Comics are Awesome II

[Sparky Prime]

Does it matter? None of the people Shocktrek asked even knew who GL was. (Well, one guy thought he was Ben Affleck.)

Yes, it does matter. Asking how many there are is a very different question than asking who the character is. How do you know they weren't confused because they don't know there is more than one? And even confusing the actor who played the character in the movie is possible. That's not a reliable way to tell if they knew the character or not.

[Onslaught Six]

You're missing the larger point. These are people who don't even know what a Green Lantern is period. They've never picked up a comic book in their lives. So yeah, they don't know who Alan Scott is. Obviously.

[Sparky Prime]

The larger point is, you can't say they don't know who Green Lantern is when that isn't what they were asked. You have no idea how they might have been interpreting that question or if they really knew who the character is or not.

[Onslaught Six]

THEY THOUGHT HE WAS SPIDERMAN! What the hell, man?!

[Sparky Prime]

One person singing the Spider-Man theme after talking about comic book characters doesn't mean they thought it was Spider-Man. And another person asking if it was Spider-Man? Maybe they just thought there had been 5 Spider-Men. Like I said, you have no idea how they were interpreting or misinterpreting the question.

[Shockwave]

Yeah but I do since I was the one asking and O6 is right. I had no less than three separate referrences to Spider-Man and three people who admitted to not knowing who the Green Lantern was at all (as in, complete unfamiliarity with the character. Didn't even know there was one till I mentioned it). And, I prefaced the question by saying "I have a comic book question for you" so they knew I wasn't asking about lawn lighting. There was no misinterpretation, just a very large display of ignorance of comic book trivia. And like O6 said yes, they thought I GL was Spiderman. One lady asked me if that's who I was referring to and then another started singing the theme. This was at least an hour apart from each other and were not part of the same discussion, so no, one was not responding to the other, this is actual multiple instances.

[Sparky Prime]

Are you sure they weren't misinterpreting the question? I mean, I don't understand how you got people talking about Spider-Man if your question was 'How many human Green Lanterns are there?'. They had to have confusing the question somehow if they thought you could have been talking about Spider-Man.

On a related note, I have a Green Lantern ring I always wear. Today I had a job interview (and was hired if anyone is curious) and after shaking hands with the HR guy, he noticed it and immediately asked if it was a Green Lantern ring. I didn't even have to say anything.

[BWprowl]

Are you sure they weren't misinterpreting the question? I mean, I don't understand how you got people talking about Spider-Man if your question was 'How many human Green Lanterns are there?'. They had to have confusing the question somehow if they thought you could have been talking about Spider-Man.

Because this is how 'normal' people operate. They don't even differentiate between most superheroes, let alone companies like Marvel and DC. Ask any person on the street to name some X-Men, and they're going to stumble and list stuff like Batman and Mr. Incredible. Good luck with something as b-list as Green Lantern. People like those that Shockwave asked probably saw trailers for the movie, noticed it was a superhero flick, and just naturally associated it with the more well-known superhero flicks, like Spider-Man. It's a thin association to people like us, I know, but this is how most people operate.

On a related note, I have a Green Lantern ring I always wear. Today I had a job interview (and was hired if anyone is curious) and after shaking hands with the HR guy, he noticed it and immediately asked if it was a Green Lantern ring. I didn't even have to say anything.

You know how we sometimes accuse you of living in a 'nerd mecca'? This is the perfect illustration of that: That you can wear a Green Lantern ring in public (to a job interview, no less!), and not only not get your ass kicked for it, but actually be hired at that same interview. This is nuts!

[Sparky Prime]

Because this is how 'normal' people operate. They don't even differentiate between most superheroes, let alone companies like Marvel and DC. Ask any person on the street to name some X-Men, and they're going to stumble and list stuff like Batman and Mr. Incredible. Good luck with something as b-list as Green Lantern. People like those that Shockwave asked probably saw trailers for the movie, noticed it was a superhero flick, and just naturally associated it with the more well-known superhero flicks, like Spider-Man. It's a thin association to people like us, I know, but this is how most people operate.

I don't buy that. Even if you didn't know the first thing about Green Lantern, at the very least you could tell from the name alone he'd have something to do with a green lantern. Just as with Spider-Man you can infer from his name alone he's got something to do with spiders. If you're asked about a specific character, why would you think of some totally unrelated character, that the only thing they've got in common is being super heroes? That's not normal. That'd be like confusing Bugs Bunny with Donald Duck.

You know how we sometimes accuse you of living in a 'nerd mecca'? This is the perfect illustration of that: That you can wear a Green Lantern ring in public (to a job interview, no less!), and not only not get your ass kicked for it, but actually be hired at that same interview. This is nuts!

I don't think most people usually notice it is a Green Lantern ring. It's a sterling silver ring with a Green Lantern symbol insert, so I think most people think it's just a silver ring with some design on it. Unless they get a good look at the symbol. Why would I get beat up for wearing it in public? It's just a ring.

[Onslaught Six]

Normal people are ignorant of pop culture, because they care more about Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift. We don't pay attention to that kind of stuff because we don't care. If you put five women in a lineup, and asked me which one was Kim Kardashian, I would probably completely fail in picking her out. Likewise, show someone a picture of the Justice League, and ask "Which one's Green Lantern?" and you'll, at best, get people picking "the one that's green."

I work with people who "didn't understand Inception." I work with people who "didn't see Avengers" because "it's superhero crap." I work with middle-aged women who care more about this dead-end shit career and what their babies vomited up this weekend than anything else. They're not going to know who Green Lantern is. I'm lucky if they can name a Spider-Man villain. These are people who wouldn't know who Zod is. If I mention "Mirror Universe," I have to explain that it was from Star Trek and everyone had goatees because goatees are evil. These are people who don't think Prometheus even looks 'interesting,' and when I said it was an Alien prequel, they didn't know what Alien was.

Normal People don't give a fuck about this stuff. We do because we're nerds.