Comic book fans from 2019 vs 2024 are almost different species

I went to my first con in 2019 and everyone was talking about the Snyder cut and speculating on keys like first appearances. Fast forward to last month at the same con, and half the conversations were about movie casting rumors and which MCU show to skip. It feels like the online hype cycle sped everything up and now fans care more about what's coming next than what's actually on the page. Has anyone else noticed the shift away from deep dives on classic runs?

2 comments

2 Comments

victor_adams951mo ago

Everyone was talking about the Snyder cut" - wait, really? That's wild to me because back in 2019 I must've been at a different con because all I heard was people arguing about which Batman was better and whether the DCEU was even fixable. Now you're saying it's all MCU casting rumors and show skipping guides? That's a complete 180 from where the energy was. I still see a few guys digging through longboxes for old Claremont X-Men runs, but you're right that the online hype machine has basically taken over everything. People want to be ready for the next movie drop instead of sitting down with a stack of floppies.

kevin_hernandez831mo ago

Victor is just mad that people moved on from his Batman arguments. I am definitely side-eyeing the idea that 2019 was some golden age of deep comic discussions (people were hype for Doomsday Clock and then immediately forgot about it). Maybe I hang around different corners of the internet, but I still see people obsessing over the Morrison omni reading order or arguing about whether John Byrne's FF holds up. The con vibe changes year to year based on whatever Marvel decided to announce that week, not some grand shift in fandom's soul.