Peer Pressure – this is when a person is forced by a group of friends or peers to try something that that might not normally try. Most of us had some lecture about peer pressure back in middle school. Mine was something like, “you may see your friends drinking or smoking and they may ask you to try it, too. They might tell you that you’ll be cool and have more friends if you do it. But that’s not true. Drinking and smoking will kill you.”
Okay – that last little bit might have been a slight exaggeration. But I do know that they REALLY tried to drive the point home. PEER PRESSURE IS BAD! IT’S OK TO SAY NO! Got it. It’s burned in my brain. Check. After middle school peer pressure just became more prevalent, even if the subject matter changed. In college it was drinking, drugs, sex, bad music, etc. Even as I’ve gotten into my career I encounter peer pressure. Just this past week I had some people at work trying to pressure me into buying the new iPhone.
“Doesn’t it just kill you to know that there is a new one out there? Why haven’t you bought it yet? So-and-so has one – aren’t you jealous?”
“Well, So-and-so is an idiot because we don’t live or work in a 3G town… nor does AT&T seemed concerned about making this a 3G town. My “old” iPhone seems to be working fine and I’m not particularly jealous that somebody has a higher monthly payment. Besides, if they’re comfortable with it, that’s all that matters, right?”
My response was followed by silence…
By the way – if you have the new iPhone – more power to you. I really have no problem with it or with you.
Fighting peer pressure, unfortunately, is not always so easy. For example, many of us fall prey to advertising on a daily basis. Or perhaps you end up eating lunch where your coworkers are going – even though you swore up and down you’d never go back to that crap-tastic place.
Or maybe… just maybe… this summer you succumbed to the pressure of Secret Invasion. Oh yeah – you know what I’m talking about. It all started so simply – you saw it in Previews, or your LCS owner gave you something about it – or perhaps you even read Comic Shop News. Regardless you got it in your head that it was going to be THE summer event – and that it was only going to be 8 issues. Who can resist that?
Not me, that’s who. Of course I want to be part of THE summer event. I wanted to know who’s a Skrull, I wanted to know who I can trust. I needed to know! Wait – what? What am I talking about? I don’t even read any Marvel books! None. Zip. Zilch. Why on earth should I care who’s a Skrull?
I don’t even know what a Skrull is?!?! Okay – I’m being facetious. I know what Skrull is. But I don’t care. A lot of people care. Great. More power to you. Maybe you can talk to Skrulls on your 3G iPhone. But I bought into the hype anyway – I fell for the peer pressure. Marvel hooked me for (at least) 8 issues this summer.
But it’s not that simple. Secret Invasion isn’t just 8 books this summer. Every other Marvel book has a tie-in. Looking at the shelves of a shop you’ll see about 40 Secret Invasion books, Trinity… and maybe some other books.
It has been difficult for me to not buy more Secret Invasion books. I see them sitting there and I feel like I have to know what is going on with characters that I actually know nothing about. It’s maddening the more I think abo
ut it. I can see my 6th grade health teacher scorning me now for falling to the pressure. Pretty soon I’ll have no money and all my teeth will fall out, just like the meth addicts they used to show us in pictures. I’ll be mumbling “Skrull” under my breath. Kids will shriek in horror when they see me huddled under a park bench. My life will just dissolve away. I’ll be Secret Invasion – incarnate.
Seriously though – I know I’m not the only one. I can’t be. Lots of people are getting caught in this – or have been caught in similar things. The first step is admitting there’s a problem. We can have a support group. It’s going to be okay. Soon the invasion will be gone. We’ll all get through this if we stick together.
Gordon the Intern is a Skrull. Or is he? Tune in to the Secret Invasion: iFanboy one shot – available soon in stores (still waiting for creative team…and funding…).
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I think I’m experiencing that with Final Crisis Gordon. I haven’t bought a mainstream DC book besides a Batman book in a long time, but something about Grant Morrison and JG Jones pulled me in. I started hearing Grant Morrison talk about it, and hearing people at my LCS talk about it, and hearing people on iFanboy talk about it…
So when it came out I bought it, and, as a huge Grant Morrison fan, I’m sticking with this until the end, just because of the much bandied about addage that his work always makes sense by the end, but honestly, right now, I really don’t know why I’m reading it.
you dont need to buy any of the tie its over all it doesnt matter if your not really interested in the characters, i know i bought S.I. X-men even though i knew it wasnt going to affect any x-books. so what im trying to say is this, if you dont care about the characters in the books dont worry you can ask any of the ifanbase that has read them all myself included to give you the run down of what happened. Once someone has im sure your first thought will be wow i just saved a bunch of money. but i would suggest picking up the Captain Britain series its the best book coming out of S.I. but if you dont really like magic and that sort of thing it may not be for you. take a page out of Josh’s book and make a resolution to read more books you love and less books that are "i need to get it to understand whats happening in a universe i dont care about". thats my piece i hope i made sense.
