I keep coming back to the defensive-nature and approach that seems to in-built in nerddom, the need to 'justify', the need to ostentatiously elevate, grant grandeur, to rub away even the tiniest possible hint of criticism or dirt exposed, despite their complete cultural victory.

'What more do you want?' is the question I end up with, to which the answer seems to be 'Total and absolute adoration of the corporate superhero', for the superhero is something 'more', they have to be, because I like them, they can't be for kids, because I'm not and I like 'em!

Anyway, this is how you get a culture that loathes Alan Moore while revering him, which criticizes him...but for all the wrongest possible things, on the poorest fronts, when actual plethora of valid critiques exist.

It's the root of the Oedipal rage that fuels Lindelof.