Readers, I have some bad news: your favorite character, they might not always think like you do. It’s tough to have to tell you that, I know you were very close, but you have to accept that they’re an (imaginary) individual, and not necessarily patterned off your every whim.
Snark aside, this is an issue that’s been on my mind for a while, but finally coalesced while reading some of the comments for my Why Wolverine Would Avoid IPAs post of the other week. A decent number of comments were along the lines of, “This is what I feel –> I like Wolverine –> he agrees with me.” Now I don’t have age demographics to attach to these comments, but can we all agree there’s a certain juvenile sensibility to that logic? Before you immediately scroll down to leave a nasty comment, let me explain.
Ultimately what I’m driving at is that people project their own personalities on their favorite characters. Even if it is silly, it’s not actually unreasonable. Humans are social animals; we look for bonds in every situation possible, even if the object of our affections is imaginary. I recognized this trend during summer camp many moons ago, and came up with the term “boy band syndrome.” Basically, if you get to know someone a little bit and what you do know you like, you then assume that all the gaps in your knowledge are filled by things you would also like. To have this assumption challenged is difficult if not downright upsetting. I know I’ve had moments in budding friendships where someone I was getting along with gangbusters dropped some knowledge that seriously shook how I felt only because it disagreed with me. “I thought you were cool, we had so much in common, but now I find out you like the American Office better than the UK one? I need to think about where this relationship is going…” It can be difficult to come to grips with someone you like and admire feeling differently than you. Some relationships can weather that storm, others can’t.
Imaginary characters provide a more complex challenge. First and foremost they aren’t real. Your favorite character could tomorrow wake up with red hair all thanks to editorial mandate. Since you, like any right thinking person, cannot abide gingers, you are not sure how to deal with this new reality. But that’s just it, it’s not reality at all, it’s made up by someone not you. (Before I write further, I want to acknowledge my use of the 2nd person, i.e. you, but I don’t mean this to be sermon as much as therapy. I am not your accuser, rather your compatriot.)
"The earth.. it's expanding!"
And it is here that I see the disconnect between creator and fan. A creator has to be able to write a character as that character, not as a version of themselves. We’ve all had a moment where we felt like a character was being written in a way not true to their previous versions. Perhaps it was our perception based on an incomplete reading of that character’s history, perhaps it was just bad writing, but trying to figure out the difference is key. If Neal Adams started writing a Geoforce book and every character suddenly spent pages espousing the inaccuracies of plate tectonics, you’d know a line had been crossed. Granted, it’s Geoforce and he should really know better, but Ron is literally the only person reading it, and the podcast would be better for it. Thanks, Ron. Projecting attributes of yourself onto a character you like is in many ways a mental shortcut, but it is a mental shortcut we expect our writers to avoid using. Yet if a character changes drastically from one writer to the next we cry foul.
I guess it gets back to a deeper issue in comics; we want things that happen to our characters to matter, but without the characters themselves changing. Whereas in reality, if you had to live one week in Spider-Man’s shoes you’d walk away a very different person. Just see Chronicle for a feature-length example. At a certain point thinking there are enough gaps in a characters personality for one to project customized attributes into becomes absurd. Many of these characters have been around for half a century or more. Their saving grace relies on the fact that we’ve all read and retained different stories. I’m of the Conor school of thought which argues that we make our own continuity. The stories that we like, that speak deeply to us; they are retained. The stories that seem off-kilter, forced, or just wrong, are forgotten. It preserves just enough mystique to allow for the projection that we as humans seem desperate to do. And ultimately, as a fan, that’s ok, you just can’t get mad when someone doesn’t share your exact viewpoint (both in regard to comics and… well, life).
So I guess what I’m saying is the next time you find yourself vehemently disagreeing with someone else’s interpretation of one of your favorite characters, ask yourself: am I upset because this person is fundamentally flawed in their opinion based on known facts, or am I upset because they disagree with me and my best friend Logan (who coincidentally agrees with me completely on all matters of importance)?
Next week I’ll be dealing with the atrocity committed by awful artists who draw Wolverine too tall. He’s 5’3” DAMMIT! It’s right there in the OHOTMU!!
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Ryan Haupt just seems to be asking it for it these past few weeks. Hear his ask for more on the podcast Science… sort of.
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Man, I don’t want to read about a character who shares all of my opinions. That’s what my diary is for! I mean, Peter Parker is a Mets fan, for god’s sake!
