I am begging Batfanon fans to read canon.
Listen. Listen to me. WFA is fun. I'm not an anti-WFA person. Nor am I anti-reading fanfic when you're not in the fandom (it confuses me, sure, but I'm not against it). These things are fun, you're having fun! That's great! But did you know you can have fun with canon? That the canon content isn't as bad as a lot of people make it out to be?
I know comic spaces can be scary, especially if you're female. But I, as a WFA-fan turned comic reader in less than a year, have had a good time regardless of the specific spaces. You just gotta block, man. Just block liberally. Find your spaces. Or even better, ignore them all and have fun on your own! That's my fandom fatigue talking but still, nothing says you have to appeal to the other fans. You do you.
"But what if I can't access comics—" Look I get it. Comics are expensive. I have spent an obscene amount on my first shelf. And some countries struggle to even get any in, or maybe you live far from a comic book shop. That sucks! But you know comics are online, right? DC has tons of theirs on their subscription service. There are some on Kindle. Hell, your local library probably has some! I literally saw someone logging Under the Red Hood into the library system the other day!
(And there's always sailing the high seas. This is what I did before I bought my first comics, and I still do it now. There are plenty of websites out there. Just remember never to post the names, be careful, and don't pirate ongoing runs that could detrimentally affect the creators. Comics aren't a stable business, and we need to support artists in whatever way we can.)
"But there are so many comics it's overwhelming—" Listen. Listen, buddy. There really aren't. It looks like a lot, but trust me, there aren't that many out there. You guys are coming in with the advantage that you're already vaguely aware of character names, storylines, personalities, etc., so pick one character you like and look up a reading list. There are tons. What I did was look up reading lists and compare several to see which books multiple people were recommending. Alternatively, pick one with a cool cover and go. Seriously. If you like it, cool, if you don't, choose another one.
And don't go in thinking you have to read everything about everyone. If you're like me, you'll hyperfixate on one character and read every major appearance of theirs, yet neglect another because you don't like them. That's cool! That's fine! I'm an expert on Jason Todd, but I have never willingly read a Tim Drake comic. You don't have to. This is for fun. Read for fun.
Believe me. Canon is good. Canon is not always the miserable, awful experience that so many fearmonger. You can still read your fluffy Batfanon fics and keep up with WFA. There's nothing wrong with that. But please. If you even read one single comic this year, just one, I'll be proud of you.
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