WELCOME TO A COMIC BLOG BY A COMICS FAN!
As a lifelong comics fan, I've been called a lot of things. Nerd. Dork. Loser. Fanboy. Okay, that last one only happened once and I realize it's not necessarily an insult. Point being, I spent a lot of my childhood and teen years secretly loving, while feeling openly embarrassed about, the world of comic books.Back when I was in school, it wasn't "cool" to like comics. It got you beat up a lot. It also didn't gain you too many friends. Even within my adult life, early on, it was tough. I once wore a Batman logo t-shirt to work (it was the overnight shift, no uniforms, who cares, right?) and took some lumps for that, too. Once in a while I even hid my face from view as I entered the comic shop, so nobody I knew would see me. It didn't feel right. But it felt like it was what I was supposed to do.
Back then there were movies about comic characters. Mostly terrible ones with zero plot and special effects made with about a 50 cent budget. Then Tim Burton made "Batman" and it was kind of good! Even critics loved it! "Joker" pants even became the thing to wear for a short time. Life was good for comics fans. Until "Batman Returns" came out, then it was a case of "Oh yeah! Now we remember why we made fun of that shit!" So...back to hiding my face I went.
Fast forward a decade. Riding on the success of the first "Blade" film, Marvel decided to put serious cash and a real director on an "X-Men" movie and it was huge! It was actually good! Semi-realistic (as much as these things can be) and people saw it and loved it! Not just "comic book geeks" either. People who just wanted to see a good action flick with a real storyline. People who were fans of director Bryan Singer. Hell they even manged to secure big-name actors like Patrick Stewart & Halle Berry for the movie! This was serious!!
Only this time, the hoopla didn't die down. Next came "Hulk", "Spider-Man" & a second "X-Men" movie that was even better than the first! Holy crap it was cool! Everyday people were finding out what we "geeks" had always known: that this comic book stuff is pretty damn cool!
Now, it just doesn't seem right if six months goes by without a superhero movie. But here's the really cool part...it's not all superheroes! It's gangsters, zombies, oddball kids befriending weird old guys. One of the biggest cable hits ever is based off comics. Expensive, legendary Hollywood people are taking roles in these movies! Honestly, if someone would've told me 25 years ago that someday Robert Redford, Anthony Hopkins, Sally Field, & Michael Caine would all be in comic book movies I'd think they were nuts, but now it's almost as if it's something every distinguished actor wants to do. Comic books are freakin' huge, serious-money business and whole families are even going to the comic shops together now, and I haven't even mentioned the girls!
Now, I don't hide my face anymore. I don't have to, I'm a grown-ass man. Plus, there's no need to anymore. I feel proud that I know all these characters' histories and connections. I'm the guy people go to when they want to know "Hey, what's the deal with that Tesseract thing?" or "What's the story with Hawkeye & Black Widow?" That's a good feeling. As long as I remember to keep it short and to-the-point.
One final note, recently, my 74-year-old mom (who once tore up one of my "damn" comics and acted like it was no big deal) saw Avengers on cable and enjoyed it. Since she had nothing but time on her hands then, I suggested that she might like to see the three that preceded it, to get the whole story. So in the course of a few days, she watched Marvel's big three in chronological order and enjoyed them (Although I believe she liked "Thor" best). Not too long after that, I asked her what she thought and she said they were good. Then, the clincher: she told me that by watching the movies, she finally sees what I got out of those "damn" comics. She saw there were stories to be told, worlds to visit, that each individual character had their own story and she FINALLY saw the value in that. Outwardly, I said something to the effect of "Oh yeah? Cool.", but on the inside, I was saying "Told ya so".
