Average Comic Book Reader

On the outside I live an unexciting life in suburbia. I follow a routine and I'm happy most days. I don't go skydiving or drive a race car, although I would if given the chance. I'm at a time in my life where the skin that I live in fits me. I know who I am and what I believe. My place in world history is secure, I'm nobody. I'm about 6 foot tall, average. I weigh about 180 pounds, average. I'm married with kids, average. According to the census bureau my salary is …can you guess?...average. Every month someone walks up to me and says, "You look familiar." I nod and say, "I know." You cannot get any more average than me, I'm wearing cement shoes and have been thrown into the pond of average.

The thing that transforms me from typical is what I read, comics. Before you dismiss me as a man who's refused to grow up, think about this. How many comic book related movies have you seen in the last 12 months? You've had plenty of options including, Superman Returns, Batman Begins, X-men 3, V for Vendetta, Fantastic Four, and many more. Obviously people like comic book characters so why don't more people read comics? I believe that they're scared of reading comics for fear of reproach, that it's childish. People that read comics don't care as much what other people think and they have a need to be more than they are. They want to see new things, explore the unknown. They want to dream dreams that have strange and wonderful endings from characters that are bigger than life. When someone reads a typical novel, at times during the story they envision the scene. Some writers make this especially easy with elaborate, descriptive terms that set your imagination free. But comic books make this movement into the story easier because you can see and read the action.

When I read comics, it's easy to become engrossed in the story. Vicariously I live through Superman, Spiderman, or Wonder Woman, not to the extent that I'll don spandex. (You can thank me for that later.) But I can see myself in Spiderman's one-liners or Superman's heroics or the X-men's fight for equality. Their story becomes my story for a brief moment. No I'm not some insane idiot who babbles endlessly about the alien who lives in the trash dumpster at family reunions. I'm an endlessly average comic book geek who escapes the cage of average and dives head first into imagination.