Now, this post is not meant to claim that my friend is somehow an elitist for placing one group of geeks below another; her “lower-caste” term was clearly meant as a joke, as she was just fishing for a funny term to describe the crowd. (She’s a comic book cosplay nerd herself, so she didn’t really “fit in” with most of the other patrons.) Instead, I want to examine an interesting trend that’s been growing exponentially in geek circles over the past decade: subdivision of the overall geek crowd into smaller groups (a caste system, if you will), the game of one-upmanship that accompanies this behavior, and the absolute irony of the entire process.

Heated debates between geeks is nothing new; you could trace ‘em all the way back to Star Trek versus Star Wars arguments in the late 1970s, and I’m sure there were Flash Gordon diehards who disliked John Carter of Mars even further back. However, what bound everyone together was their love of the source material, and in the end, that was all that was important. In recent years, that common bond has been eroding, and the geeks have no one to blame but themselves.

With growing frequency, geeks are cramming one another into a caste system of their own making. My friend’s joke nonwithstanding, this is a very real and serious situation: geeks in one group are demonizing the other, but not out of the good-natured rivalry seen in the past. Geek subcultures literally hate each other now, and often consider certain groups “beneath” them as far as the nerdy social strata are concerned.

This is the colossal irony I spoke of. Geeks and nerds have always complained that they’re a misunderstood and maligned social group, shunned by the rest of the world. Well, look at what they’re doing with this caste system: the exact same thing! So, not only are they maligned as a whole, they’re actively pushing some of their own peers even lower down the social scale, making the entire problem even worse. How fucked up is that?

The Internet has certainly contributed to the caste system in a big way; just as it has brought nerds together, it also drives mountainous wedges between them. Case and point: video game console flame wars, which have gotten far uglier than even the famous Sega and Nintendo rivalry in the early 1990s. Now, we’ve got entire sites and forums devoted to elevating one nerdy hobby while bashing another. All this truly accomplishes is making geeks look even worse in the eyes of everyone else!

I’ve always been of the mind that you shouldn’t hate an entire group; just specific people inside said group that personally piss you off. For example, I can’t stand all of that Twilight shit, and I think the fan fervor over it is incredibly annoying…but I have friends who are into it, and I’d never consider myself “better” than them as a result.

Having said that, if a Twilight diehard nearly knocks me down at the bookstore in their frenzy to score yet another generic young adult novel, they’re going to get an earful of rage.

Nowhere is this behavior more prevalent than in comic book fandom. Legions of message boards and websites are devoted to spoiling upcoming issues and plots, weeks (and sometimes months) before their release. In fact, I’d wager that the amount of comic book nerds hunting for spoilers far surpasses those who do not. Which of course begs the logical question: if you’re going to rabidly seek out spoilers, then why bother even reading comics in the first place? You’re obviously not that interested in experiencing the story from month to month, as was intended.

It’s been pointed out to me that some spoilers are “impossible” to avoid, such as those printed in the monthly PREVIEWS catalog put out by Diamond Comic Distributors. Is this catalog full of spoilers? Absolutely. But there’s a legitimate reason for this: the PREVIEWS catalog is an advance order book designed for comic book shop owners so that they know how many of a particular book or other piece of merchandise to order. However, you don’t have to dig through it for spoilers! In fact, I skip past the entirety of the comics listings in the catalog for that exact reason. So don’t tell me that those spoilers are a given; you can avoid them just as easily as I can. The closest we come to “impossible” spoilers are when something’s printed on PREVIEWS‘ cover. For example, the villain behind DC Comics’ Blackest Night crossover was spoiled a few months in advance of his in-series appearance due to a PREVIEWS cover promo, but the few readers that complained about it were drowned out by the rabid cheers of fanboys.

I’m sure the ending of stories like Blackest Night are already well known amongst the basement-dwellers, even though the final issue isn’t due out until the end of March. I’m perfectly comfortable waiting until then; I don’t know why so many of these losers just can’t learn simple patience.

(Note: This entry is crossposted to The Indigo Tribe.)

This is not to be confused with being excited for future projects by a favorite creator; the difference is recognizing loss of quality when it applies. No creator has a perfect track record; everybody’s human, after all.

I’m a fan of writer J. Michael Straczynski, especially his work on Babylon 5 and Rising Stars, so I was eager to check out his take on Spider-Man in the early 2000s. Well, it started out good…but then it went straight into the shitter. Some JMS fans still praised it as the best thing to the happen to the book; I wonder what was going through their heads, because diehard Spidey fans certainly didn’t agree.