The fallacy that "you don’t have to buy anything besides Secret Invasion" is ridiculous. New Avengers and Mighty Avengers are a necessity. I mean let’s face it, this is actually an almost weekly 24 issue maxi-series.
thE Tiki
very nicely put; i feel for you, gordon.
@Tiki – You are exactly right. Which is why I’ve decided to drop out of Secret Invasion altogether after being so disappointed with SI #5. On some level, I’m sad that I won’t be able to participate in any future discussion related to this event, but on another, it’s VERY liberating to just be done with it altogether and spend $4 on something else next month.
@English – You make perfect sense. In the end, I’m just not interested in any of the Marvel characters involved in SI, and hence am not loving it. I felt like I was reading it more out of obligation to understand what’s happening in the Marvel 616 and see what all the hype was about, but in the end, I’m just not caring what happens! I foresee three issues of the superheroes kicking Skrull ass, and it just doesn’t appeal to me. Bendis may throw a curveball and have it turn out entirely different, but I’m just not willing to pay $12 to find out. Perhaps I’ll check out the Captain Britain trade when it comes out, sounds like it’s much better than the actual SI miniseries.
I have avoided the pressure to read any tie-ins with Secret Invasion. My wallet thanks me…until I spend that extra money on trades…
@Para i can completely respect and understand that i would suggest the trade idea for C.B. & MI13 because its a great cheap way to get a complete story without having to take it month by month.
It’s nice to be able to follow the stories told in the tie-ins, but the only necessary story to follow to see what has been building for years, and what will set the new Marvel status quo, is Secret Invasion. Yup, only the eight issues. This will be easier to see when they come out in trades, but you can really get by without any tie-ins here.
I’d like to say that I was trying new things and reading Final Crisis, but all I’ve been hearing is that it’s very inaccessible to new readers and that it’s too busy trying to fix where 52 fell short to be coherent. I’m ready to soak up the new DC events like a sponge, so I’m asking people what is happening in the book, but I’m not so rich that I can afford to jump on an event that is gonna be hard to understand.
Considering the stuff you read, I’m amazed you got pulled into this. I don’t even really understand. I’m not sure if you should just stop and accept that you’ve thrown money away or if you should continue and then immediately sell all the issues on eBay. But one of those choices is the solution.
The book is I sort of peer-pressured myself into was Avengers/Invaders. I was gonna wait for the trade, but I thought, "Well shit, I don’t want to not be part of the discussion." Turns out, there is no discussion and I’m pretty much the only person reading it. Now, I am enjoying the story, but I really wish I’d just waited for the damn trade. Of course, being twelve issues, it would be two trades, but still…
Those meth addict pictures are bad support of your opinions here. That guy actually look sway cooler in the post meth addict picture than he does with the buzz cut. I’ve seen a lot of these before/after meth addict pictures on youtube things and there are much better examples you could’ve chosen.
I got peer pressured into Batman R.I.P. and after reading 3 issues I just quit. It seems like it might be interesting if I knew enough of the background info; but I haven’t been reading the regular Batman book for the past year or whatever would be necessary to really understand R.I.P.
Kudos to you Gordon. Fun post.
I totally agree, I’ve slowly stepping off the MARVEL train since the whole Civil War crap fest, but I still bought the stinky WWH, now I’m reading SI and asking myself why I’m still even bothering…I have figured out why I toture myself with bad stories…I keep hoping that I’ll really like MARVEL again, and I want to feel happy when they finally fix that sinking ship of bad stories. So with SI coming down to a close, I’m getting the feeling I’m going to have to wait until the next event.
Events should not be where you go looking for the good stuff. Good Marvel stories are out there if you want them; the question is, who are the characters you used to enjoy reading?
I succumbed to the peer pressure as well. But I realized the error of my ways and dropped it as of this week. Never was all that interested in Marvel, don’t know why I’ve been buying it. I’m out.