Spidey, Fandom, and Me

Saw Spider-Man: No Way Home last night. Don’t worry, no spoilers. This isn’t really about the movie, not even really about the ol’ web-head himself, but about the phenomenon of fandom.

I’ve been a Spidey fan all my life. I could cite the whens and hows, the media consumed, the back-issues I have (good lord), the ups, the downs. The years of being a weirdo, only to see the whole world join the weirdos in loving this guy.

And that’s really the point. Last night, in a packed theatre during a pandemic, watching the movie that got Peter so right it hurt, hearing everyone cheering and applauding for niche moments that once would only have appealed to a narrow band of fans, I felt truly moved.

So often fandom is about ownership and exclusion. “I liked this before it was cool!” “You aren’t a real fan!” “You don’t know what I’ve put into my love of this!” The same way sports die-hards pile on fair-weather fans.

Part of that is because we’re always looking for ways to define ourselves. There are really two ways —positive, and negative. What you are, and what you’re not.

Negative is far easier. It’s easy to look at one group and define yourself by saying, “Well, at least I’m not them.” A version of that is denying someone status as “real” — a real fan, a real citizen, a real True Believer. But that’s destructive…