This came up a few times today. As someone who is usually a dick (to people who are dicks themselves), I really want to address why we, as comic fans, shouldn’t be such condescending assholes to people who like the movie adaptions of our favorite heroes but haven’t read the comics.
1. Everyone started somewhere. It’s impossible to come out of the womb with a copy of Essential Iron Man and every important Batman event in comic history. For a lot of people (observed from experience, so I’m sure everyone is different), cartoons served as the gateway for their love of these characters. Batman: TAS, Justice League Unlimited, Teen Titans, X-Men: TAS, etc etc etc. Being introduced to these shows introduced a lot of people to the expanded universe these heroes lived in. And good for them for picking up more reading. If they chose not to read comics, how does that hurt? My baby cousin (okay, 8, whatever) loved Batman: Brave and the Bold and I would never dream of scoffing at him because he doesn’t know some of the characters like I do. What a dick move, right?
2. Maybe we can take this chance to introduce them to the comic universe! Superheroes are more mainstream now, and that’s fantastic. Instead of treating the comic fanbase as some exclusive “READERS ONLY, NO MOVIE FANS ALLOWED!!1!!” club, we can actually take this opportunity to lightly suggest some comics to people. Your friend is really excited about the upcoming Spider-Man film? Suggest Spider-Man: Blue. Someone is a huge fan of the Nolan Batman films, you say? Let that person know you have a copy of The Dark Knight Returns if they’re interested. Don’t just shut them out because you don’t see them anywhere near you local shop, but don’t flip your shit if they aren’t interested in the reading.
3. Lol please, don’t tell me you’ve read all the stories that inspire films you love. If you have, then congratulations. That’s pretty awesome, actually. But there are so many pieces of literature that have been made into movies and shows that it’s kind of impossible that every viewer would have read them all. Same goes for comics. And you know what? Some of those movies are damn great.
You know somebody who wears Avengers shirts because they’ve watched the movies of the individual team members a million times over and they’re super hyped for the film? Good. Looks like you’ve found yourself a movie buddy. Maybe they don’t like reading or have no access to the comics and you do. Answer their questions if they have any. Tell them awesome little tidbits of information when the situation arises. But don’t you dare act holier-than-thou just because they don’t read the comics and you do.
The comic fanbase still struggles and being an asshole to people who haven’t gotten the chance to try the reading material isn’t gonna help at all. We’re making ourselves out to be the stereotypical, narrow-minded fanboys that some people unfortunately imagine us to be. That’s not us. You know it’s not. So let’s stop being dicks, okay?
I reblog this because I want the hardcore comics fans in the 5000+ people who follows me to read this and learn a thing or two. My respect goes to you Combonight you make some very valid points in this amazing post.