Question about fandom

My question is a fairly vague question, but I am going to use specific examples to get the point across.  In general, can you be of fan of something if you have never seen the source material, or possibly don’t even like the source material?

Can you be an Avengers fan if you’ve never read an Avengers comic book?  Let’s say that you saw all of the Marvel Studios movies and loved them.  You saw The Avengers opening day, then multiple times afterwards.  You bought merchandise featuring your favorite characters, and maybe even some collectibles.  Yet, you’ve never read an Avengers comic book.  Have no desire to.  Are you a fan of the Avengers?

What if you watched the shit out of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, had all of the toys, and got ridiculously excited when you found out that there was a second movie coming out, while all the well not even knowing it was based on a comic book?  Are you not a fan? 

Marvel Universe – 8/5/12

Ultimate Spider-man – “Snow Day”
Peter Parker is awoken by an emergency message from Nova, and stumbles into his costume.  When he opens the window, he’s pelted by the other team members with snow balls.  Since school’s closed because of a snow day, Agent Coulson wants the team to report for a special cold weather survival training.  Instead, they go to a tropical island that Nova found in S.H.I.E.L.D. database.  As they’re having fun in the water, they don’t see the Sandman on the beach.  They somewhat wonder why this place was in the database, but don’t put too much thought into it.  Peter’s Spider-sense tingles, but again, he doesn’t payy any attention to it.  When he loses a volleyball, Peter goes into the jungle to find it.  He comes running out when something scares him.  A kid named Sandy walks out with the ball, and says his family lives everywhere on the island.  The team gets into costume, and searches for Sandy.  During which, they run into Flint, who looks like an older version of Sandy.  Suddenly, ruins appear before them.  They decide to make a tactical retreat, but Sandy confronts them.  He moves their plane to the top of the ruins.  Sandy and Flint both attack them.  Sandy and Flint create a maze, and separates the team.  Whithin the maze, a third, older Sandman appears.  Power Man and Spider-man find some heiroglyphics that describe how Flint became Sandman, and was left on the island by Nick Fury.  They finally figure out that the boy was just an imaginary friend created by Flint.  The team is able to make it to the ship, but White Tiger can’t get it started.  Nova lifts the ship off of the ruins, until the engines are able to fire.  On their approach, Fury has other planes escort them to a different location, because he isn’t certain that Flint was left behind.  Spider-man starts emptying sand from his costume, and it turns out that Flint is on board with them.  He gets inside the controls, and shorts them out.  They are able to at least guide themselves to crash in a frozen over Hudson River.  Flint is making his way to the mainland, and the team is unable to stop him.  Spider-man gets the idea to have Nova super heat Flint and turns him into glass.  Fury moves Flint into a continuously moving containment chamber. 

Marvel Universe – 7/29/12

Ultimate Spider-man – “Beetle Mania”
The team fights an “improved” Trapster (bigger glue guns).  Working together, they easily trap the Trapster.  Nick Fury is impressed with the team, and gives them their first sanctioned S.H.I.E.L.D. mission.  It is to protect J. Jonah Jameson from the Beetle.  In his news segments, Jameson says he has been threatened for exposing the Beetle, and doesn’t want protection.  The team is on lookout at the Daily Bugle building, when Mary Jane calls Peter Parker and tells him that she is entering the Daily Bugle right now for an interview with Jameson.  Peter comes up on Mary Jane, and tries to convince her to not go in.  Failing, he says that he’s going in with her.  At the entrance of the building, Power Man and Iron Fist try to stop her, but she threatens them with an expose and enters anyway.  Those two are then taken out with a gas from a mini-beetle.  Inside, Nova tries to stop her from entering the elevator, but he’s tricked into letting her go.  He’s taken out with an electric shock, and the Beetle is in the building.  The elevator Peter and Mary Jane were in starts to fall, but the emergency brakes kick in.  White Tiger was responsible for this.  White Tiger is taken out by the Bettle.  Mary Jane forces open the elevator and takes the stairs.  Peter tries to contact White Tiger, but gets no response.  They get up to Jameson’s office, and Peter can’t get a hold of anyone.  Peter’s Spider-sense goes off, and he quickly shoves her into a different room.  This happens to be Jameson’s office, and she starts her interview.  Spider-man tries to figure out how Beetle will come in, when he’s surprised by Beetle coming by elevator.  They fight, causing lots of destruction, which goes mostly unnoticed by Jameson and Mary Jane.  Eventually, the rest of the team shows up.  Using the same strategy as earlier, they think they’ve captured the Beetle, but he breaks out, and gets into Jameson’s office.  Spider-man stops Beetle from blowing up Jameson, and they take Beetle out.  Turns out, Jameson wasn’t in his office, and was speaking by video. 

