A New Era for the Comic Book Fan. Hollywood embraces the Superhero Genre!!

Less mentioned in recent conversations is the struggle comic book fans had growing up.  Before Nerdom [or Geekdom, depending on your partisanship] took over the world, the comic book fan's only refuge was their local comic book store.  It was a time of hiding, lurking in the school library, afraid of social interaction, never truly accepted into the "in" crowd.  The comic book store was the only place that a comic book fan could freely voice why comic superheroes Spiderman was the kid next door and Captain America was the boys scout, and how they were both symbols of American blue collar values.  There, in the comic book store, one could partake in free discussion and debate regarding the Batman versus Superman question.  Marvel versus DC.  What about IMAGE or Darkhorse?!  It was a time when the mainstream had not truly embraced the supposed outcasts of the world.  Admittedly, even while I was a child there were signs.  There was light breaking through the leaves and branches.  The dense forest was giving way to a clearing.  We had the X-Men cartoon on television [an ancient large box shaped device with strange metallic prongs atop it to receive “broadcast entertainment" at “predetermined” times; you could not choose what you wanted to watch whenever you felt like it]. The classic opening theme music to the original X-Men cartoon is ever alive and recognizable to a true fan.

 

For the most part, anyone was allowed into the comic book store from nerds, geeks, delinquents, children, kids, to adults.  Even sports enthusiasts and jocks were allowed in.  Comic book stores “played merchant” supposedly selling sports collectibles and memorabilia.  Comic book stores welcomed all of society, be they ostracized or not, to come and share in the enjoyment of being a fan.  

Chris Hardwick’s The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (in Real Life) published by Penguin Books in 2011 touched upon this topic poignantly.

The explosive popularity of the Internet, video games, and smartphone technology has made the formerly feeble cluster of pasty virgins “cool”. The same jocks/ bullies who pushed us around in school now carry around cell phones, have desktops, laptops, a DVR, DSLR cameras, and Xboxes (Xbocies?); they know what “3G” is.  The war is over.  The Nerds have won.  This was no accident.  The Nerd uprising can be attributed to an unnatural ability to obsess and focus when others would be content with “letting it go”. 

And now fans, be you a Nerd or Geek, rule the Internet and by proxy the global entertainment empire.  The obsessive nature and focus mindset that our Nerdist Champion attributes to this success is in the world “fan” itself.  A fan is more than an enthusiast.  The word fan is short for fanatic.  Look up fanatic on Google [because it’s 2013 going on 2014; what’s a dictionary and what are books?].  The word fanatic means “a person filled with excessive and single-minded zeal, esp. for an extreme religious or political cause”.  Comic book fans are fanatics of their various interests. Marvel fanboys/ fangirls love all things Marvel; yes, even Marvel’s Agents of Shield.  DC fan boys and girls had it rough, but now they are seeing the glimmer of hope: a new DC Universe where Superman, Batman, and the Justice League will beat out Marvel again.  We can argue with zeal why Fox and Sony don’t deserve the franchise that Marvel help built.  We can argue and debate how the book is always better, and yeah Warner Brother’s Man of Steel (2013) might have missed a beat, but maybe the powers that be will eventually green-light a real life action All-star Superman (DC Comics, 2006-2008) someday. 

The possibility is tantalizing.   If anything, we'll always have the animated All-Star Superman Warner Brothers gave us in 2011. And we can argue and argue because something so profound as a well-crafted story has moved us to wonderment and moved us to voice and action.  How the words of a story teller and the art of the artists bring characters to life.  These artists re-create the modern day mythological heroes and villains; their creation and imagination now change people the world over.  We all now can share in the story telling and voice our inner stirrings over the Internet.  We are free.  We are free.  We are free. 

Or are we?

