Comic fandoms are super weird in the fact that you will often have “fans” who are very vocal and present in the fandom space, who have never touched the source material. This is something which is discussed a lot.
And then, on the other end of the spectrum, you may have people who have read the source material, and express an opinion on a character/team/event, etc, online. This is fine. This is good. This is how you’re meant to engage with the hobby that you do for fun.
However, what I don’t like is the number of people I see in the notes of posts on tumblr, TikTok, etc, which are like ‘☝️ well actually in this obscure issue from 1979 which is only available in Timbuktu and which was subsequently retconned, this character actually did the thing so it’s not out of character.’
And the thing is, sure, I love it when we can come together to bridge the gaps and collaborate together. But, oftentimes, I don’t think that’s what I’m seeing. Often, these comments are patronising, and weirdly gate-keeping, in suggesting that people can’t have an opinion on the source material unless they’ve read everything ever published, which is just ridiculous.
If you’re a new fan, who is trying to be a “good fan” and engage with the source material, this is going to be incredibly off putting because it suggests that you’re not enough of a fan, so what’s the point? May as well go back to AO3 where you can have fun without being ridiculed in the notes. If you’re an older fan, you can have read THOUSANDS of comics, and still hardly have scratched the surface, and so expressing any thoughts online and engaging with those spaces can still feel dangerous and unwelcoming.
When it stops being a fun addition to a conversation, and starts being a bitchy critique, we’ve all lost the plot a bit.
There seems to be a bit of a disconnect somewhere in the spectrum of ‘has read none of the source material’ -> ‘acts like they’re read everything ever published’, wherein whilst we acknowledge that it’s ok to give more info and collaborate on posts, we never really acknowledge that - for the vast majority of people - having this encyclopaedic knowledge is going to be impossible. I’m an adult with bills and a full time job - I haven’t got time to be reading absolutely everything ever published before I engage with my hobby - the thing I do for fun - online, and I’m sure many others are the same. But that doesn’t mean that I - and others - don’t deserve to engage in these fandom spaces, express opinions, write the fic, draw the art, just as much as if we had read everything ever published since the dawn of time.
Comics are an entirely different medium to books, tv shows, films, etc, in that there is no beginning, middle, and end. There is no singular author who tells the story and then it ends. Comics are inherently collaborative, they are perpetually in medias res, and they are so plentiful that nobody can read absolutely everything, and it’s time we stop gatekeeping, with some of us acting like they are the supreme authority, when the medium of comics means that such a thing can never exist.
Sure, provide that extra info, but I really do think there needs to be a change in how we - comic book fans - conceptualise fandom and our place in it. None of this is serious. We’re all just geeks with a hobby trying to have fun. None of us are ever going to read everything. So let’s just have fun and try not to take it so seriously.
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