Geeks, gather

All right, as I'm writing this, I have a class in about an hour and a half, then right after that I have a class I have to lead a discussion in for an article I've yet to read, but I got suddenly inspired to write about the sudden rise to it being, out of nowhere, cool to be a geek.

Now, normally you'd think this would be good for most of us. But strangely, it just isn't. First, I don't mean to sound elitist, but it's kinda insulting to hear people wax on and on about Spider-Man or the X-Men or Transformers or whatever (I'll focus on comics for purposes here, as that's really, besides leftover Star Trek and Star Wars knowledge, the only geek thing I can claim, but you can apply much of this argument to any number of other geek topics) yet clearly have no idea what they're talking about, and people actually believe them. Now, it seems like a small thing, but when you start getting rumors going around that Rogue and Wolverine were once an item in the comics, that's a lot of damage control.

Then there's the clothes. I can't tell you how many Flash and Transformers shirts I see on a daily basis, when none of them would've worn these five or six years ago when you could pick 'em up for ten bucks at Things From Another World. But now that Urban Outfitters sells them for $28, it's all right, it's FASHIONABLE.

Look, no one who's actually a geek does it to be fashionable. We certainly never thought it would make us COOL. If anything, what made it so cool is that it's something none of the cool kids would ever understand. They'd never know the private joy and escape a special, bonus-sized issue of Superman could bring on a day when nothing else went right. They had the Dave Matthews Band for that.

And no geek's favorite superhero is Spider-Man "because he shoots webs!" Number one giveaway.

Eventually the whole fad will fade, once the O.C. says it isn't cool anymore or something (I say this because I read an article a couple of years ago that used Seth as an example of how geek culture was now mainstream). For now, the true amongst us can enjoy a temporary spike as people love that I saw "Sin City" four times in its first two weeks of release or that I fully believe "Superman Returns" could change my life. But I'm just as prepared for the day when the stares of disbelief and slight disgust return when I mention that I have to hit the comic shop on a given Wednesday (the day of the week when the new comics ship) for the newest issue of ASTONISHING X-MEN and ALL-STAR SUPERMAN (which are fantastic reads, by the by).