Nerd Journey

So.  2009.  I’m in middle school.  I’ve slightly gotten into comic books after discovering them through the video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance .  After some time, I wanted something new to look into, and I ended up getting StarWars: The Force Unleashed , yet another game that would kick-start my interest in another fictional franchise.  I had seen the prequel films ( The Phantom Menace , Attack of the Clones , Revenge of the Sith ) as they came out and watched the originals on my grandfather’s VHS, but I never paid much attention to them.  The game immediately pulled me in to the Star Wars galaxy, and I haven’t left that fandom since.

My curiosity with any sort of fantastical science-fiction world originally started with the Lego toy line, Bionicle .  I had left that fandom some time ago, and Star Wars helped to replace that gap.  In late 2011, I found a new fandom: MassEffect .  It felt like Star Wars with its own science fiction/fantasy world, but it had more of the former compared against the galaxy far, far away.  It was through Mass Effect I learned that it wasn’t just that specific genre I found enjoyable, it also was well-written characters and the epic stories those people take part in.

With this discovery I jumped back into comic books.  The medium is known for plenty of colorful characters and eventful storytelling, and DC’s “New 52” was advertised as a great jumping-on point.  I started with Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman:Court of Owls story arc and was immediately hooked.  Following this I saw Marvel was starting an event titled Age of Ultron (which would become part of the title for the second Avengers film but had no resemblance in plot) and read that series as it came out.  My friends and I attended the local comic book convention a few times, which proved to be a gateway to other fandoms for them.

2015 arrives, as does the return of Star Wars with its latest film, The Force Awakens .  It premiered towards the end of my university’s finals week.  While I had completed my final exams and essays by Tuesday that week, I stayed to watch this franchise return to theaters after a decade long hiatus.  I didn’t have a car and my friends had all gone home for the winter break.  It was starting to snow that night, and I knew the line to get in would be long.  I left two hours before my showtime to walk to Richland Cinemas and stand in line for over an hour just to see this film.  During that time, I met some great people, all of which were excited as I was to be witness to what happened after Return of the Jedi .  Despite the snowfall, the biting winds, and the lack of movement, we all felt fine.  This movie wasn’t just another installment in a series, it was an event; one that brought a whole fandom closer together.  Walking out of the theater,...

The next year I wanted something that wasn’t another epic story with high stakes and all the bells and whistles in the fictional works I’ve been experiencing for the past few years.  I wanted something simple and fun.  I’d seen films like Robocop , Dredd , and Starship Troopers before, and they were very enjoyable.  Luckily, another film like them was coming out: Hardcore Henry .  It was exactly what I was looking for: simplistic storytelling, cartoonish characterization, and over-the-top action.  A few months later I would discover the game DOOM and love it for the same reasons.  These films and games became a guilty pleasure of mine, more things to become a fan of.

Looking back to comics, I was growing tired of seeing the same superheroes over and over again, so I decided to look into the “indie scene,” where creators are allowed to get as expressive as they wish.  I first picked up Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga (yet another blend of science fiction and fantasy) and quickly fell in love with its very humanized characters, despite no one in the series being human.  I was impressed with how believable this world was despite having talking baby seals wearing overalls and wielding battle axes.  I also turned my attention to Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini’s Low , a story entirely focused on the theme of hope and never losing it.  Through these independent comic book series, I found an adoration for singular stories that didn’t need to be a part of some larger narrative.  They told their own story and fit in deeper meanings to them.  While the worlds the characters inhabit can be very unrelatable, the problems ...