Just saw a guy at the con get the entire origin of the Black Panther wrong.

He was telling his friend that T'Challa got his powers from a radioactive spider bite, like Spider-Man. This was at the Emerald City Comicon last weekend. How do we fix this kind of basic knowledge gap without sounding like gatekeepers?

3 comments

3 Comments

vera3081mo ago

Mixing up origins is one thing, but that's a whole different character lol. A simple correction like "Actually, the Panther gets power from a heart-shaped herb" works fine. People usually appreciate learning the real story.

oliviat171mo ago

At a local comic shop last month, I overheard someone mixing up Iron Man and War Machine. I just leaned over and said, "Oh, I get them mixed up too sometimes. I think Tony built the suit in a cave, right?" It opened a friendly chat and we looked at some comics together.

kai_park1mo ago

Yo honestly that's a really solid way to handle it. I had a buddy who did something similar at a Marvel movie marathon. Some guy next to him thought Hawkeye and Black Widow were siblings because they fought together in the first Avengers movie. My friend just said "Yeah they totally got that team vibe going on, right? Kinda like how Clint has all those arrows and Nat has her fighting moves." They ended up talking the whole movie about each character's actual backstory and it was chill the whole time instead of being awkward. I feel like correcting people in a gentle way like that keeps the fun alive, especially at places like comic shops where people are just trying to enjoy their hobby. Nobody wants to feel dumb in a place they love.