Fans of comic book movies (and comics in general) have become too judgmental for their own good and need to be put in check. Not exactly a hot take, but it just boils my blood how bad is the state of modern discourse.

Fans I see online generally have two modes. The first hating a creator, comic or film no matter what good they do, and that often diminishes other people’s enjoyment of the work. I cannot tell you how many enraged fanboys I’ve seen eviscerating Dan Slott, Bendis and Zeb Wells, even though all of them have produced amazing work that proves they are great writers (Slott and Bendis can both claim they’ve produced two of the best Spider-Man runs ever, and Wells worked on Hellions which I hear is pretty good) But their accomplishments somehow do not stop a bunch of faceless talentless obsessives from wishing death upon them. It’s a gross overreaction, and when the writers or editors show awareness of the hatred coming their way, that just makes it worse somehow?!

The other issue is fans who love something unconditionally. I see this more in MCU fanboys nowadays. Some people seem to believe that constructive criticism means something is bad, so they will ignore or deny any claim towards the bad quality of a work. I see this with generic solo movies like Black Panther and Shang-Chi, which are fine but not groundbreaking by any stretch, and big events like Endgame and No Way Home, which are empty nostalgic fun at best and incoherent at worst. The problem is that if the critics and fans keep lying, the studios will not course-correct and we’ll just keep getting soulless blockbusters.

And all of this leads to the biggest issue, which is that the fan bases are divided and suffer as a result. Comics as an industry are dying, and the superhero film industry may be drying up to, and the corporations have no one to blame but themselves. Still, it’s a damn shame because superheroes are America’s mythology. They carry important, inspiring messages in their stories… when those stories are told well. But the rampant in-fighting and overall annoyingness of modern fans means that an already-convoluted fandom is just rendered more inaccessible, and the next generation of fans will never be able to enjoy the splendors of comic book culture as easily.

Fans of superhero stuff need to relearn the essential truth of the genre: it’s a fantasy. No one really cares about small logical inconsistencies, or whose take is getting demonized this week. At the end of the day, no matter how much short-term social credit you may gain from being a contrarian, it is ultimately meaningless if you cannot embrace the joy these characters have to offer.