Comic book culture has been around for a long time. The art-form has been evolving for a while since its origins in Japan and has grown to massive proportions in the modern-day. They have been a large enough and distinct enough phenomenon in the last few decades that people that enjoy comic books have themselves become a genre of character in multiple forms of media.
Having originated from 18th century Japan and transformed into the Manga that we know and love, Comic book culture made its way and exploded onto the scene in the western world in the 20th century as Comic books made their way to the United Kingdom and the USA.
It was here that the modern Comic book universes were born and fostered until the eventual birth of Superheroes and the greats that wrote them like Stan Lee of Marvel fame and others like Garth Ennis and Allen Moore began to carve out their own specific niches in this new art-form.
This Comic book nerd character has been around for a while and is generally considered to be an obese, childish, and unhygienic individual that still lives in his mom’s basement.
In short, people who were passionate about reading and collecting comic books were seen as distinctly un-cool.
The status-cuo has gradually shifted; however, as comic book juggernauts Marvel and DC have been battling it out for the last couple of decades to become the largest comic book based multimedia franchise of the two. This has definitely shifted the dynamic and it has become very much more acceptable to be interested and passionate about comic books and related media including movies and games.
It has definitely become much cooler to be a comic book nerd nowadays.
Recently, MCU or the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been head and shoulders ahead of the competition as other comic book franchises vie to get a piece of the pie.
Spiderman: No way home has recently floated to the top of the pile. That can actually be considered a bit of an understatement as it blew most of the competition out of the water. The movie was a massive success as it was able to beat Avengers Endgame (another Marvel production) and crossed the 1.3 billion dollar mark in worldwide collection. What’s more, Spiderman: No way home was able to surpass Black Panther (yet another MCU movie) to become the 12th biggest movie worldwide.
There was a confluence of factors that made this Sony project such an immense success including nostalgia associated with the franchise, the execution of a unique idea, and a buildup of the popularity of the comic book genre as it became more and more mainstream in the last few years.
The inclusion of the universes and main characters of the other Spiderman movie series packed an immense nostalgic punch for most movie-goers. Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield arrived in the current universe and timeline of Tom Holland’s spider-man and the Marvel Universe setting. They were able to keep the two other franchises cannon in a masterful use of the Multi-verse concept and reintroduced us to the other Spider men and their stories as older men who have lived through their high times and emotional hardships. They act almost as mentors to the Tom Holland Peter-parker as he lives through the death of Aunt May. The show runners were also able to show off the Titular Green-Goblin and Doc Ock as well, with their respective actors Willem Defoe and Alfred Molina expertly reprised their roles as psychopathic villains.
There was a difference, however, and this difference showed the growth of storytelling over the time between the late 2000s and now. Audiences have become more mature and the kids of yester-year who loved the Black and White of good vs bad in the earlier franchises were treated to a more complex look into the dynamic as they better understood the facts of life.
For one, the threat was caused directly as a result of Peter Parker’s good intentions that led to a botched spell on the behalf of Doctor Strange. The villains of this movie were more human as we saw them cope with the new universe and the facts of their own mortality and insanity. Tom Holland’s Peter Parker, true to the Spiderman nature, refused to allow the villains to die and moved to correct his own mistake whilst being surrounded by friends and strangely enough, two versions of himself that understood him and his pain to a very deep level.
The eventual redemption and the climax of the movie brought tears into the eyes of most of the people attending the showing. And true nerds sat through the very tedious end credits to get a taste of what the MCU had to offer.
Spiderman: No way home and its success are testament to the change in storytelling and comic book culture over the last few years.
What’s more is that the added complexities in a superhero movie of human folly, tragedy, and eventual redemption and the tears along the way have made comic book movies and media including fantastical superheroes seem much more real than they were before.
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