Also, great point about characters changing. I wish it could happen more often, and it’s always great when it does. Nova’s a prime example of a character evolution done well. Superboy (pre-reboot) is another.
As always, a superb article, old bean.
Peter Parker as a Mets fan was the first thing that came to mind for me too.
As a Mets fan, I can assure you that I often blame every pathetic season on the Parker-luck.
@ MaxPower, that’s hysterical, dude. Also. Aren’t you guys all so glad it’s finally moving towards baseball season?
Nah, just that I have one opinion of many possible valid opinions. If that makes sense.
Ryan, you’re my favorite character. I’m glad we agree.
sigh… Nightcrawler…
Key words being “some comments.” Go back and reread the comments, there’s some serious vitriol over what Logan might drink.
But yes, I agree with you and you’ll notice I respond to many of the cogent critical comments with thanks for pointing out things I had missed or hadn’t thought of.
I don’t understand. How could they be my favorite character when they disagree with me, when everyone who disagrees with me is insolent and must be liquidated? Wow, I guess it’s true, you always liquidate the ones you love…
I’ve read both articles and I’m a little confused. Haupt states what Wolverine doesn’t like based on facts of IPA content & such vs. comments who claim to know what Wolverine likes based on personal attachment. But both sides are drawing a conclusion based on assumption. Of an imaginary character. So, I’m not understanding his criticism. I’m not big on IPA either, so there ya go…
I admitted being guilty of feeling this way too. Wasn’t intended purely as criticism of others. 🙂
Totally the best kind of criticism.
great article. many valid points. i’m reminded of the last JL issue when batman removed his cowl and many said “batman wouldnt do that”. well guess what? he DID do that.
and i’m a huge fan of the “conner school of thought”. i’ve practiced that philosophy since i was a lower case g and it has served me well.
i understand that people get attached to characters and more often than not fear change. i’m also reminded of when DKR first came out and people said batman would never do so many of the things he did and that the joker being depicted as a homosexual was just wrong. now it’s a classic. characters need to change and evolve even if it challenges our beliefs. i mean, if comics were still written today like they were in the 60’s, i wouldnt still read them.
Great article. This is something i think a lot about. I’m a Batman fan (obviously) first and foremost. Being a godless heathen (or a rational modern human being, depending on who you ask), he’s the closest thing I have to a deity. I study his parables every week, and try to live by the morals and principles he and other heroes set forth (within reason).
That being said, I don’t consider Bruce Wayne a “friend”. Aside from the fact that he’s a borderline sociopath, there are a number of things about my way of life that he would not approve of. I’m a joker, a smoker, and an all day toker. I also drink, and I’m a slacker who presently lacks any real direction or realistic life goals. These are all things I’m fine with, but things that would defnitely prohibit any kind of friendship with Bruce Wayne, fictional or otherwise.
He’s a role model, my life would be less bright without him, and I’d follow him anywhere. But I too set my own continuity (one in which he would NOT remove his mask in public), and I’m able to seperate my vision of Batman from any creators’. However I do think that any character can be written incorrectly. It’s the writers and artists who are able to tap into the central core of character traits we all share who really get it right. The talent lies in the choice.
But Logan and I would defnitely be besties. No doubt about it.
a rational, modern human being if you ask me.
Okay, it’s tangential, but…
Musically I can remember being disturbed that Queen’s Bicycle Race proclaimed, “…I don’t like Star Wars”.
I was 7 at the time, but it did make me question whether or not I truly liked Queen as much as I thought.
Jaws was never my scene, either.
You made me think about it, so I wanted to get your opinion: Would you say Jason Aaron was projecting a bit of himself on the character when he wrote Astonishing Spidey and Wolverine? I don’t know jack about beer other than IPA’s taste gross and Fat Tire is yummy. You seemed to have a good argument why he wouldn’t like IPA’s though, yet here is a writer putting the opposite to pen. I took it as canon because I figure Aaron has gotta understand Wolverine better than me, but now that you got me thinking…
Fun stuff and great articles Ryan!
I’m amused people think they could be chummy with Wolverine because they drink beer and he drinks beer. But it’s pretty clear he’s not a social person. When you see him drinking with people they’re people he’s bled and fought along side. They’re never randome bar people. When you think about it all super hero’s are basically soldiers (wolvering especially), and you’d kind ot they’d only socialise with other people who’ve seen the elephant.
I can’t remember the name but didn’t some famous creator once point out that a comic superhero would look down on a comic reader the same way a celebrity looks down on gossip magazine readers.