One of the greatest things about comic books and graphic novels are the worlds of fantasy they open up for readers. Within the tales of any superhero are vast environments and battles to engage the mind, with just enough real life referenced to keep things relatable. It’s little wonder that with the popularity of the superhero genre that so many fans gets swept away by it all.

Cosplay is of course, the perfect example of all this, as it allows fans to dress as their favorite characters and interact amongst others who have similar passions. Over the years the phenomenon has seen substantial growth in its popularity and some have taken the pastime to unprecedented levels. One Irish Batman fan in particular has even built himself a fully functioning Batman suit.

Sure, this isn’t the first time that someone has built a Batman suit with a few gadgets, right? Well, actually, yes it is. Julian Checkley has managed to build a Batman Arkham inspired suit that has 23 working gadgets. As Mashable reports, that number is so high that Checkley’s efforts have landed him a spot in the 2017 Guinness Book of World Records: Gamer’s Edition. You can watch the above video to see just how good of a job Checkley did with the suit’s construction.

Batman Cosplay

Checkley, who has worked in the film industry as a model maker, art director and in creature effects, built the Batman suit with the help of his team. As previously stated, the suit was inspired by the Batman Arkham video game series and many of the gadgets like the grappling gun are specific to those games. The urge to add as many functioning gadgets to the suit was obviously quite strong - and as Checkley stated “It was getting silly really, we were kind of coming up with ideas in the workshop, you know, what we could come up with next.”

The record held by the suit in the Guinness Book of World Records is for Most Functional Gadgets On A Cosplay Suit. The gadgets are as follows: fireball shooter, 2 gauntlet video screens, bat tracking beacon, bat sign projector, folding batarang, grapnel gun, cowl respirator, pneumatic tranquilizer gun, ultrasonic anti-dog device, 4 bat shuriken, UV lamp, 2 ball bearing grenades, gauntlet flashlight, medi-kit, battery pack, laser designator, bat-cam, strobe stun-gun, gas dispenser, 2 smoke bombs, the bat flask, concealed laryngeal microphone and a two-way radio.

As with any Guinness Record, this heavily stocked Bat suit will very likely lead to others building their own suits and upping the ante in hopes of breaking the record. With more people building functioning superhero suits, one can’t help but wonder if we’ll soon see a rise in real life superheroes like Phoenix Jones on our streets? It seems that when it comes to the steadily growing world of superheroes, anything is possible.

Source: Mashable