Black. Woman. Nerd. You Gotta Say The Whole Thing

With class done for the day, I was sitting off campus in the shade rereading my first two issues of Storm when this random guy was walking by, looked down at what I was reading, and asked me if I liked comics. I looked down at my hands, then back up, and wasn’t really sure how to respond because: 1)

2)

3)

And what happened? NONE OF THE ABOVE. No, really. None of that happened!

Instead, I had a sincere, engaging conversation that lasted about 30 minutes on comics and comic book movies with a random stranger. And the best part? No belittling of me or of my opinions on the grounds that I’m not a dude. Also note: no street harassment was involved. MY DEAR WATSON, THIS NEVER HAPPENS TO ME. The guy hadn’t been up to date with the current comics storylines so I filled him in the best I could (a great task, since the last he could remember was reading Marvel’s Civil War–and even my recap was sparse ) He also asked me about some recommendations cause he wanted to get back into comics. He was curious about Storm’s solo series so I started to tell him about it and how much I was loving it. Then he asked a question: why is the mutant known as Storm my favorite? Why was she my favorite superhero/mutant/comic book character? I began listing all the reasons. Then I ended up telling  him about how inspiring it was to see someone who looked like me as a kid as I watched the animated show and started reading comics. My earliest memories of her were of a woman who fought for others like he…