To Boldly Go Where Kids Have Gone Before L uckily, a lot of social pressure to out- grow these nerdy childhood interests is fading, and TJ Gilmore, mayor of Lewisville and self-proclaimed Trekker, says it’s about time society accepted that sci-fi, fantasy and comic books can be a wonderful part of adulthood. “Here’s the mayor of a municipality who lets people know he likes Star Trek,” Gilm- ore says, making no secret of his fandom. “It’s not just kids anymore, you know? It’s adults. It’s grown-ups. It’s leaders in the community.” Gilmore is a massive Star Trek fan. His Mazda Miata is covered in Trek logos, and a bronze, 6-inch bust of Captain Jean-Luc Picard face-palming himself (inspired by a viral meme) sits in his mayor’s office. “I’ve seen every hour of content that’s ever been created, multiple times,” he says, as if it’s his prime directive as a Trekker. Stoltzfus says the acceptance of nerd fan- dom among adults today is thanks in part to the comic book fans of his generation who now run Hollywood. “You’ve got people who grew up reading the classic Marvel books of the ’60s and ’70s,” he says. “And now they are in charge of creat- ing new content, and they took that passion and pushed it, and they just did not relent.” Katie Urby, a special effects makeup art- ist who works with local indie filmmakers, says the world of sci-fi greatly inspired her artistic career. As a 30-something-year-old woman whose bedroom is reminiscent of that of a rich 13-year-old (thanks to her im- pressive collection of art and toys), she is aware that her interests don’t exactly align with cultural norms. But she’s OK with that. “It’s helped me be myself my whole life,” she says. “The older I get, the more I’m like, ‘Well, I’m already here. It’s not going any- where.’” Dover agrees with that sentiment, and has no doubts that his adult interests are ex- actly where they should be. “Ten-year-old me would think I’m the coolest motherfucker that ever existed,” he says. A Highly Illogical History book history, specifically, and explore many original movies and shows to fully appreciate what is popular today. And in my opinion, no character has had a better glow up than DC’s Batman. While his stories have always asked “whodunnit?,” the cinematic leap from Adam West to Robert Pattinson is a big one. First seeing popularity in the 1940s, Bat- A man donned black and blue tights and en- thusiastically solved crimes with his sidekick, the boy wonder Robin, in comic books. And the colorful and wonderfully cheesy 1960s television debut of Batman, starring West, couldn’t be further from the dark, brooding Batman of today. But Darling, who is also a comic book cataloguer at Heri- tage Auctions, doesn’t mind the caped cru- sader’s kitschy past, although she says she mainly relates to the wistful ways of Batman as we know him now. s an adult who is only now embracing this wide-ranging nerd culture, I’ve had to take a few lessons in comic Mike Brooks “I think that just ties into my whole, like, melancholy side,” she says. “I’m just like a, you know, a sad bastard teenager.” While superheroes like Batman domi- nate popular comic book fandom today, characters of that nature were under attack after the 1954 publication of Seduction of the Innocent, psychiatrist Fredrick Wer- tham’s book that alleged negative effects of comic books. This ultimately led to the comic book industry enforcing its own sys- tem of self-regulation, called the Comics Code Authority, in order to continue pro- ducing content. The code meant no graphic violence, no horror, no sympathy for the bad guys and no nudity, among other guidelines. One won- ders what the comic book defenders back then would have thought of the sight of Chris Hemsworth’s bare bottom on the big screen in Thor: Love and Thunder. And while it was updated several times before becoming defunct in 2011, Dover says it was after the code originally came into be- ing that the Silver Age of comics began. “And that’s when the actual superheroes came back,” he says, “when we get Marvel Comics, and, you know, Fantastic Four in the early ’60s with Stan Lee [and] Jack Kirby. And the rest is history. And that’s what ev- erybody’s obsessed with.” Calhoun’s thoughts on superheroes couldn’t differ more from Wertham’s bitter assumptions on the matter. “The real world is filled with war, with bills, with hate, with anger, with racism,” he says. “In the superhero world, you have that armor around you where you can battle that. And good wins.” M Warp Speed Ahead y entrance into the world of Star Trek fandom couldn’t have come at a better time. The franchise had five new series debuts this year alone, which I’ve watched, along with some old Treks, even out of order, because there’s so much damn Star Trek for me to catch up on. Gilmore certainly loves Trek’s long-run- ning popularity. “The great thing about Star Trek is that there’s always an anniversary at this point,” he says. James Shepard turned to sci-fi to escape life’s realities, including a cancer diagnosis. Even the documentary Trekkies, which followed the lives of some of the most eccen- tric Star Trek fans (where are you, Barbara Adams?), celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. But it’s more than just Star Trek. Gilm- ore thinks sci-fi has saturated the entertain- ment industry now. “You can’t turn on a television screen without some sort of sci-fi-something going on,” he says. Recent shows embracing sci-fi wonder include The Orville, Avenue 5, The Man Who Fell to Earth and Night Sky. Non-superhero comic books have achieved tremendous popularity recently with shows like Sandman, Moon Knight and the TV special Werewolf by Night. Star Wars fans have also had plenty of new TV content to explore, including The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Andor. But superheroes still dominate the box office with big-budget movies. Marvel is even reportedly reviving Wolverine in Dead- pool 3, scheduled for release in 2024. “I think it’s hilarious,” Dover says. “Ryan Reynolds just kind of just walked right into the MCU like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna make my movie the most anticipated Marvel movie.’” And it’s this kind of anticipation mixed with endless storyline possibilities that makes all of this so exciting. Characters can come out of retirement or back from the dead or live in an alternate timeline, and we don’t question it. Well, continuity buffs do, but most of us just enjoy it for what it is. So, as I sit here, sober and immersing my- self in this unique little world for the first time, I’m happy. And it sure seems to me that all of that schoolyard bullying has paid off, and all the years of dedicated fandom have snowballed into one great time in his- tory to be a fan of all things nerdy. Stoltzfus sums it up best, in agreement with Marvel co-creator Stan Lee’s famous statement regarding great power and great responsibility. “We won the culture,” he says. “Nerds won. And now it’s up to us, since we have this power, we have to use it for good.” Tacolandia Dallas.com 15 SCAN TO WIN NOVEMBER 12TH SATURDAY, Energy Square Plaza 4-7PM ENTER TO WIN 2 VIP TICKETS dallasobserver.com CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS DALLAS OBSERVER NOVEMBER 3–9, 2022
