Geek Credibility

Filed Under Culture

With the announcement that Disney is buying Marvel (for no good reason whatsoever, IMO), the Internet is now abuzz with geeks doing what geeks do best: fanwanking. There are actually mammalians among us who wish to see Darkhawk and Sleepwalker film adaptations. The list goes on and on for films they want to see Pixar adapt, like the world needs a Ka-Zar movie. The floodgates of stupid bullshit have been opened, and now the Internet has gone full retard.

I hate this Disney/Marvel deal already. And that begs the following question: Do I lose all of my geek credibility?

What is geek cred anyway? I’m not exactly sure. I guess it’s some sort of status within a community of people I’d rather not belong to in the first place. Geeks are the most sanctimonious, self-impressed and tasteless bunch of yahoos that I can think of. Now, you may ascribe those same qualities to me, and you may be right. But Groucho Marx said something about not wanting to belong to a club that would have him as a member. I fully agree. Does that make me a Marxist?

I don’t particularly want any geek credibility. If not getting all excited about a potential Squadron Supreme movie (there literally is next to nothing left when it comes to viable properties) means I’m not a geek, well, I guess that’s just too damn bad for me.

Geeks like to let their geek flag fly while reminding you of how awesome they are in spite of their geekdom. This shit annoys me beyond the pale — geeks who constantly reiterate that they have girlfriends or fiances or a harem full of concubines. “Yeah,” they say, “I might want to see a Dr. Strange movie, but at least I have a girlfriend, lulz.” You got me there. I’m dreadfully single and I couldn’t care less about a Dr. Strange movie.

Thing is, I’m 30 years old now. I think I’m sort of past the age where I feel I need to defend my personal interests as well as my personal stake in the artistic merits of said interests. Some of those things could be considered geeky, but if my geek cred is ever called into question, I’ll be the last person to defend it. Personally, I think Disney should try propping up Marvel’s comic book arm rather than trying to create movie franchises out of a dozen or so C-list (and D-list and F-list) characters.

But what do I know? It’s not like I have any credibility here.

-Brad Lohan

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