Marvel Universe – 7/22/12

Ultimate Spider-Man – “For Your Eye Only”
The show opens with a James Bond spoof, which transitioned to Spider-man goofing around the training room.  Nick Fury is upset that Spider-man isn’t taking things seriously, and Spider-man is being a jerk.  Spider-man arrives for another training mission on the Helicarrier the next day, only to find that Scorpio and the group The Zodiac have gained control of the Helicarrier.  Scorpio says Nick Fury is dead.  Spider-man is able to escape into the Helicarrier.  The Zodiac are downloading all of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s files.  Nick Fury contacts Spider-man, but Spider-man is too excited and gets a little too loud.  This alerts the Zodiac to his location.  During the ensuing fight, Spider-man is able to abort their download.  He’s able to escape inside the vents again, and Nick Fury tells him where he is.  Spider-man fights off fights off some Zodiac members and finds Nick Fury about to be sliced by a laser (ala Goldfinger).  Fury and Spider-man arm themselves, and fight their way through the Zodiac members.  While Spider-man fights them on the deck, Nick Fury uses an invisible device, and takes control of Helicarrier.  He makes it dive and submerge.  Nick Fury and Scorpio fight, but it is revealed that Scorpio is Nick’s brother Max.  Scorpio escapes as Nick Fury deactivates the self-destruct sequence. 

Marvel Universe 7/15/12

Ultimate Spider-man – “Awesome”
Spider-man has been having a bad week, culminating in a fight with Juggernaut.  During which Luke Cage calls Spider-man to remind him about their science fair project that he keeps putting off being due tomorrow.  Peter tries to sneak inside his home after being beaten by Juggernaut for most of the night.  Luke calls him asking him about Juggernaut and the science fair.  Juggernaut is loose somewhere in the city, and Peter is in trouble because Aunt May sold his chemistry set.  On the way to school, Spider-man runs into Juggernaut again, but Juggernaut disappears during the fight.  Peter arrives at school, and is lectured by Luke about coming through when he said he would.  Spider-man goes to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier to see if there is something he can borrow there.  After passing on Marvel artifacts, including Howard the Duck, he finds a grey “mood” brick.  He takes it.  Peter arrives with the brick.  Peter sets the brick on the table, and while Luke and himself celebrate, the brick sprouts legs and walks off.  Peter explains that he stole it from the Helicarrier, and Luke tells him that he needs to find a way to do everything in life.  The brick walks off and begins eating things and growing.  Coulson tells them that it is the Awesome Android, and it feeds on inorganic material.  The android grows too big for the school, and goes out on the street, looking for stuff to eat.  They stop the android from eating a train, and Juggernaut happened to be on it.  Juggernaut runs into the android, and is stopped.  The android eats him, which takes off his suit and helmet, and secretes Juggernaut.  Juggernaut has lost his powers (uhg) and is able to be taken out.  The android is now going berserk.  Through an accident, the team finds that the android shrinks when exposed to coldness.  Iron Fist was trying to distract the android, but he captures Nova and starts playing with him.  In the school, Luke Cage and Spider-man find Eva’s science project, which was about super-cooling carbon dioxide.  Luke Cage throws Spider-man into the androids mouth.  The android freezes and shrinks back down to a brick. 

