The curse of the fan

Do I keep backing the wrong horse? Or is it all going wrong BECAUSE of my support?

I think I should stop being a fan of things I like, or at least pretending I’m not a fan – because it seems that I end up cursing that which I love?

So for example, in the car world I’m a big fan of Lotus and Honda. Lotus however is constantly teetering on the edge of extinction, and whilst their current cars are great to drive, ambitious plans from just four years ago to build five new cars got flushed down the toilet and worst of all – there’s no sign of a new Lotus Esprit.

As for Hondas – I’ve owned loads, still do. But from being the most interesting of the Japanese car makers they’ve become the dullest. There is absolutely nothing in the showroom right now here in the UAE that I would even contemplate owning. They’re not offering anything exciting here, and what interesting cars they do have are not coming to our region.

And despite my open and natural allegiance to these brands, neither is supporting us at Motoring Middle East – surprising huh?

Then there’s Star Trek – I’ve always been more a Trekkie than a fan of Star Wars – but I’m still a little uncertain about the Star Trek reboot movies. And the second movie was horrifying and outright blasphemous when it comes to Trek lore. Unsurprisingly perhaps the fans aren’t as fervent as they once were – something I bemoaned about at the recent ComicCon here in Dubai.

And having seen the latest Star Wars movie trailer featuring Han Solo and Chewbacca, I’ve got to admit I was blown away and can’t wait to see it, whereas I await the next Star Trek instalment with some considerable trepidation.

Talking of trailers, we now come to Superman. Again, my absolute favourite comics used to be Superman issues, and Christopher Reeve was a legend to me because he brought that character to life like no one else before or since. However I’ve also just seen the last leaked trailer for the forthcoming Superman Vs Batman movie, and it’s just left me depressed.

Supes comes across as the villain of the piece and the movie makers seem to be hell-bent on destroying every aspect of what was good and great about the most iconic superhero of all.

And whilst I always regarded myself as more DC than Marvel, I seem to be enjoying every movie coming out of the Marvel stable and I’m even hooked on the Agents of Shield TV series (whereas Gotham is confusing and Flash is rubbish).

Sigh. Guess it’s time to stop sticking to old favourites and move with the times. Now where’d I put my lightsaber?