When is it OK to just stop?
Stop what, you may ask? Anything. Everything. That group of things which are just pissing you off at this point.
In fandom there is this idea that (and I think I subscribe to it as well) where the longtime love affair you’ve had with comics (or just a singular title) has to come to an end.
Of course, this butts right up against something else. We’re also collectors. To have a title run continous for 20, 30, 40, or 50 years and then be so annoyed by a direction you contemplate dropping it… that is not just an innocent decision but one which must be agonized over.
I’ve written about my love for Spider-Man and how it was basically one of the first comics I ever bought back in 1986. From there until around 1998, I collected the book until all the Clone mess finally left me feeling a certain way. In combination with being a poor college student – the easy solution presented itself in dropping the books.
But it was never supposed to be a forever thing. Creative teams come and go. Editors and Editors-in-Chief come and go. At some point, I would have to come back, and in the end it was J. Michael Straczynski who brought me back. And then One More Day made me leave again.
That was my last straw. At the time, Spidey had been married almost 1/2 of his existence and now they were doing away with it.
And so it has been nearly 20 years where I haven’t bought a Spider-Man title.
Weirdly, now is the time I’m seeing a lot of Editors talking to fans online about if you don’t like something, then drop it. Which… I gotta say, is an odd way to sell more copies of your comic. I’m sure they get tired of the same questions over and over again. Maybe that’s why they say it.
Either way, I would think you’d want to say something a bit more encouraging. Hey, if you don’t like this, you’re in luck because we have a married Peter Parker in the pages of Ultimate Spider-man!
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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
The whole reason I’ve even been thinking about this is due to a conversation with a friend. He is a longtime comic reader (going back to the 70). And very much a Marvel guy than anything else (back in the day they would have called him a Marvel Zombie). That said, he would listen to my recommendations from time to time (Johns’ Flash run being a big one I can recall).
However, sometime after Endgame, I’m not 100% sure what exactly was his breaking point. Maybe it was being unable to watch the Black Widow movie because he didn’t have Disney+. Maybe it was slightly after that, but regardless he declared he was done with the Marvel movies/shows/etc.
And that’s his perogative. I’m certainly not the MCU “Must Watch” police by any means, but what I found interesting is more that he allows himself to be… convinced isn’t the right word, but we’ll go with it… convinced he’s right by only reading the reviews of the movies and shows he’s purposefully not watching.
It’s another oddity to KNOW something sucks that you never ever watched in the first place. And at the same time, we all do this based on trailers or reviews in general. Making decisions on something you’re not planning on seeing.
However, what I think bothers me about his exile from the MCU is that when I tell him a certain show or movie was actually decent or (gasp!) good, he just dismisses me. It’s like he’s more willing to believe total strangers than someone he’s been friends with for 25 years.
And even that, I could probably handle, but then he wants to try and point out flaws in things he never saw to someone who did see them. That not only seems crazy, but I’m not sure that’s how it should work.
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Which brings me back to Negativity. And Fandom.
I think if we are only ever focused on the things which piss us off… if we only rant and rave about things that suck… then all we are doing is feeding more of that into the world. Instead, maybe we should take those editors’ advice and just let go. Drop the book. Don’t watch the movie or show. Don’t read reviews.
Just disconnect.
At least for a little while. Because like I said above, the creative teams and editors won’t be there forever. If you close yourself off to everything, then you may miss out on something great.
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John McGuire is the writer of the sci-fi novel: The Echo Effect.
He is also the creator/author of the steampunk comic The Gilded Age. If you would like to purchase a copy, go here!
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His other prose appears in The Dark That Follows, Hollow Empire, Tales from Vigilante City, Beyond the Gate, and Machina Obscurum – A Collection of Small Shadows.
He can also be found at www.johnrmcguire.com
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