Editorial - Why are we so angry?
This piece was written by staff writer, Michael Worthan.
Being a nerd in this day and age should be a joyous occasion. Our culture is celebrated big and small throughout the world with different festivals, conventions, and events. We have movies and TV shows that we never once thought possible, available to us on a monthly basis, and yearly there seems to be a big event within comic books that expands our favorite characters' storylines. In 2017 alone, we got yet another new Star Wars movie, we witnessed some pretty amazing Marvel and DC movies, and there are a plethora of brand new and proven shows on TV and apps like Hulu and Netflix that should keep our nerd needs satiated for a long while, not to mention the different games that are released or about to be released. Yet for some inexplicable reason the fandoms are tearing at each other, bickering over who is better, why their choice in shows is wrong/dumb/horrible, and so on and so forth. Are we as nerd’s just bitter people? Do we despise that our secret favorites have gone mainstream? Or is it just the state of things, have we received too much, and now we feel we deserve it, rather than feel lucky that we have all of these amazing shows to enjoy?
Personally, I’m an everything fan. I love what Marvel/Disney have done, and when they break the Marvel Method in their movies and have success it's an even bigger deal. The feel of every movie is slightly different and the eclectic directors are a huge part in that. Despite a truly rocky start, DC is starting to get a feel for what they want to do. Wonder Woman, and in part Justice League (which I definitely enjoyed,), showed that DC can make great movies, but they should definitely move away from so much darkness and anger, and possibly take the formula of Wonder Woman - and again partially Justice League - to create some fun movies. So, in having seen these shows, take a minute and look at some of the comments or “reviews” and see for yourself if you feel the negative comments are correct, or do they go against what you feel?
It has become a favorite past time of certain people to bad mouth comic book movies, and then bad mouth the people that enjoyed those movies. I myself enjoyed Batman v. Superman, Justice League, Netflix’s Iron Fist, and really enjoyed the Punisher. However some folks, that I wound up disassociating myself with due to their attitudes towards my enjoyment, started trying to bully me about my opinions, me a 33-year-old man who has been a comic book fan for 23-plus years, had other grown folks trying to bully me because I enjoyed watching something. Is this what we have become as a culture? And mind you, these people were long-time fans, fans that I used to enjoy conversing with, but somehow they became cynical and fell into the “what is cool” motif.
I am bewildered as a fan to see the negative interactions, and as someone who hopes to introduce his young nephew and niece to comics, as well as one day my own future children, I worry about what this means for the culture. As conventions grow and cross with pop culture more and more, and comics continue to push out new stories what can we, the “old school” fans, expect? As long as the films make money they will keep making them and adding to the movie universe lore, but will our attitudes change? Will we ever be grateful again? Or will the bullies and the trolls take over and enhance the embers of disdain and negative thoughts that flow now?
