Being a geek wasn’t cool, but times have changed

How many superheroes can you identify? Unexpectedly, this is an important cultural and economic question for our times. In my crater-faced, terrified youth, I was a geek, nerd, dweeb and the rest. This was, of course, before it was cool and in fact when it was the opposite. I recall one incident on Harefield Road in Dundee when some kid swiped my copy of 2000 AD comic and loudly mocked me for reading “Doctor Dredd”. This disdain was routine for people like me.

Now, geekery is regarded differently. The Marvel Cinematic Universe movies alone have grossed, collectively, more than $16 billion at the global box office. The latest, Avengers: Infinity War, made $1 billion in just 11 days.

That’s just the Marvel stuff. The days in which comic book stories were limited to Saturday morning cartoons are long gone as, love it or hate it, the last decade and more has been filled with films and TV shows based on comics, from Superman to Scott Pilgrim.

So I was just wowed when I read the hilarious story of a woman laughing at her wife for failing to name characters in the Marvel movies.

Gabrielle Regan-Waters said her wife Brenda correctly identified Iron Man, Captain America and The Hulk, but hilarious messed up others like Thor (“Chris”), Dr Strange (“Magician”), Vision (“Purple Alien”) and Star Lord (“Republican Chris”). Her reaction to Rocket Racoon, from Guardians of the Galaxy, was “Is this a character? It’s a racoon.”

This is where we are. In 2018, superheroes are so mainstream that people are mocked for failing to identify a niche character like Rocket Racoon. Ten years ago, even I didn’t care about him, and I own a plastic replica of a Legion of Superheroes flight ring. I’m pretty deep into this stuff. I don’t even care about Vision now. He’s utterly pants.

I love this. I love that my hobby went mainstream. Not every geek welcomes it, but I’m throwing the doors wide and celebrating the rest of the world’s acceptance of our culture.

And to that kid on Harefield Road: Comics are cool. I was right all along.

I love that my hobby went mainstream