One of the things that most comic fans refuse to discuss is the emotional attachment to comics and how there is a fine line between appreciating a comic to becoming a frothing uberfanboy. 

I appreciate my comics.  At times of crisis I find myself going through old issues for solace.  My problems might not be as gargantuan - I’ve never suffered a broken back at the hands of a man that injects scorpion toxin in the back of my head, I haven’t snapped the neck of my girlfriend as she fell off a bridge, nor am I a blind man who is driven borderline insane while fighting a New York crime lord - but it is the aftereffects of their problems and how they deal with them that I can relate to.  I suspect that every comic fan has that one comic that is worn ragged.  But each tear, crease, and mark on the yellowish pages has significance.  It isn’t so much the comic or the character that carries the meaning - it is the history associated with that specific comic, the appeal of the nostalgic, that is comforting.

But some fans get borderline creepy with their obsessions.  Case in point is this article from Kent Stateabout a fan’s reaction to Captain America’s death.  While I’m sure it sensationalizes a lot of how he feels and is reacting to Cap’s death (which as far as I’m concerned is just Marvel trying to milk Civil War for all its worth) it also does a very good job of explaining the mindset of the uberfanboy.  The type of person that hangs out on John Byrne’s forum, become overly attached to comic characters, and help cultivate a negative environment on comic book forums. (These guys are also the reason why I refuse to participate in major comic book forums, too much virgin angst for my tastes.)

Examples you ask? 

Being overly attached to a character that has died before:

Sophomore Sebastian Clark heard about the death of Captain America through a classmate in his World Politics class. At first, he did not want to believe it, but when his monthly issue came in the mail the next day, his fear was confirmed: He saw his hero sprawled out, covered in his own blood after being shot by a sniper.

“I felt like a family member died and of course my friends made fun of me, because he is just a comic book character,” Clark said. “My response was ‘How long have you known your best friend?’”

Really?  Your best friend?

Angry letters to editors:

Clark expressed his disgust in a letter he wrote to Joe Quesada, the editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. A couple of days later, Clark got an apologetic response e-mail, in which, Quesada expressed that it is always difficult when people die before they should.

I have infinite love for Quesada now.  For some reason I keep imagining a really patronizing letter about the difficulty of letting people pass.

Making a fictional character into something more:

To his fans, Captain America was not just another super hero. He represented things that others like him did not.

“(He offered) morality, perseverance. He takes the experiment as a true blessing. He was completely selfless,” Clark said.

The experiment to which Clark referred gave Rogers his powers. Too frail to join the military during World War II, he volunteered to take part in a super-solider experiment.

“Steve Rogers was just a good person,” he said.

Oh yeah, and this:

“Since they killed him, I’m not going to get my Captain America tattoo colored in. Maybe just shaded with gray,” Clark said.

Yeah, that is fantastic. 

My problem with the uberfanboy mindset?  It takes the attachment to the actual comic and makes it into a fixation on a specific character.  I’m almost certain there is someone out there that is obsessed with Dazzler and finds extremely deep meaning in everything that she says/does but I think that damages the character more than anything else.

Appreciate it, don’t obsess over it.  Control it, don’t let it control your life.  Else you’ll go from being brought home from the hospital in a Captain America onesy to taking a comic book death so hard that you get your tattoo shaded gray.

(Or Jean Grey?  Haha, genius.  Get it shaded in the color of fainting.  Also, check this out.)