AudioShocker

Since Pete's not posting today, I figure I'll jump in with a brand new feature that's a bit more accessible and far less insightful than your average Culturology column.

Guess what I'm gonna write about today? I BET YOU CAN TELL FROM THE TITLE! Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Cycles and fads in pop culture. Actually, that's probably what I'll write about every time I do this column. But anyway, I digress. On with today's rant.

I feel like I'm living in strange times right now. Maybe it's my newfound reclusiveness, hiding out and working on my own comics everyday. Or maybe it's because things really are changing around me in a direction that I appreciate.

I remember back in the early to mid 00s, actions and items that I'd once considered eccentric cultural habits of mine became pop culture fads. Mesh hats, once worn as a joke by my friends and I, could be purchased at your local Hollister and were being worn by the people that used to tell me I looked like a "retard" for wearing them.

Raw garage rock became hot. Movies actually parodied things that I thought should be parodied. And for a brief time from 2004-2006, I thought top 40 radio was listenable. Hell, even mainstream comic books started producing crossovers that I thought were intriguing and insightful! Was it me changing to meet pop culture or was it pop culture changing around me?

Every few years, I feel in sync with pop culture. Then I fall painfully out of sync. Then I fall in again when I least expect it. Right now, I feel as though I've mistakenly fallen in again.

Marvel vs. Capcom -- once a niche game that I shared with my closest friends as a particular passion of mine -- has made a roaring resurgence. My fingers ache from online play. I would say I've spent more time playing it and talking about it this week than I've spent following world events... except it's an entertainment world event and I'm just one of the millions following it.

MvC3 is just an example of one thing I feel in sync with right now. The list goes on -- a plethora of weird animated films at the movies, Netflix streaming becoming the new way to watch media (b-movies!!!), superhero stories leading the forefront of mass entertainment, and concepts of freedom and tolerance becoming international norms for people that are tired of being held down by ignorant social structures.

So I wanna pose the question again -- is it me changing to meet the pop cultural status quo or has pop culture slowly cycled back to a place where I don't loathe it?