Furthering the comic book example, let’s look at novelist Charlie Huston. He’s written quite a few popular novels; I read one of them (Already Dead), and while I didn’t find it to be awful, I didn’t find it to be great, either. It was just an average urban vampire novel. (And we know how that whole genre has been beaten to death.) Like many other comic book readers, however, I first discovered his work through the relaunch of Moon Knight a few years back. Well, Huston’s novels may be decent…but his comic book work was atrocious. The Moon Knight relaunch read like a crappy Grand Theft Auto clone, focusing on excessive violence and shock value rather than character development or adherence to the source material. Yet, fans of his Moon Knight work automatically praised his novels, and vice versa!

This kind of fanboy loyalism just doesn’t make any sense to me. You’re not bound by law to automatically defend your favorite properties, nor are you required to like the entire breadth of a creator’s work. If they go sour, so what? You gotta take the good with the bad. It happens to everyone and everything. Just ask any Star Wars fan.

Jeez, I even see people defending things they haven’t even seen yet!

Wrong. The new series is going to star the recently-returned-from-the-dead Barry Allen, who was the Flash from the late 1950s through the mid-1980s. (When Johns wrote the book years ago, it featured Allen’s successor, Wally West.) Allen is Johns’ favorite superhero, so it’s only natural that Johns would use his considerable clout in order to secure the writing gig. The problem is that Barry Allen as a character is fucking boring.

Barry Allen embodies the stereotypical “goody-goody” superhero. Originally, that was to his credit, as that’s what made a popular hero in the Silver Age. However, the comic book audience has grown up (well, somewhat) since then, and those types of characters just don’t fit well with modern storytelling. Every human being has his flaws…except for Barry Allen. He’s still a super-devoted forensic scientist and superhero who is portrayed as being the perfect moral compass, and that’s extremely limiting when it comes to modern stories. More seriously, it’s incredibly boring.

Johns has said that the first storyarc of the relaunched series is going to be a CSI-like tale. Well, as well all know, CSI has completely oversaturated the television market with the main show plus a number of spinoffs also airing. So, not only are we stuck with a Flash with a sterilized, one-dimensional personality, we’re also stuck with a setting that’s already been beaten to death. Plus, if we want to read a detective story…we have Batman!

It’s very possible that Johns’ writing may break Allen out his goody-goody rut, but I’m not betting on it. He’s publicly stated that Allen is the greatest superhero ever, so the book is practically a fanfic before it’s even begun! (I’m sure the powers-that-be don’t care, as the legions of Johns apologists will buy anything he writes and defend it to the death, no matter how contrived it is. They’re a very silly bunch.)

My gripes with the new series may be considerable, but I am willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. After all, Johns’ previous Flash work was excellent indeed, but more importantly…I can’t render final judgment on the new series until I’ve actually read it. After the hilariously bad The Flash: Rebirth, in which nearly seventy years of history were retconned to show that Barry Allen is the source of all Flash powers past, present, and future, I suppose it can’t get much worse…can it?

Continuity decisions are completely at the whim of the editors, and writers have to pass any changes by them. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it! Fans don’t always agree, but unfortunately for us, it’s not our decision to make.

Sometimes, though, continuity decisions aren’t as cut and dry as you’d think. Today’s focus is on one of the many changes implemented by 2007’s Infinite Crisis event from DC Comics:

• Dream of the Endless never told Kyle Rayner that he was superior to Hal Jordan.

This was revealed in one of editor-in-chief Dan DiDio’s “DC Nation” columns, back in October of 2007. The event he’s referencing, though, happened back in 1998, in JLA #22-23. Grant Morrison was writing the comic at the time, and he got permission from Dream’s creator, Neil Gaiman, to use the character in the story. The original exchange was as follows:

Dream: “Why do you hesitate each time? This man Jordan, the one who wore the magic ring before you…why does he overshadow all of your thoughts and actions?”

Kyle: “What? What does this have to do with anything? I was just thinking about…what is this about Hal?”

Dream: “You will surpass him. You already know what he could never learn.”

Kyle: “Sh’yeah! Hal Jordan was the best. Everybody knows that. Everybody keeps telling me that, no matter what I do. I met him; the guy was a star. What could I possibly know that he didn’t know?”

