Limits of Nostalgia

What determines whether you're nostalgic for something?

When I was a kid, I was really into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I owned three of the NES games, bought the more initially kid-friendly Archie comic title for about the first 40 issues, saw the first two movies in theaters, watched the cartoon, all that jazz. Same thing with Power Rangers, albeit to a lesser extent and for a shorter period of time, but I probably played the fighting game I had more than any other game I had for my Sega Game Gear.

But even with all the various comics I see coming out for them these days, there's basically no interest on my part to check them out. On the other hand, I bought both the Darkwing Duck series that came out in the last decade or so for as long as they ran. If Doug Tenapel did an Earthworm Jim comic, I would probably buy the hell out of that thing, or at least try it. So it isn't as though I'm immune to holding on to fond memories of stuff from my childhood and trying to recapture some of it. It just seems to be a selective process, and I don't know what my brain is selecting based on.

It could just be scarcity. There is a lot less licensed entertainment for EWJ or Darkwing than those other two things. Same way I like Spider-Man more than the New Warriors, but I'm more inclined to buy something starring the latter than the former, in part because I don't know when there might be another chance. Absence making the heart grow fonder.

A side effect of the scarcity is that you don't seem tog et as many reboots or re-imaginings or whatnot. One Turtles series ends, another seems to pop up immediately, and there may not be any connection between the two. Or maybe there is! Point being, the chances of getting that particular combination of elements I liked when I was younger is not great. With something more limited, there's probably less chance of a reboot, more likely it'll pick up with a status quo and characterizations I'm familiar with. They can always go in a new direction, but at least I'll start out where I know the score.

Although this one is less likely to hold true with the Marvel and DC characters, given how it seems like no one is paying any attention sometimes to what anyone else is doing. Plus, DC reboots things every five minutes these days, which might be part of my growing disinterest in their books. It might have a character I like in it, but I there's not telling if it'll be a version I recognize, because I have no idea what backstory and characterization is in play any longer.