Way back in 1785, a poet named William Cowper (no, I'd never heard of him either) used the phrase "variety is the spice of life" in a poem called "The Task." It's probably the only thing an 18th century poet and I have in common, but I believe that statement to contain more than a bit of truth. I crave variety: in the music I listen to, the movies I watch, and yes, the comic books I read.
We live in an amazing time for comics. They are produced on every subject imaginable, from how-to manuals to space operas. They come in every form, from xeroxed pamphlets to enormous dust jacketed hardcovers. The Federal Treasury created comics to explain their monetary policies; at the same time someone, or many someones, were pouring their very personal triumphs and tragedies onto the page. They are entertainment, reportage, education. They are almost as many things as there are people producing them. But this is all a secret. A huge, sprawling, multicolored, very well kept secret.
Look at the top sales as reported by Diamond for any given month and you'll see a, *cough*, trend. They're virtually all superhero books, the vast majority of them published by two large companies, both of which are subsidiaries of vastly larger companies. Somehow, comics have become almost synonymous with superheroes in the eyes of both large segments of the non comics reading public and with the readers themselves. Some of those fans limit themselves even further, deciding things like "DC isn't for me" or "I don't like Marvel." SOME of them subdivide their tiny chosen niche even further, deciding that only certain characters are worthy of their attention and dollars.
Now, be honest: how many of you, having taken your first taste of beer, didn't like it? And of those of you who grimaced that first time, how many of you kept drinking it until you acquired a taste for it? What was the point of continuing to consume something you didn't like at first? You did it because it was socially expected of you, sure, and you didn't want to be left out. But many of you also did it because you didn't want to miss out on something. You may have absolutely loved grape juice, but that didn't keep you from trying beer, or tea, or coffee, or soda, or wine, or a dozen other drinks. As you went along, you figured out that some of them weren't for you, but the point is, you tried them. You didn't fixate on the first thing that won your heart and figure that was good enough.
Why are superheroes good enough, for so many comics fans? No matter how much you enjoy them, why limit yourself to them? Comics fans, as a group, seem more risk adverse than almost any other group of consumers on the planet. "What's wrong with buying and reading what I like", they'll ask. Nothing! But to me, that's not the pertinent question. The question is, "why do you suppose superheroes are the only thing you would like?" It's true for virtually any form of entertainment, especially those pertaining to storytelling. I have a weakness for killer animal and disaster movies. I could watch "The Towering Inferno" once a month for the rest of my life. But I do not, I cannot, understand the type of thinking that would lead to me watching only killer animal and disaster movies forever.
Sometimes I see threads on comic related forums like "What's the saddest/scariest/etc comic you've ever read?" and it breaks my heart when the answer is Daredevil #124 or something. Not that Daredevil #124 might not be pretty damn sad, or that their emotional response is invalid. It's that asking a person who only reads superhero comics for their saddest comic is like asking a Jehovah's Witness for their favorite holiday. They just don't have the breadth of experience to make an informed choice.
I realize this might not be a very popular view. This is just me and my prejudices talking. If it makes you happy to only read Spider-Man or Batman comics until you die, so be it. You need only answer to yourself and your own tastes. I'm not telling you what to like; I'm asking you to try more stuff before you decide. You might find that it goes down even easier than that first beer.
And if you can't be bothered, hey, I'm still glad you're reading comics at all. There aren't enough of us around. Just forgive me in advance for judging you, just a little. I can't help it.
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