Confessions of a Comic Geek

By Alison Bruce

You can learn a lot from Charlie Brown. Charles Schultz created an iconic set of characters with Peanuts. And Lynn Johnson has done a brilliant job of depicting the ups and downs of family life in For Better or for Worse.

But I don't think of the strips when I think comics. I think Superman and Wonder Woman; Spiderman and the Fantastic Four; even The Tick and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.I think superheros.

Maybe it's a character flaw, but I'm a comic book geek.

Honestly, I thought I got over it. It's been years (decades actually) since I managed a comic book store. Almost as long since I gave up collecting. I've been known to pick up a graphic novel from time to time, but I barely know what the X-Men are up to these days unless you count the movies. (Which at one time I would not have... not it a million years.)

Then I thought I'd do a quote piece. Rather that go back and see what pop culture sources I'd already covered, I decided to do one I knew I hadn't touched: Superheros.

That was six hours ago. Since I came up with my brilliant plan I've been catching up on a couple of my favourite characters, reading a few articles on women in comics, and searching for images of my all-time favourite hero, Wolverine.

 "I'm the best there is at what I do. But what I do best isn't very nice."
Logan/Wolverine

When it comes to words to live by, Wolverine can be a bit dark. So what is it about the guy that's so attractive (besides having Hugh Jackman play him)?

Honour. Courage. A warped sense of humour. What's not to love? Okay, you can't expect to settle down and have a happily ever after with him, but you know you'll have a friend for life. (Your life, not his, since he's well over a hundred years old and not aging.) To quote one of his proteges:

“You keep waiting for the dust to settle and then you realize this is it; the dust is your life going on. If happy comes along -- that weird unbearable delight that's actually happy -- I think you have to grab it while you can. You take what you can get, 'cause it's here, and then... gone.”
Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat

Now those are words to live by.

Kitty is the sort of young woman I wouldn't mind having as a friend. She also has honour and courage and a warped sense of humour, but without so much darkness attached. And she has a dragon... at least she did. Or she will. Keeping up with timelines in the comics can be like finding the right side up in an Escher drawing.

Now it's way past my bedtime and much too close to when I have to get up for work. So here are the quotes this post was originally going to be about.

“Patriotism doesn’t automatically equal conservatism”–Tony Stark/Ironman

"It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me." Batman

And my personal fave...

“Of all the stupid — ! When my body turned invisible, the gown didn’t!” — Sue Richards/Invisible Girl