Dream:

It’s completely within DiDio’s power to decide what proper continuity is, but I have a problem with this particular instance for three reasons.

One, as I’ve mentioned before on this blog, we know that both DiDio and Green Lantern writer Geoff Johns harbor a strong distaste for Kyle; ever since Green Lantern: Rebirth, just about everything that happened to Kyle in the past has either been severely lessened, or retconned out of continuity entirely. The retcon dealing with Dream was specifically designed to be a dig against Kyle in favor of Hal, and that kind of fanboy bullshit bugs the hell out of me. It’s considerably worse that such fanboyism is coming from professionals at the top of the ladder, so to speak. They should know better. (To be fair, other characters are getting shafted, too; DC Comics has been seemingly hellbent on retconning or “deleting” most of their mid- to late-1990s tales as of late. It’s a shame, as that era had many of the publisher’s best stories.)

Two, to the best of my knowledge, Dream is technically the property of Neil Gaiman, not DC Comics. Creator-owned characters are a rare occurrence in the DC and Marvel comics houses, but regardless, Dream and other characters Gaiman created for The Sandman are his. Furthermore, the realm of the Endless exists outside of the regular DC Universe and Multiverse. So, no matter how hard Superboy-Prime punched the walls of reality in Infinite Crisis in a fit of teen angst (I’m not making that part up, by the way)…Dream and the Endless would not have been affected. Most importantly, though, it technically wouldn’t be within DiDio’s power to make continuity decisions when it comes to the Endless. Gaiman would have to do that, and there’s no evidence whatsoever that he was consulted.

What does all of this mean? DiDio’s column nonwithstanding, does Dream’s original conversation with Kyle still stand? Based on the evidence, it sure seems that way. If that’s not good enough for you, then consider this: if you ignore the legalese, then instead go by the Golden Rule of Canon used by film and television. Since DiDio’s comment was in an editorial column, and not in the story itself, it doesn’t apply. (This is how properties like Star Trek and Star Wars handle canon.) Of course, the fact that I’m just finding out about this whole thing now, over two years later, proves that DiDio’s comment couldn’t have been that important to canon anyway.

There’s a really simple way out of this particular retcon, if you want to be purely literal about it. In this case, DiDio’s comment is accurate, because Dream never claimed Kyle was “superior” in the first place! He said Kyle would surpass Hal at some point, and he never said exactly when this would happen. Going by this literal route, the retcon technically does not exist, as they’re trying to alter an event that never took place to begin with.

I realize this post may make me come off as a disgruntled Kyle Rayner fan, desperate to undo the post-Rebirth changes to the character. I can assure you, however, that this is not the case. I roll my eyes at any retarded and fanboyish attempt at retconning, regardless of the character. This was just an example I’m much more familiar with.

Seriously, though, we’re at the halfway point of DC Comics’ company-wide crossover Blackest Night, and so far, so good. “But wait,” I can hear you say, “your blog is about ranting and complaining! Why are you being so positive?!” Very true, intrepid reader! While I’m certainly enjoying Blackest Night thus far, I do have some issues to raise. Get it? “Raise”? Like the Black Lanterns? Look, if you don’t like my bad jokes, you’d better buckle up, because I’ve got more.

Anyway, the idea of the DC Universe heroes and villains facing resurrected friends and enemies is pretty cool. (Even though it’s not really the dead, of course; just simulacra of them. Nekron’s Black Lantern rings find a dead body or spirit, “download” its memories, and create a physical construct to attack the living.) We’ve seen the whole “hero fights the dead” before, but this is on a massive scale on par with the mayhem seen in Marvel Zombies, which most certainly influenced Blackest Night.

My first nit to pick is some of the incredibly silly speech and actions by some of the characters. For example, let’s look at Hal Jordan himself; at one point, he bitches and moans about how he’s not a “pawn of the Guardians.” Well, that’s a bunch of horseshit for two reasons: one, if you’re a Green Lantern, then you’re the Guardians’ lackey. Period. Two, the last time Hal made a statement like that…he went off his rocker and destroyed the Corps he was possessed by a giant space bug. No matter what he says…he’ll toe the line, because that’s what Rebirth-era Hal Jordan does. Don’t try to make him seem more badass, when you know it’s a crock.