Marvel Universe – 7/8/12

Ultimate Spider-Man – “Strange”
During school, Peter Parker falls asleep and has a dream that he has 8 limbs.  Iron Fist comes in and punches him through a wall.  Peter Parker wakes up to find that Danny Rand was in his mind, dream-walking, and woke them up.  They find that all of their classmates are asleep.  Spider-man and Iron Fist leave school to find the entire city is asleep.  Iron Fist explains that this have to be the work of some supernatural force.  Spider-man doubts the existence of magic, but Iron Fist leads him to the house of Doctor Strange.  Doctor Strange shows them Nightmare, the king of dreams.  Strange says that Nightmare has been trying to escape the dimension of dreams.  Spider-man is still skeptical of the supernatural.  Doctor Strange takes Spider-man and Iron Fist to the realm of dreams to fight Nightmare.  In the dream realm, Spider-man gets a peak at what the other members of the team are dreaming.  Spider-man agrees that there might be something to this magic thing.  Nightmare confronts them.  Nightmare sends his dreamons after the trio.  Everything Doctor Strange tries against Nightmare is failing.  Spider-man and Iron Fist get separated from Strange.  In Iron Fists nightmare, they encounter Shao Lao, and Iron Fist loses his mystical power.  Iron Fist doubts his abilities and if he deserves the power or not.  Spider-man gets knocked out of Iron Fist’s dream, and back to Doctor Strange.  Nightmare plays on Doctor Strange’s fear, and Strange has no mystical power.  Nightmare reminds Spider-man of Uncle Ben.  This backfires, because Spider-man is afraid of his failure with Uncle Ben, but rather is inspired by it.  Spider-man overcoming his Nightmare weakened Nightmare, and allowed Doctor Strange to break Nightmare’s hold on everyone.  Iron Fist overcomes his nightmare and rejoins them.  Doctor Strange is able to imprison Nightmare.  Spider-man and Iron Fist rush back to school. 

Marvel Universe – 7/1/12

Ultimate Spider-man – “Me Time”
Spider-man fights Whirlwind, who is working for someone else, but Spider-man takes him out.  Nick Fury tells him that he still needs to work on limiting collateral damage.  Fury tells Spider-man to report back, but he refuses because he wants some me time.  Peter Parker gets home to find that Aunt May is gone for the weekend.  He goes a bit wild, but finds a mini-camera that belongs to S.H.I.E.L.D.  Spider-man confronts Fury about the camera.  Fury says that it’s standard protocol, and Spider-man signed off on it.  Fury says it is not to spy on him, but rather it’s to make sure his aunt is okay when he’s not there.  Spider-man turns in his S.H.I.E.L.D. watch and says he’s off for the weekend.  Dr. Octavious is studying Spider-man’s fight with Whirlwind.  Norman Osborn contacts him, and is displeased with his progress.  Oct says that he will bring in Spider-man himself.  Spider-man gets pulled off of a roller coaster by Doc Ock.  They fight throughout the amusement park, but eventually Doctor Octopus is able to subdue Spider-man.  Doc Ock reports to Norman that he has captured Spider-man.  Spider-man comes to, and easily escapes what was binding him.  They fight again in Doc Ock’s lab.  Spider-man beats Ock, and Osborn detonates Ock’s underwater lab.  Spider-man is finally able to contact Fury, and alerts him to his location.  Spider-man has to fight Ock again, and saves him from drowning.  Spider-man comes to and finds Fury standing beside him.  Spider-man apologizes for being selfish, and Dr. Conners says that Spider-man brought back an amazing piece of technology in Ock’s arm. 

Some Marvel news from E3

Saturday, I told you about Injustice, DC’s new fighting game.  Now, I’m here telling you about Marvel’s new game, titled Avengers:  Battle for Earth.  This game will be released for XBox Kinect and Wii U.  According to the CBR article, Ubisoft hasn’t really said what type of game it will be, but will be based on the Secret Invasion storyline.  But judging from the screen shots on the article, it really looks like a fighting game.  Here’s the trailer.

Marvel Universe – 5/20/12

Welcome to this week’s edition of Marvel Universe.  Today’s episode of Ultimate Spider-man is titled “Field Trip.”  The team has a run in with an Asgardian artifact and Thor.  Today’s episode of The Avengers is titled “The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill.”  Thor runs into someone that is fleeing Surtur’s demons.  The short segments include a look at jetpacks, a profile of Iron Fist, Joe Quesada drawing Thor, and Marvel Mash-ups.

