Its today’s pop culture landscape- the nerd rains supreme.
Most of today’s highest grossing films in Hollywood are adaptions from comics, and they continue to make tons of money for their respective companies. A number of heroes are also finally going to brought to the big screen- a few obscure ones like Plastic-man and Booster Gold are also in the works.
Despite the recent success- nerd culture wasn’t exactly the most popular trend around, despite comics having a rich history.
Glen Morgan is a politics professor at Fanshawe College and says that he was mocked for being a nerd when he was a kid.
“I had a Star Wars lunch bag, which was probably not the smartest move in the 70’s.”
It wasn’t until recently that being a nerd can be considered something that was cool. Two large contributors to its recent success would be the popular superhero movies of late, and to the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory.
Morgan says that The Big Bang Theory has helped make nerd culture more mainstream because of its release time.
“I think he [Chuck Lorre] just picked up on what had really become the social sea change, and he said, ‘you know something, nerd culture is here to stay and it’s proud of what it is and what it’s doing’.”
Only time will tell how much longer this “golden age of nerd culture” will last.
Along with comics and science fiction, sub groups of nerd culture have begun to sneak into the mainstream. One example of this is anime and manga.
Hollywood has tried its best to adapt certain manga stories into feature movies and its been a mixed bag so far. Certain adaptations like 2017’s Ghost in the Shell have been decent, but some of the more recent Netflix films like Death Note and Full Metal Alchemist have been panned by critics.
Rob Chamberlain is the owner of the Neo Tokyo Anime Shop and says this is an experimental time for these adaptations, and Hollywood has to make sure they involve the original creators of properties
“If you don’t involve the original guy, the original heart and soul, you’ll miss the point every time.”
Today there seems to be no end in sight for the superhero train to stop in Hollywood. There seems to be no fear of oversaturation from executives as they keep pouring out more stories for TV and movies.
Only time will tell how much longer this “golden age of nerd culture” will last.
