Lazy Pandering or the Inevitable Collision of Nerd Universes?

Most comic book nerds are no doubt familiar with the Lex Luthor meme where he takes 40 cakes. As many as four tens. And it’s terrible. Most comic book nerds have likely already heard that last week DC made the meme canon. Not wishing to be left out of the meme loop, Marvel introduced a meme into its canon this week in Deadpool #38.

In one of the panels, Hulk is depicted in the style of the infamous Trollface originally drawn by Whynne in late 2008 and debuting on 4Chan. Since then Trollface has made appearances on countless other sites, including Fark.com.

Some fans claim that introducing Internet memes into comics amounts to lazy pandering. Others argue that it’s no different from drawing a panel in, say, Teen Titans, depicting graffiti in a bathroom that includes a cameo reference to the Watchmen (Who watches the Watchmen?)–a cameo reference that also crops up as graffiti in Kingdom Come.

Where do you stand? Is it lazy writing or the collision of nerd universes that makes an attempt at further mainstreaming comics? Deposit your thoughts and nerd rage in the comments section.

About Viv Gomez 32 Articles
Vivian Gomez is a freelance writer for Journatic and a contributing writer for several online publications, including eHow, Examiner.com, Answerbag, and PetPlace.com. She loves the marriage of good writing and beautiful, fantastic art, and that's mostly why she writes here.