Our Forum - It's Past, Present and Future

When our ABP forum community was founded, it was by members of another forum who were looking for a place where they could talk about the comics and characters they loved...a place away from the hate, vitriol, general negativity and rampant trolling that had come to dominate the board we were existing members of.

Our forum was intended as a place 'not only anti-trolling, but fan-positive. A place where general negativity is out-of-character. Where a difference of opinion can be shared in a constructive rather than destructive way. Where people would focus more on celebrating the characters they like or love, than hating on the ones they don't.'

For the most part I think we succeed on all of that with the possible exception of the negativity, and I am as guilty of that as anyone. I thought, mistakenly, that once free from a largely negative and trollish environment we would magically flower into happiness and joy. That that would be our natural state.

I overlooked one important thing, the primary source of our fandom. We were all, primarily, Marvel Comics fans in general...X-Men fans in particular...and largely devoted fans of certain characters specifically(Gambit, Iceman and Nightcrawler). Those three characters, along with others, have spent recent years suffering from massive misuse, disuse or the improbable combination of both.

It's hard to find optimism when you feel your favorite characters and their fates are in the hands of those who either don't care about them at all, don't remotely understand who they are as people, or both. In the hands of those who only seem interested in catering to the perceptions and wants of fans when they are in opposition to your own. It's frustrating. It's maddening. It's depressing.

It is easy and tempting to say our site fell to inactivity because a couple of months after our founding, our former forum-home rebooted. They re-branded as a 'community forum', got a new mission statement of their own, and a self-mandate to 'be better'. While that definitely all played a part in what happened with us, it was much more than that.

Frustration and anger with Marvel over the treatment of many of it's characters and franchises, especially our favorites, boiled over. For many, things reached a breaking point. Most of our members are not posting at our former home. Those that do do so infrequently. Many seem to have given up on the current X-books, or current Marvel Comics entirely. A quick search of the internet will find they are in good and plentiful company. I myself hit a breaking point with Marvel so severe I completely stopped reading Marvel Comics for about a year, and stopped posting about comics anywhere for the same period. Sadly, that included the forum I created.

It's not that I didn't want to be here anymore, I did(and I did pop in periodically to check on things even when I wasn't actively posting). It's that I was miserable, my relationship with current comics toxic. And while, as the saying goes, 'misery loves company'...I didn't want the poison that had consumed me to spread to anyone else. I didn't want to be that. I like lifting people up, not bringing everyone down. So I stayed away, and I stayed silent.

Eventually I found my way back to posting at ABP, and even to reading Marvel Comics. Surprisingly, I saw some things with fresh eyes. I saw that I had been so caught up in arguments with others that I missed much of what had really been going on. That I was letting the narrow and binary views of others limit my own perceptions.

How often have we seen the Baxter Building get destroyed(or moved...or renamed)and the Fantastic Four disbanded, only to see the building restored and the team come back together? How often have we seen the same with the X-Men and the X-Mansion. How often have we seen beloved characters die, and feared they would never return, until they did. How often have we thought a character had been so changed they could never again be who they once were, until they were, again.

And the more savvy fans have become to all that, the harder they have to work to convince us 'this time is different'. That those things can't be undone this time because of real-world reasons. Until they are. When I came back I took a look a characters not being themselves and continuity not making sense, and instead of the chaos of mistakes and creator disregard, I saw careful misdirection and a deliberate pattern. I wanted to shout what I had found from the rooftops, then I realized that even though I had found the truth, there are not that many places where the truth is actually welcome anymore, if at all. Especially certain truths.

In the years since this forum was founded, we have seen the rise of something...unpleasant...in our world and also in comic fandom. The roots were there before, but this pernicious weed has now flowered and thoroughly propagated itself. A vocal group of narrow-minded ideologues...who usually claim to be the opposite...have tried to size our fandom. They thrive on group-think and conformity and intolerance. They brand anyone who does not agree with them...does not conform to them...be they liberal or conservative, moderate or centrist, independent or apolitical...as 'far right'. They call people of color who disagree with them 'white supremacists'. They call LGBTQ people who disagree with them 'homophobic' or 'transphobic'. They call women who disagree with them 'misogynists'. If you are in opposition to them, the current term de jour for you is 'garbage person'.

It shouldn't be lost on anyone that the primary purveyors of this behavior are white, cisgendered, straight men...who have cast themselves as ally's of the victimized masses. Waging a constant war on behalf of them, often and increasingly even against the very people they claim to be helping. Always quick to attack, condemn and demonize others...while trying to draw authority from association with extremists and activists...as they try to police themselves, each other and everyone else.

It produces a chilling effect, as masses of people who don't want to be mired in conflict, or labeled as some kind of evil, stay silent. The result is a loss of freedom, and the suppression of voices. People simply become afraid...not only to share their opinions, but even more concerning, simply to say what is true.

There are a few things that are fundamentally necessary for the functioning of a healthy society, be that the larger world or the microcosm of a fandom. A free expression of opinions, of ideas, but most importantly...the free expression of the truth, and for it to be recognized as the truth when it is expressed. Without that, we have nothing.

Whatever our future, let this forum always be a place where we can exchange opinions, and ideas, but most of all where the truth can be told, and acknowledged for what it is.