Ultimate Spider-man – “Field Trip”
Coulson is leading Peter Parker’s class on a tour looking at artifacts, including a stone from Asgard.  Danny Rand reads what is on the stone, and suddenly a Frost Giant appears.  Coulson evacuates the rest of the students and tells the team they are on.  They change into their costumes and fight the giant.  The team has trouble working together, when Thor appears.  Thor doesn’t let the team help him take down the Frost Giant.  Thor touches an amulet that the Frost Giant was wearing, even though Spider-man told him not to, and it turns him into a frog.  Thor blames Loki for turning him into a frog.  Reluctantly, Thor allows the team to enter Asgard with him.  They find Asgard covered in ice.  Thor is quickly frozen in ice, along with everyone else.  Loki gloats to Thor about how easy it was to trap him, and take over Asgard.  Iron Fist finds the weak spot in the ice containing them and the team breaks free.  Spider-man tells Thor to get them out of their since they can’t win.  Thor does, but is unhappy that they ran away.  Spider-man says they need to come up with a plan.  Thor leads them to the Dwarf master that made Mjolnir.  At first, the Dwarf doesn’t want to help, but changes his mind when Thor apologizes for his actions.  Loki is about to break into Odin’s chamber when Thor shows back up.  The team is behind him with mystical weapons, except Spider-man, who is told that he has the power within him to lead.  The team takes down the Frost Giants, and Spider-man is able to trick Loki into restoring Thor into his actual self.  Loki flees, knowing he is defeated.  Thor returns the team to Earth, and says good-bye.

Marvel Universe – 5/13/12

After a brief break due to technical difficulties, we are back with this week’s edition of Marvel Universe.  Today’s episode of Ultimate Spider-man is titled “Back in Black.”  Spider-man has to deal with an imposter in a black Spider-man costume, while dealing with a cold.  Today’s episode of The Avengers is titled “Who Do You Trust.”  Nick Fury returns to fill Tony Stark in on the Skrull threat.  Today’s short segments include a look at creating Iron Man’s suit, Fury Files featuring the Skrulls, Joe Quesada draws the Hulk, and more Marvel Mash-ups.

Ultimate Spider-man – “Back in Black”
Peter Parker has the flu.  A robotic gargoyle type thing attacks the city.  Someone dressed up in the black Spider-man costume quickly takes care of it, while Peter watches on tv.  Suddenly, everyone loves this dressed in black Spider-man.  Spider-man meets with Fury and the team to discuss this new guy.  Spider-man tells everyone that this is Venom, but no one believes him, thinking he’s just jealous.  Spider-man goes off to find this new guy, still really sick.  Another robotic gargoyle type thing attacks the city, and again the Spider-man in black stops him.  As he’s posing for a kid, Spider-man confronts him.  But the new guy just mocks him and leaves.  Norman Osborn meets with Octavious about this new Spider-man.  At school, Harry Osborn tells Peter that he’s the guy in black, and is using the symbiote,  He keeps it in a watch type thing.  Peter is in disbelief.  He questions why Harry is using this thing that destroyed his house.  Peter tries to convince Harry that he shouldn’t be using this thing, but a flash of anger shows up in Harry as he leaves.  Harry tries to tell his father, but Norman isn’t interested in what Harry has to say.  Spider-man doesn’t tell Fury that he knows who the new Spider-man is.  Spider-man runs into one of the robots that have been rampaging, when Harry takes it down.  Harry is angry and lashes out at the crowd.  Harry fights Spider-man.  The Venom personality starts to come out.  Venom and Spider-man burst into Oscorp, but Spider-man kicks Venom out before anything can be revealed.  Eventually, Spider-man is able to defeat Venom by electrocuting him.  Spider-man catches Harry as he falls.  Harry thanks Spider-man for saving him.  Octavious discovered that Harry was Venom, but doesn’t tell Norman.  Spider-man still doesn’t tell Fury that Harry was Venom.  Harry is sleeping when part of the symbiote crawls out of his ear.  Spider-man meets with the rest of the team, only to find that he’s gotten the rest of them sick.