I became aware of a completely new phrase (to me, anyway) this morning. Thanks to a report on the ever-reliable Dark Horizons, I now know about “fandom flanderization”. I am such a pop culture normie that my mind instantly went to World War I, and I assumed this was some kind of thing relating to that conflict and that area of the world, like an earlier version of Balkanization.
It turns out I was completely wrong. How silly of me!
Flanderization is the process where a character’s defining traits become exaggerated and oversimplified to the point that they become their entire personality, often leading to the loss of other, more nuanced aspects of their character. The term was coined on the pop culture wiki TV Tropes and is named after the character Ned Flanders from The Simpsons, who evolved from a friendly, good-hearted neighbor to a dogmatic, evangelical “Bible-thumper”.
In the world of superheroes, it is about dogmatic adherence to a particular version of a character based on your own entry point into the fandom. This shapes your view on superhero casting, tone, production design, costume choices… everything. Any variance from this means a cognitive rejection of whatever your own perceived vision is.
Oh… so maybe it is not a million miles away from Balkanization after all.
A recent YouTube video from the channel Go Read Some Comics With Jenna, apparently delved into this. Dark Horizons reported on the video and the aftermath.
She posted a video titled We Need to Talk About Brainiac, which referenced multiple versions of Braniac, many with different appearances, origins, and so on across a wide range of superhero stories. This all seems timely, as he is widely rumored to be the villain in the upcoming Superman sequel from James Gunn – Man of Tomorrow.
The video gathered a lot of traction in the fan community, so much so that it even came to the attention of DC Studios chief James Gunn. Gunn is known for being well-engaged with fans via social media, and he offered his view on this “Flanderization” via Threads.
“Great video. Yes, the Brainiac stuff is cool (don’t read too much into that part of me reposting), but what I love is @heyitsjennalynn talking about ‘Fandom Flanderization’ [and] how many fans believe some aspect of a character is the only ‘true’ version, usually dependent on when they first came upon the stories (think yellow oval on Batman’s chest, all-powerful Superman, Wonder Woman made from clay) [and] how that potentially diminishes our enjoyment of stories outside of what we expect.”
This is interesting. After all, fans everywhere have “their” Doctor (Tom Baker, for me), and “their” Bond (Roger Moore, until I started reading Fleming). However, I can very much appreciate Matt Smith’s portrayal of the Doctor, and Daniel Craig’s Fleming-accurate version of Bond.
If we were completely wedded to our entry point into a property, then I would be hankering for an Adam West-adjacent version of Batman, whereas I consider Christian Bale my go-to version of the Caped Crusader.
Having spent many, many years in and around various fandoms, though, I can concur that fanatical adherents to a particular version will exist.
