The Thrift-Shop Cosplayer: Cosplay: Jubilee (2011)

I've always loved 1990's X-Men, and Jubilee was my favorite from a young age. She also ended up being my very first "official" cosplay at a con.

2011, San Diego Comic Con.

I had gone to minor Comic Cons before; they were always small, and I was going mainly just to buy comics. I wore graphic tees with a Batman or Sandman character on them, browsed the bargain bins, and kept mostly to myself. The larger cons were outside of my experience, but I always kind of wanted to go. And I also wanted to cosplay.

Then, in 2011, someone I knew who wrote and drew for an independent comic lost his ride from Arizona to San Diego for SDCC. He said he needed someone with a car willing to drive him to San Diego. In return: the ability to get into the largest Comic Con ever.

Of course I wanted to go; it was summer, and driving half a day and talking comics the whole way (and nearly running out of gas and getting stranded in the desert once) was no price to pay for this experience! But I wanted my first San Diego International Comic Con to be in costume, and I didn't have much time or spare money! The con was barely over a week away! And so, my first Thrift-Shop Cosplay experience began...

A Goodwill run nabbed me a Jubilee-ish black belt, a pink tee shirt and jean shorts, some UV Safety Glasses that looked pretty close to the 90's style from old X-Men comics, and some $0.50 plastic jewelry. All told, I think I spent about $12.

I also found a $10 yellow plastic "jacket" (that's a little generous to call it that given how thin the material was) and some $0.70 blue kitchen latex gloves online.

From the 99-cent store, I picked up another plastic pink bracelet, and a pink drawstring bag that I decorated with pins, torn fabric, and fake labels that seemed "in character" (and could hold much of what I bought or wanted to get signed at the con).

I have lighter hair, though... a wig was a must for Jubilee. I did pick up an $11 wig that was labeled as a "Punk" wig (black hair). In the long run, it was some of the best $11 I've ever spent, as that wig has become "old faithful" and has been a part of countless costumes ever since.

All told, my costume cost about $35 to $40, and only a bit of time.

In the end, I was really proud of my costume, but what really blew me away was the reception at SDCC.

By no means did I have the "best made" costume. In no way was mine the pinnacle of cosplay craftsmanship... but so many people came up to me throughout the con weekend and practically yelled, "Jubilee! Oh my gosh, she's my favorite!"

More than one person also shared with me that they hadn't seen a lot of Jubilee cosplays in the past few years, which was also pretty exciting. After I returned home, I found my 2011 SDCC comic-con costume pictured on cosplaynaut and comic-conpics Tumblr's and on the Marvel Woman Kicking Ass blog. None of that is incredibly impressive, but I was on cloud 9 for it being my first cosplay. After that, I was hooked!

Jubilee is also one of the only cosplays I've let come back, both because I love her and because she's had slightly different costumes in the 2000s (namely since she's become a vampire. Because comics). I did end up losing the UV glasses when I moved out of the state, however!