Little C: My Father, the Closet-Nerd

Readers, I've had somewhat of a breakthrough this year inside my family. Being an election year, most of my conversations with my dad recently have revolved around politics. Strictly speaking if I have a new comic book or nerdy movie obsession, one of the last people I want to talk to about it is Dr. Kent Kleppinger. It's not that he hasn't been known to be a nerd at times, he is the reason we watched all of the Lord of the Rings movies the day they came out, he was a Trekkie back when that sort of thing was known to get you beat up in the locker room. But when it comes to super hero stuff... I don't want to say he's a little cynical. Mostly because he's more of a killjoy.

Not that kind of Killjoy...

I know that I have the same instincts when asked about something I don't like (the one where you want to be a bastard to the people who did enjoy it like some kind of Disney villain that hates happiness) and I get it. Just means for the most part I've stopped asking him if he liked the new Iron Man because I know he either didn't watch it or he hates it and will list all the reasons why. I assumed that all this meant that he didn't like super heroes. And then out of nowhere this fall I'm halfway through talking to him about something else and he stops me and asks "Are you watching Supergirl?" When i had done a small self check to make sure that I was both awake and not having a stroke I said. "Yeah, I watched the first two episodes. Are you watching Supergirl?"

"Like watching with your eyes?"

That's when I found out something about my dad that I never knew. My dad read comic books as a kid. While he was kind of meh on most of them, the story of Kara the girl wonder who is amazing but often over shadowed by her more famous relative (My dad was a middle child) really struck a chord with him. And now he's spent most of the year watching a comic book based TV show. I'm so proud. So last week when the Girl of Steel had a crossover episode with The Flash my father saw it and thought "huh..." and started getting caught up on the Flash on Netflix. From there it snowballed and now my father is firmly entrenched in the DC television universe (which is soooo much better than having him in the DC film verse). Sure, it means we're kind of on opposite sides of the DC/Marvel wars but it's such a small detail. 

Shut up, Morpheus. You don't even go here. 

Ok, so the odds that he will be willing to cosplay as Magneto and the Scarlet Witch with me are slim, but I'm chalking this up as a win anyway. Being a big nerd is such a huge part of my life that I'm really excited to share part of it with my dad. I say give it two years till I've got him enjoying Agent Carter. Ok... Maybe three years. 

Stay Nerdy,

Little C