Let us not forget that the Internet is not solely life.  And Life is not solely the internet.  It’s more complicated than that.  I propose the war, supposedly hard fought and won, is not completely over; it merely shifted fronts.  Yes, Marvel is budding into a powerhouse, but look to the Fox and Sony who holds rights to franchises that will likely never return to Marvel.  Look to the recent demise of LucasArts.  Look to how this current Next-Gen console wars is so similar to last generation’s Next-Gen console war.  Look to how viral marketing is the new medium to drive buzz and interest towards consumption.  Congrats to Marvel for finding a formula to finally gain a foothold, but look to see how quickly it is being adopted by others.  This past holiday season saw a “familiar” console war, in addition to teasers and hints about possible upcoming film projects.  The new battlefront is upon us, and its an economic consumption war.

Sony’s The Amazing Spiderman 2 (2014) trailer was release and behold there are hidden easter eggs!  Check out the hidden site: http://www.electroarrives.com/  to find the PDF.  And what do you know, Sony is already talking The Amazing Spiderman 3! Check out the press release, a hidden easter egg inside an hidden easter egg, here: http://flash.sonypictures.com/movies/theamazingspiderman2/microsite/electroarrives/theamazingspiderman_pressrelease_1212.pdf

The Amazing Spiderman 2 is not even in theaters yet.  This is the new subtle marketing - the lure of attractive those who obsess and focus while others let go.  They..., we, have become the voices that matter.  So now we are the target of marketing schemes set to catch our attention and drive buzz.

Fox’s X-Men: Days of Future Past set to release in 2014 is not yet out, and already there are leaks of another X-Men movie (rumored to be titled X-Men: Age of Apocalypse) in the works.  It’s in the pipeline they say, but more accurately, call it lie it is, it’s foundation laying.  To build a house, one must lay a secure foundation.  To have people excited and willing to spend their hard earned money, you have to create a buzz and get the word out.  The best way to do it is by not getting the word out.  Any school yard kid can tell you, secrets get around fast and faster because they’re a secret.  So what’s the point?  It's like Chris said.  We've won getting our beloved comic book heroes into the mainstream, but now we face products produced for the masses, for the enthusiasts.  Fans are being virulently marketed too and sold a product whose end goal is really just about making money.

Many comic book fans feel  this “great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly…”; if you're going to build a house, some fears such as natural disasters might keep you up at night.  A wave can come and wash it away, the ground can break open and shake it to rubble, or a fire can roll down the hills and burn it to all ashes.  There is ever the threat that the house you build, a house of cards, will collapse.  We fear the other shoe will drop, we fear the bubble will burst.  Is it rational?  Perhaps not.  Is it possible? Well… 2008 was not the first time.

I’m a fan of stories [always have been; I can tell you about it sometime].  From the stories that I learned growing up, to the stories that I seek every day, there are a few hard truths.  We, as humans, we love us some stories.  We love the tragedies.  We love the romances.  Star-crossed lovers, and sword buckling revenge stories.  We love comedies, westerns, heists, cops and robbers, and many and all genres of stories.  Stories based off of real life and stories from the imagination.  And loving these stories, comic book fans fear that the superhero genre will fall out of disfavor and subside… perhaps our beloved comic superheroes will have to find their way back to the one or two remaining comic book stores [if by that time those too have not gone extinct].  And in this I feel the need to remind those who fear, that those days are behind us.  To fear and give into despair is to fall victim to one of the classic blunders – The most famous of which is “never get involved in a land war in Asia”. 

Fear not for the genre is here to stay.  So long as fans remain vigilante in their obsession, so long as we focus on what we deem  worthy of our fandom, we will prevail. The stories we tell will continue on so long as there are those left who will listen.  The Internet is here and will evolve, an entity in its own right.  "You can't stop the signal, Mal. Everything goes somewhere, and I go everywhere".   So my point… we are the stories we chose to tell.  We are the story-crafters of what we deem worthy of obsession and focus.  Fads will bubble and pop… but like the classic stories of ancient mythologies before us, to the recent stories in our current events, we narrate and dictate what we accept into our lives.  Don't let what mass consumption entertainment producer tell you what is important in your life.  Find out for yourself.

And in that vein of hope, I humbly propose that for one person at least, the comic book superhero stories will go on.  I will tell my kids of the first time I picked up a comic book, and how small I was, and how big and powerful the heroes made me feel.  Even the smallest person can change the course of the future. And that makes us mighty.