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Kevin Harkins’ Adoration of Comics

Recently I have been dealing with some health issues in my life. Now before anyone gets too emotional it is nothing too serious, I am not dying or anything like that, but this combined with the fact I am almost 30 has led me to reflect on life and where I am. One of those things has been my love for comics and why is it after all these years these characters still speak to me and I always anticipate when anything related to my favourite characters is coming out. Why do I still feel like a kid at Christmas when Batman or Spider-Man among others swing across the screen, a comic, or a video game even though I have seen them so many times?

I think it really boils down to a couple of things one of which is that life is hard. Sometimes nothing seems to be going right and it doesn’t look like things are going to improve. You could be working a dead-end job, lonely, and/or depressed and you don’t know what you can do to get out of it. Recently I have been feeling all of these things and comics, among other things, give me a way to escape to a world where there are people who will do the right thing no matter what and put their lives on the line to save others. It offers hope that maybe the world is not as bleak as it seems and we can strive for something better. You can watch Batman use his will and smarts to save the day and Spider-Man struggle with the responsibility of being a hero and it inspires you and gives you hope that you too will do the right thing in a situation.

harley and joker

The other major thing is how essential these characters are to me as a person and have affected my entire life.  Some people might frown upon this but I care more about these characters then I do most people and I can take comfort in knowing these characters will never hurt or disappoint me like so many can in real life. Recently with my health issues and things going on at work one thing that got me through the day was knowing Suicide Squad was coming out soon and I would see Joker and Harley Quinn on the big screen. Knowing I would be seeing two of my favourite characters got me through some hard days and I would watch the trailers over and over just to get the glimpses of them, and while I had issues with the movie as a whole seeing those two delighted me to no end and I found myself wanting to go back and see the movie again just for them. I love them so much especially Joker who is my favourite villain, and just seeing them meant the world to me, and it was extra special because Harley was making her big screen debut.

I remember when Star Wars: The Force Awakens was coming out and the news was doing a story about the people camping out for the opening night. One of the anchors made a condescending comment about how he wishes he loved something as much as those people love Star Wars. All I could thing is why would you look at these people with scorn just because you can’t feel that amount of devotion towards anything. That is an issue with you not with the people seeing Star Wars. Everyone has different reasons for their fandom but for me it is a love of these characters and an escape from the world we live in. I want nothing more than everyone to love what they want to love and not deal with people like that anchor looking at them with disgust.

In the next few weeks other writers on this site will be writing articles like this about why comics matter to them. I look forward to seeing why they love comics and what it is that pulls them to certain ones. We will also be doing lists of our top 10 comic books, comic book movies, comic book TV shows, and comic book characters. It will allow us and you to see what makes us tick and what we personally love about this medium we love so much.

So what about you? Why do comics matter to you and what are some of your favourites? Let us know in the comments below and on Twitter!

About the author

Kevin Harkins