I Have Met The Enemy And He Is Us
Ever wonder why the "Comic Books = Superheroes" correlation seems so
prevalent and persistent across the collective pop culture
consciousness? Part of the reason may be that comic book readers
(who should know better) perpetuate the stereotype in their excitement
to be taken seriously.
Example:
Matthew
J. Phillion (described in his bio as a "East Coast based journalist
and award-winning columnist") writes his first new Guttermouth column
for the recently-redesigned
Comic
World News and wonders, "Are comics a fringe subculture no
longer?" In the end, Phillion concludes that comics are gradually
becoming part of the mainstream, declaring "[c]omic books might be a
popular target for parody, insult and scorn, but as far as I can see,
they’re also sort of taking over the world." His evidence?
All the movies based on comic books being made. Or more
specifically, all the movies based on
superhero comics:
Phillion lists established and rumored movie properties including
Spider-Man, X-Men, Hulk, Punisher, Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, and
Iron Fist. Because of course recent movies based on comic books
have
all
focused on superheroes.
Aside from the narrow focus on superheroes, the other major problem
with Phillion's argument is that his examples don't support his
conclusion. Just because people are going out to see superhero
movies doesn't mean that people are more interested in comics, or that
they're starting to give them more respect. All it means is that
people aren't adverse to seeing movies with superheroes in them.
Marvel's claims to the contrary, the release of movies based on their
characters does not seem to have led to a significant boost in sales
for the corresponding comic books. Heck, Phillion's own
experience demonstrates how it's possible to be into superheroes
without being interested in (or even aware of) comic books: He
writes that he loved superheroes as a young child, but didn't start
reading comics until later.
Now, if I were trying to demonstrate that the general public might be
growing more open to comics, I think there's another
emerging
trend I'd point to instead... [NOTE: If your name is
Peter David or John Byrne, please do not click on the link above; it's
only going to upset you.]
