This NYCC Cosplay Took the Spider-Man Pointing Meme To A Whole New Level

Ever since it first appeared online in about 2011, the "Spider-Man pointing meme" has steadily gained popularity and internet cache. The image, from a 1967 episode of The Amazing Spider-Man animated series, featured Spider-Man and a villain who was impersonating him, standing a few feet apart and staring at each other. The comic potential was immediately obvious in the internet age, and its use has become much more widespread in the last couple of years as a ready meme to have at hand when comparing two things (almost always savagely). When Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse used it in their post-credits sequence, fans loved it.

Loved it so much, in fact, that a number of Spider-Man cosplayers at New York Comic Con yesterday staged a (seemingly impromptu) recreation of the meme at a grand scale. Featuring fans dressed in numerous different versions of the Spider-Man costume from movies, comics, and video games, a handful of Spideys started in at the Javits Center yesterday morning.

As we happened by it and snapped a few photos, additional Spider-Men joined in -- again, whether by design or coincidence isn't clear -- and a crowd gathered around, taking cell phone photos and laughing. By the time all was said and done, the group of about a dozen Spider-Man cosplayers were all exhausted from holding their arms up long enough for everyone to get a shot.

Gatherings like this are not uncommon at comic book conventions, of course; it's pretty common for big group shots of superheores or even big crowds of a single character -- especially fourth-wall-breaking characters like Deadpool or Harley Quinn -- to gather and take photos, or generally act in-character at the same time and place.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has inspired quite a bit of creativity by fans and cosplayers at cons. The movie was such a love letter to the larger and sometimes more obscure aspects of the Spider-Man universe and character that it was basically guaranteed to play to the enthusiasm of hardcore fans, and the fact that you have a hugely-successful movie that featured numerous different alternate takes on the character means there is more of a "reason" to gather, and a joke to be told out of recreating ideas and images from the film. If you haven't seen it yet, you can check out Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse on Blu-ray, DVD, digital, and Netflix. Keep your eyes on ComicBook.com for more news, cosplay, and more from New York Comic Con all weekend long.