Larfleeze, the holder of the Orange Lantern, has been acting very much out of character lately, as well. When introduced in the Agent Orange storyline earlier this year, he was shown to be an incredibly arrogant and greedy enemy, with ridiculous levels of power to back it up. He’s currently being hunted by Black Lanterns…and acting like a complete wuss in the process. This dude’s killed Guardians, fer crissake, as well as their cousins the Controllers. Not only that, his Orange Lantern Corps was kicking the living snot out of the Blue Lanterns on their base planet of Odym. Recalling his constructs back and smashing some zombies should be a walk in the park, but Larfleeze sees fit to act and speak like he never has before instead. I can understand that a massive horde of superpowered zombies could frighten anyone, but this is a very abrupt shift for the character, and it doesn’t mesh with his previous appearances at all. (Of course, now Red Lantern leader Atrocitus wants to kill Larfleeze and take his lantern, so we’ll see how that turns out. I have a feeling Larfleeze may not survive the crossover in general, and someone else will take his place to possess the Orange Lantern.)

My next problem of note has less to do with the story, and more to do with DC Comics’ business model: there’s a ridiculous amount of tie-in miniseries that really don’t add much to the overall plot. There might be a seemingly important bit on a page in Blackest Night: Titans, and another piece in a panel in Blackest Night: Batman, and maybe another in Blackest Night: The Flash…but why not put that shit in Green Lantern or the main Blackest Night miniseries, where all of the really critical stuff is happening, anyway? Obviously, we know that DC’s just trying to squeeze more money out of the consumer. (Marvel Comics does this with their crossovers, too; look at all of the pointless Dark Reign nonsense that they’ve shit out.) From a story perspective, though, it just dilutes the whole saga. Stories work much better when they’re more tightly woven.

Green Lantern scribe and Blackest Night showrunner Geoff Johns has done a decent job juggling all of the multicolored Lanterns he’s introduced over the past few years, even though the very concept seriously dilutes the premise of the Green Lanterns, and our favorite heroes therein. Of course, this isn’t going to stop anytime soon; more colors are sure to come. You will see at least one White Lantern, as I’ve mentioned before, and it’ll almost certainly be Hal in that role. The obvious choice for their symbol would be a blank white circle, but that’s already been used by the Green Lantern Corps; it’s what recruits have on their uniforms before they earn their badges. Since artist Ethan Van Sciver designed each of the other color Corps’ symbols to be opposites of one another, here’s my guess as to what a White Lantern badge ought to look like:

See, it’s white, and the arrow’s pointing up instead of down. Brilliant, huh?

…But I digress. While the use of a White Lantern to beat Nekron is an obvious choice, it’s also a cheesy one. Wow, white is the opposite of black: how incredibly original. (That was sarcasm, in case it didn’t come across well enough in text form.) The fact that the wielder of the white light will end up being Hal (or even Kyle Rayner, who “died” recently) is also very clichéd; I understand that he’s the hero of the Green Lantern series, but c’mon…we can rock the boat a little bit without sinking it. Since it’s a company-wide crossover, why not have a character who is not a Green Lantern do it, which would actually be a surprise? (Now that I’ve written extensively on this subject, watch Geoff Johns fuck with me and not use White Lanterns in Blackest Night. Just my luck!)

Overshadowing all of my other concerns, though, is this: I dread the idea that Blackest Night will have a largely formulaic ending: the various Corps team up, recreate the white light of creation, destroy the Black Lanterns, and send Nekron back to his own dimension or whatever, with very minor ramifications (if any). Unfortunately, this is likely unavoidable due to comic book fanboys’ extreme distaste for change in any form, and their preference for simple, predictable stories.

Well, half down, half to go. The only way to see how Blackest Night will turn out in the end is to keep reading it. I doubt any of my concerns will be addressed, but let’s make like a Blue Lantern and hope. They’d certainly help turn a good series into a great one.

For example, I loved this year’s Star Trek film, but I did have a few problems with it. I’ve heard some Trek zealots wave away any and all criticism of the new film, even the constructive kind, with a blanket statement of “it’s an alternate timeline.” Aside from the fact that this statement is complete and utter nonsense, it’s a crappy way to explain inconsistencies. Does the alternate timeline defense work for some of the plot problems? Absolutely, as that’s what the premise of the entire film is based on. But for the rest, you can’t just wash them away like that.

