Signal boost: Why Avengers has eaten fandom, by Fabula Rasa

[amanuensis1]

So I fell and fell hard, and a lot of you did too--what was it about Avengers that made it a Fandom Global Event? For the definition of that term and some speculation why it happened, check out fabularasa's blogspot post, A Unified Theory of Fandom. Agree, disagree, discuss.

Comments

[cellia.livejournal.com]

I agree with this. I think Fabula Rasa is probably right with her points as well (though the male part is a little depressing), but to sustain for years and years at a huge level I think there needs to be depth and continuing active canon... with lots of "holes" for fandom to fill. If people go to the comics from the movie, (or if they keep making movies every few years), all these things are there as well.

[sinuous-curve.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! I was actually thinking about this a lot at work, but it's not just missing backstory, it's having a wide array of characters to take into a wide variety of logical (and canonical) places. Harry Potter was largely about Harry, of course, but there were so many hundreds of minor characters that could be expanded and written about at great length. I mean, I can't say I ever really wondered what would happen if, say, Lavender and Millicent got together, but their existence meant that someone did. Plus, Avengers also has the ability to crossover and merge with just about every other superhero canon that exists (and often it already does in the comics) so you can have the time Batman and Tony hit each other and cried and had sex and Logan fighting with Cap in World War II, etc.

[cellia.livejournal.com]

Exactly! (In fact, I think I've read those stories...)