I hope Spetznaz doesn't mind but he made another of his rare but great posts on fanboys in the Wonder Woman vs Wolverine thread and I thought it bared repeating:
Originally posted by spetznaz
No way Jose!
Not even close, and I'll explain why.When it comes to Superman (or for that matter a character like Sentry, who had a one-person 'fanboy' around 7 months back, and other characters of that caliber) it is hard for someone to qualify as a TRUE fanboy.
Why?
Well, because the powers and attributes of the character are so potent and varied that it is very difficult for one to really go off the deep-end with them.For instance (to use Superman) take the speedblitz: Supes has been shown as going at speeds that approach (and in one case I know, and this is for post-crisis btw, surpassing) the speed of light. On top of that he has also been depicted fighting opponents at great speed.
Thus it implies that blitzing is a viable option.What about his strength? Same thing. Even when handled by a writer who tones down his higher end capabilities when it comes to strength, Superman is still extremely capable. And if you look at his average strength feats (even if one ignores the high-end pre-crisis stuff and just takes an average of the post-crisis stuff) Superman is easily FAR beyond the 100-ton scale used by marvel.
Moving to Marvel (and using the aforementioned example of the Sentry) the same stuff applies.
It would be really hard to say Sentry could do something that he has not been written as either:
a) Doing
b) Capable of doing.Going back to DC one finds the Flash as another character that is quite difficult for one to 'stretch' abilities for. That character is speed incarnate, and the speed force covers a multitude of sins.
Moving back to Marvel one finds a character like the Silver Surfer.
It is also hard to be a TRUE 'fanboy' of the Surfer, since when it comes to everything from speed to strength to energy that character is off the charts.Anyways, for the higher echelon characters in both DC and Marvel it is really really really hard for someone to qualify as a fanboy. The only way that would be possible is if:
a) Someone started making threads/posts/assertions that (said) character can take on the 'entire Marvel universe' or the 'entire DC universe' (for instance a certain Marvel fanboy used to have the knack for matching c-level Marvel characters against the 'entire DCU'😉
b) Having skewed matchups (for example say having a 'Flash vs the Living Tribunal' or 'the Silver Surfer vs the Presence'😉.Apart from such situations it is very hard to be a true fanboy of the upper echelon characters.
......but then comes Wolverine.......
Wolverine is just (and I mean it ....just) a short clawed hairy mutant with a penchant for cigars and need for a good barber.
He may be a good fighter, but he is not anywhere NEAR the league of characters like WonderWoman and Superman (you should have read some of Wolverine8888's comments on who would win between Wolverine and Superman, and then to make matters worse he started blaming his little brother for that).That is the key thing about fanboys .....lack of logic.
If someone says that the Silver Surfer can speedblitz someone at many times the speed of light, that is alright. Why? Because SS has been written as being able to transcend the speed of light many times over.
If someone writes Superman as blitzing a character with a thousand punches a second, heat vision, freeze breath, etc etc that is alright. Why? Because he has been written as doing that.
If someone writes the Flash as giving someone an infinite mass punch that is alright. There are scans of him doing that.HOWEVER if someone makes a character like Wolverine into some deity, and then adamantly claims that Wolverine can 'beat this and beat that' character (even when Wolvie is not even worthy of fighting characters TEN LEVELS BELOW the character he is allegedly supposed to be able to beat), then THAT is a fanboy.
I remember the guy who used to be a great fan of Sentry (and basically stood by his character like crazy).
In my opinion he was NOT a fanboy .....just a fan.
Because it is really hard to say Sentry can do something and he cannot.However Wolverine8888 is the epitome of fanboy, namely he is:
1) Illogical.
2) Get's excited to the point of:
a) Spouting forth bad language
b) Liberal usage of bad spelling
c) Making threats (it was hilarious when he would threaten people with 'beatings'😉
d) Going loco whenever people would claim Wolvie would lose.3) Standing for a character that is best merely a popular street-leveler and claiming that such a character can stand up against people of a far higher caliber.
4) 'Adding' (to put it midly) new abilities/powers that the writers have never given to the character (eg according to W8888 Wolverine's skeleton was made of solid adamantium)That is a fanboy, and when it comes to upper echelon characters like Superman (or Sentry, or SSurfer) it is very difficult to achieve that, since the writers have given those characters so much power and varied feats (especially when it comes to Superman and the Surfer, since the Sentry while powerful doesn't have as many stories written about him) that it is next to impossible to say they can do something that they haven't been written as doing.
However take characters like Wolverine and you have a minefield of fanboyism.