I have the same concerns about Fringe. The first season established that there’s parallel universes out there, some with minor differences (like the World Trade Center surviving 9/11), others with major ones (cities in flaming ruins). It’s been part of the series’ underlying mythos, but it’s starting to get out of hand. It’s not clear which of the alternate universes is the most “important” one (read: where the bad guys come from), and this is critically important, since it’s been made clear that a war between the primary universe and the alternate is coming. But which one?! Do the writers even know? This could very easily lead to plot holes, about which the writers could easily say, “oh, that was a different timeline/universe.” That’s not an explanation; that’s a shitty excuse!

When it comes to comic books, it’s far, far worse. Gaping plot holes and continuity problems have been written off with alternate timelines, retcons, and other nonsense for decades. It’s just been getting a lot more prevalent in the past few years, especially since DC Comics brought back the Multiverse, and Marvel Comics has been making excessive use of its own parallel universes (e.g., Marvel Zombies). It’s bad enough that anyone can guess the outcome of a large-scale story or crossover (hint: the good guys win, even when they don’t), but when major revelations are ditched later on because “Superhero A actually came from Universe B, so his actions don’t count,” that’s just poor writing.

The easy solution to these nagging problems is this: ditch the alternate nonsense, and just write a good story that’s self-contained. It’s not difficult.

However, his latest outburst has now made it official: the fact that Kurtz is a complete asshole has officially surpassed the quality of his webcomics work. Kurtz received a letter from Wizard Entertainment recently, asking him to participate in one of their upcoming conventions. The letter was professional, but Kurtz’s reply was most certainly not; Kurtz had posted both the letter and the response on his website, for all the world to see. (I strongly suggest you read it, then carry on with the rest of this post.)

That response to Larry Ernst from Wizard was one of the most arrogant and juvenile things I’ve ever read. The fact that Kurtz used his reply to publicly bitch about his problems with Wizard as a company, which is not Ernst’s fault, shows a colossal lack of professionalism. Show me one instance in which Ernst was responsible for the questionable tactics Wizard has employed; he’s an ad sales manager, not the CEO. Even if he was responsible, his letter to Kurtz, while improperly addressed, was professional to a tee. Ernst deserved a response that was equally professional, not the witless screed that Kurtz puked up. Kurtz even admitted to hating everyone at Wizard, including Ernst, for acts the higher-ups were responsible for!

But wait…it gets better. Kurtz spoke about his letter on the Bleeding Cool forums, claiming that “professionalism is out the door with me when it comes to [Wizard], because they have never treated me professionally. Not even once.” Well, aside from the usual rule that two wrongs don’t make a right, this statement also proves Kurtz to be a liar. As I’ve stated before, and as shown on Kurtz’s own website, Ernst’s letter was nothing but professional.

Further proof that Kurtz is a lying scumbag comes with his comments on an article at The Beat. Here, Kurtz claimed that Ernst’s letter was not a trigger for his vehement statements towards Wizard, nor was any of his hate targeted at Ernst specifically: “It’s not like I flogged the guy in person or something.” Both of these claims are clearly false: the letter most certainly was the trigger, otherwise he never would’ve posted the response! Secondly, Kurtz made personal attacks towards Ernst in his reply in addition to his broad attacks on the company. He didn’t flog the guy in person, but he sure did shit all over him on a popular website.

Seriously, what a fucking dick. I’ve been told many times that Kurtz can be very hard to defend, due to his occasional outburts; well, there’s no defense whatsoever for this kind of behavior. I’m generally a proponent of separating one’s personal actions from their work; for example, Russell Crowe has a reputation for being a total prick, but he’s still a great actor. Kurtz’s behavior as of late has made enjoying any of his work impossible.

Kurtz owes Ernst a sincere apology. There’s simply no excuse for Kurtz’s actions.

(Note: I did send Kurtz an email on Wednesday explaining my thoughts on this matter, minus all of the swearing and name-calling, of course; I have this blog for that kind of stuff, remember? Anyway, I have yet to receive a reply, quite possibly due to the sheer volume of emails Kurtz receives each day. Still, that does not excuse his arrogance and unprofessionalism when it comes to his reply to Ernst.)

(Special thanks to Luke Foster for his assistance in research for this post.)

The perennially late but highly-anticipated finale to Warren Ellis’ and John Cassaday’s Planetary series has finally been released. Issue #27 was a very long time in the making…and boy, was it a colossal disappointment.

Almost all of the characters on this cover have nothing to do with the story inside.

Planetary started way back in 1999, and writer Warren Ellis promised to explore the “secret history” of the WildStorm comics universe. The team of Elijah Snow, Jakita Wagner, and the Drummer did undeed unearth all sorts of cool shit, connected to not only popular WildStorm stories like WildC.A.T.S., Gen13, and The Authority, but also to classic literature, pulp novels, and science fiction tropes.

