Being involved in comics you come across rabid fandom. I'm talking about people who send in death threats over storyline, those wishing ill fortune and death upon artists and people who think batman can defeat Superman, Bruce Lee and God all at the same time. I've been suckered into the "who would win in fight...?" debate at conventions way too many times. I've finally gotten to the point that I just don't answer the question, or if I do I turn it into a joke.
The writers and artists working in comics are doing their best to make readers give a damn about the stories and characters they work on. So, if you're upset that Ultra-Dude lost his powers or his dog died or whatever then someone did their job right. So we feel attached to the characters we read about, which is cool, but as I mentioned above it often goes to far.
You can't go around wishing horrible things to happen to people who are just working on comics. I think Ed Benes is a crappy artist. I think Judd Winick can't write a fight worth a damn. I'm sure Dan DiDio is taking DC Comics in bad directions and abusing his power as editor-in-chief to satisfy his own fanboyism. However, I don't want anything horrible to happen to any of them. If I don't like an artist's or writer's work I don't buy it, simple as that. The case of DiDio is trickier and much more frustrating, and yes I have written the man a letter in the past stating my displeasure at his work, however I never threatened physical harm nor did I state any wishes for something brutal to happen to him. Do i think he should be removed from his current position? Yes. Do I think he should be out on the street and unable to feed himself and his family? Absolutely not.
As for the characters and stories, there's plenty of people who would like things to be different. If there weren't there wouldn't be so much fanfiction out there. There's nothing wrong with thinking character A and character B should be a couple, it just becomes a problem with those obsessing over it. Write your fanfiction, and get it out of your system.
I have seen something really bizarre lately: a guy so obsessed with his notion as to what should be in his comic reading that somewhere in his mind he's not interpreting what is on the actual pages correctly. He's insisting that things are said and there's images on the pages that just aren't there. This is compounded by a rampant egotist that when you go to correct this person he insisted that you are wrong, and any evidence used to prove your point is somehow faulty. This is an extreme case however and hopefully this person will get the medical attention they need.
There is what is. There is what we want we want it to be. It's great when those two things come together, but we can't force it. There's people out there just a bit 'too into it', like the weirdo I just wrote about. He's constantly touting his superiority and telling people to read more comics. Honestly, he needs to read less.
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