The Fanboy Nation: The Evolution Of Comic Books

The Fanboy Nation:
The Evolution Of Comics In The Last Century
I was standing outside my tower, sucking on a cigarette and reading Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. It’s a comic book, or more specifically a graphic novel, collecting the four issue run from the late 80’s that looked at the bleak future of Gotham City. In the story Batman comes out of retirement after 20 years. Now a 50 something year old man battling with alcoholism, Batman faces a city that has outlawed costumed vigilantes and has been transformed into a desolate pit of crime and deviance.
A fellow student walked out the door and I grunted an acknowledgement of his presence. A few minutes passed, and as Batman tried to rally together a hopeless gang called the “mutants” this guy snickers at me and says, “comic books are for eight year olds.” I looked him in the eye, fighting the urge to strangle him, and asked him what the last book he read was. “Reading? Man, who the hell reads ...