Planetary was always meant to be a bimonthly book that would run twenty-four issues. Which means the series should’ve been completed in around five years, but it’s taken more than twice that much time. This is laziness run rampant, people. Granted, Ellis dealt with some illness at one point, but there’s still no excuse for the series to have taken so long to finish. John Cassaday had other artistic commitments..which would be fine, except that he accepted these offers before he finished his work on Planetary. It seems to me that Planetary was just at the bottom of his list of priorities, and that’s unacceptable.

But I digress. Let’s focus on the final issue.

Instead of a story that wrapped up all of the remaining plot threads that ran throughout the entire series…we got a retcon, and a extremely clichéd one at that. The end of Planetary can be summed up in one sentence: “Oh, Ambrose isn’t really dead.” You read that right: the finale is devoted to bringing Ambrose Chase back to life, who up until this point was shown to have been dead for years. Yeah, we’ve never seen that before in comics! The issue was filled with fantastic art and Ellis’ requisite technobabble, sure, but the fact remains: it was just another bring-back-a-dead-guy issue, and didn’t serve to truly wrap up the series at all.

Furthermore…whereabouts in WildStorm continuity does this final issue take place? The current WildStorm universe is still reeling from the World’s End event. I don’t want to hear any nonsense like “Planetary is creator-owned, so it’s in its own continuity!” Well, no, it’s not. Let me reiterate: Planetary explores the secret history of the WildStorm universe, not the “Ellis universe.” It takes place in standard WildStorm continuity, like it or not.

It’s possible that #27 takes place just prior to World’s End; I suppose you could shoehorn it in there somehow. But without at least a mention thereof, it seems a bit sloppy. (Note: The real-world explanation is that Ellis purportedly wrote the script for issue #27 years ago, before World’s End and its predecessors were implemented, and just didn’t change anything to reflect this.)

Planetary #27 has been getting boilerplate rave reviews from many in the comic press, but that’s just the status quo. Too many comic book fans are wrapped up in the “if it’s Warren Ellis, it must be gold” mode of thought. Ellis is often dubbed immune to criticism, constructive or otherwise, because of this. In some cases, I also think that people are afraid to criticize Ellis, due to his rather…outspoken personality.

Ellis has written a large amount of fantastic work, but even he stumbles from time to time, and Planetary #27 is a perfect example of this. As a random one-shot issue? It’s fine. As a finale to one of the best stories in modern comics? It’s terrible.

We all created our own stories in one form or another as children. When playing with action figures and such, we created new adventures for our plastic heroes. The big difference between these and fanfics is that they were our childhood adventures. They were created for our personal enjoyment only when we were kids, and never designed to be shared with anyone else. When you’re an eight-year-old, it’s cool when your Optimus Prime and Darth Vader toys teamed up to take down Cobra Commander. When you’re an adult submitting novels about the characters over the Internet in a vain attempt to gain recognition from other basement dwellers…something’s wrong.

Fanfic writers are not a bunch of little kids engaging in playtime. They’re teens and adults, going off the fanboy deep end and writing godawful stories in which characters often behave nothing like their official selves. I feel this cheapens the source material, and in many cases, downright insults the original stories. The cast of Final Fantasy VII were not fucking each other, just as Archie is not fucking Mr. Weatherbee. Get over it.

As a rule, fan fiction is shit. But what happens when fanfics actually become an official part of the series they spawned from? Then where do we draw the line?

A prominent example is the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds series of anthologies. Technically, the stories within these books can be considered fanfic, as they’re all stories written by fans. But at the same time…they’re officially published by licenseholder Pocket Books, making them legitimate Star Trek tales! A few of the contributors to Strange New Worlds have even gone on to become professional writers in the field.

I think the big difference here is that there’s quality control in place for stuff like Strange New Worlds. If a story is crap, it’s going to get thrown out by an editor or their lackeys. Unfortunately, just like with webcomics, that doesn’t happen with fanfics. Anyone and everyone can post that filth on the Internet at their leisure. Entering a contest in which fan-created stories are specifically called for is one thing; writing them up because you can’t distinguish between fantasy and reality is something else entirely.

The moral of the story is this: friends don’t let friends read fanfics. Do yourself a favor, and stay the hell away from them. Your sanity will thank you for it.