask, which has a back and frankly, it looks a lot nicer.
This costume will set you back $60, plus another $40 is you really want to make it complete because again, the mask that comes with this costumes is only a half mask. You're going to have to throw down $100 to honor this character most people have forgotten about.
I love the fact this costume exists because it's so specific to not only a certain character, but to a story line as well. It looks pretty darn good, and if I had to pick any character to be for Halloween, it would be this one.
Awesomeness - 10/10
Price - 9/10 (With half mask) 6/10 (with full mask)
Overall - 9/10
M Bison
Have you ever wanted to dress up like the leader of a terrible terrorist organization but found their day-to-day outfits so drab? Then you may want to look into getting the fabulous M Bison costume! You can be the belle of the ball in this fantastic over-the-top, little red outfit. We all know M (which I assume stands for Mandy) Bison from the Street Fighter video game series, and this year, you have the chance to be him, instead of just pressing buttons and controlling him.
When you throw down your hard earned money to buy this costume, you will get everything you see here except for the boots and the look of self-worth this model has on his face. That's sold separately. This is one of the very few costumes where you actually get everything you see in the ad.
You can Psycho Crush anyone at your Halloween party for the price of $80. The costume does look a tad cheesy, but it's more because the costume just doesn't translate as well as other character's costumes.
This is one of the cooler costumes I found this year because it's based off a character that isn't as popular as some of the other fighters from the Street Fighter series, and the costume looks pretty darn cool. If I were to buy this, I'd spend most of the night crouching for two seconds, then jumping and kicking. I'll stomp everyone's heads.
Awesomeness - 9/10
Price - 7/10
Overall - 8/10
Arkham City Joker
There have been way too many Joker costumes, especially since The Dark Knight came out, and we saw a hundred or so terrible costumes based of Heath Ledger's Joker. It's pretty darn refreshing to see a Joker costume that is a bit more unique than the rest of them. Here we have a Joker costume based off the smash hit game Batman: Arkham City. What's great about this costume is that it's a new look at an old favorite. Plus, that mask is pretty awesome looking.
The costume comes with everything you see here, minus the shoes; however, just pull out those dress shoes in the back of your closet and you should be fine. The only real down side to this costume is that it comes in one size, "standard." That will fit a waist from 30"-34". Essentially, it's a Medium/Large size.
You can be the funniest guy at the party for the mere price of $54.99. Now, there are a few other mask choices for this costume as well. The Deluxe Arkham Asylum mask for $50 or a ridiculous, over-the-top Joker mask for $60. This is one of the few times where the mask provided with the costume looks better than the other options.
I think the look of this costume is extremely cool. I love how bizarre it looks: The purple jacket and pants, the yellow vest with the giant buttons and the green bow tie. For me, this costume has a great look to it, and hopefully, it isn't made poorly.
Awesomeness - 10/10
Price - 9/10
Overall - 10/10
She Ra
My personal favorite costume this year isn't even a costume I can wear in public without being weirdly shamed by friends and peers, and that's only because I have chicken legs: It's She Ra. However, I know there are tons of women who would love to don the better half's wordrobe of the Masters of the Universe (Seriously, She Ra is vastly superior to He Man and his terrible hair cut). Isn't it nice to see another female costume on "The Good" list that isn't just a parade of boobs and butts?
This costume comes with the dress, the cape, the headpiece, and the boot covers. Essentially, it's almost everything you see here.
To look this good, you're going to have to throw down $63, but hey, it's on sale. On top of that, you'll need to spend some more of your hard earned money on a wig, unless you already have lovely, golden locks. You'll also need boots as well.
The costume looks dead accurate for the costume from the 80s cartoon, as well as the comic. It's great to see a costume, once again, that isn't overly revealing for the sake of being overly revealing. On top of that, this costume got lots of great reviews on the website, with the only downside being that it can run a tad large. This is by far my favorite of this year's crop of good Halloween costumes. However, I'm a bit confused as to why this costume exists. Is it the 30th anniversary of He-Man or something?
Awesomeness - 10/10
Price - 9/10
Overall - 10/10
Well, that's it for this week guys! Join us next week when we go over some of the worst costumes for this season. You know, the stuff you need to stay away from unless you're going to some weird, ironic "worst costume" Halloween party.
Mat "Inferiorego" Elfring is a writer, teacher, comedian, and founder of the Barely Watchable
Network. Follow him on the twitter.