What's With "Comic Fans" These Days?
By Bud_El 57 Comments
I'm a Superman fanboy. I'm proud to say that I will defend Superman and anything to do with him (besides his new 52 main title comic book, Superman). But I'm not just some guy who saw Man of Steel and decided I was a Superman fan. Like most of us Superman fans, I've been a fan since I could say "Holy cow my Superman pajamas have a cape".
Several years ago, the worst thing that could've happened to comic books, happened to comic books. The Spiderman films. For kids and "fans", they were an open door to a new world and the most entertaining thing they had seen to date. But to the Marvel big wigs, they were nothing but dollar signs.
Suddenly, we saw something terrifying. A group of teen age Spiderman fanboys who had NEVER picked up a comic book in their entire lives. These kids would argue the movie's mythology as if it was actual mythology. And since these movies were so popular, no one argued the true mythology of Spiderman. Those who did were dismissed by "No dude, he's right." A phrase uttered by fanboy lackeys to give the illusion that they too knew all about Spiderman.
Then it all started to simply crumble. Iron Man. Iron Man is so wildly popular, I believe if Tony Stark's name appeared on a presidential ballot, he would win by over 40%. Now, the false comic book fans were multiplying at an exponential rate. Iron Man fans who had only seen the movie would engage in full blown keyboard wars, arguing that Iron Man could beat Superman with "...one of those sticky rocket thingys that he uses to blow up tanks."
But no mythological being has had a false fan following quite like the Batman. Batman begins was a quiet enough movie. Most of my friends waited to see it until it came on TV. (It was on FX just about every day back then). Only a few demon minions were spawned from this. Then the Dark Knight came out. The Dark Knight is arguably the greatest hero film of all time (I wont call it a super hero film or a comic book film because it simply isn't that).
And now we have the argument of the Batman factor. Batman was born for the big screen. In a time when people feel a constant fear of the future, they identified with Batman. But unlike Green Lantern, who conquers his fear, Batman uses his fear and aims it at his enemies. This gives people a comfort in themselves. They don't have to be better than the people they hate. Simply not being that person makes them better than that person.
We feel that as long as we (Batman) are not the Joker (the people and things we hate) and we don't do as bad of things as the Joker does, we are better. Which makes us the hero. Batman fanboys will argue against this until they have to finally admit "Okay okay, Batman kind of walks the line."
And that's when I applaud! They have finally gotten the point of Batman and are ready to read a comic book.
Now, it's cool to hide from things you're scared of and bully the people who bully others (Spiderman). So Superman, the representation of ultimate good, is dwindling in reputation. It isn't cool to be cool anymore. The US President himself wants those with less to bully those who have more, even if they aren't the Lex Luthor type. So having all of the greatest powers is a bad thing. "Superman is OP". Superman is the 1% now. People think Superman shouldn't have all of his powers.
Man of Steel came out in the middle of June this year. It was the best Superman movie and the best comic book film since the original one in the eighties. Despite the false fanboys screaming "He killed all those people and Zod!!! MY Superman doesn't kill!!!" it still got rave reviews from sights like this one. Had those false fanboys actually picked up a comic book before the new 52, they would see that Superman has killed several times including the time he killed the original Zod in their first encounter.
Had those false fanboys seen the movie and actually payed attention, they would have known that there was absolutely no other way for Superman to handle the situation. He had to stop the world engine in the Indian Ocean. Had he tried to sever the connection by destroying the ship in Metropolis, he would have been attacked by Zod's entire attack force which would have with out a doubt destroyed Metropolis completely which is absolutely not logical in any way.
Now there's talk of more DC movies. And I can't help but be slightly nervous. If the Avengers movie manufactured THAT many false fanboys, what's the JLA movie going to do?
So now I ask you, how can you handle these false fanboys? If you've ever tried to argue with them it's like trying to tell someone who's spent all their lives under a rock with only a flash light about the sun. "No I'm telling you! There's a bigger, hotter version of that that you don't have to hold outside! It floats!" You sound like a fool, and they and all their friends, are the smart ones.
So what the heck is with "comic book" fans these days?
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