Comic Vine is nerdy in a cool way

Comic books are hard to take seriously sometimes. They're even harder for the casual reader to pick up, which is where Comic Vine comes in handy. Like Wikipedia, Comic Vine is a user-created encyclopedia that can make you an instant expert, but just about comic books. The big difference between Comic Vine and a site like Wikipedia is the community and user submission, which is where Comic Vine steps it up in a big--make that super--way.

You should see this guy in a flame war.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

User profiles on Comic Vine let you become a superhero or villain. Instead of listing the usual social networking details, such as what grade school you went to or your favorite band, you can tell people how a botulized can of refried beans gave you the ability to drink beverages through your nostrils and understand Motorola's naming scheme for its mobile phones. You can post pictures of yourself in your super outfit, as well as write blog posts about anything you feel like. The sky is the limit (unless your superhero/villain can also breathe under water).

Comic Vine provides an easy template to create comprehensive profiles for all things comic-related. You can find out almost everything about major comic book characters, in addition to biographies of the people who illustrated and wrote them along with other projects they worked on. You could get similar information from Wikipedia, but Comic Vine provides its frequent contributors the benefit of posting with less stringent moderation. In fact, after you've passed a short probation period, you're granted access to make live edits to the pages which show up instantly. You're also given points for adding content to the site, which means the more content you add, the more credibility you get with other Comic Vine members.

Comic Vine is a great niche site. Whereas standard wiki authoring tools or sites like Wikipedia can be bland or too broad, Comic Vine seems built to please both its contributors as well as the casual passerby. Seriously though, stay away from those refried beans.

[Wengistein]

Needs more time

I think this site has great potential, but the Marvel site itself and Wikipedia provides much more information than ComicVine. It needs more time to really make it a superhero encyclopedia where new comers to comics can find out information about their favourite superhero.

I mean compare this one: http://www.comicvine.com/professor-x/1505/ with this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor X. You can really see a difference.

[mikaboshi]

Comicvine.com sucks. I've been to that site, I've even tried it out. I've commited and made various pages to help. However the site is full of people who love Superman to death. If you think I lie do Superman vs any body to see. The worst part about the thing is that it is the moderators that believe in Superman to much not even the users. At first the site was amazing and even addictive to go on and have fun, chat, do pages, an rp. However due to recent changes it makes computers lag, alot of people shun the newer people, they try to give others the idea about one character.

They don't want you to have your own mind there. They mods will curse and even some of there close friends however even you blank out your word they will still try and ban you because you don't appreciate Superman the way they do. The creators won't even do anything about it. They simply sit back and let some other people run there site banning others for dumb reasons. Its not a site to go to now. Just to save people from the trouble of going there because others yell at them because they don't have post going to the thousands. IE 30,000 posts. If you don't have that many post or even 10,000 post they assume you know nothing about comics.

[COMICVINE_LOVER]

Okay, now I admit, my opinion on CV may be a little bias, seeing as I've done a lot of work on some pages there, but anyways I've been an active member for over a year, and have to say I haven't been able to find a better site on the net, especially not for a comic book encyclopedia.

Yes, I'll admit, a lot of other sites have more info, but for one thing, CV is more aesthetically pleasing and there are also many other perks. When you say Wikipedia has larger pages, well just think of this, does wikipedia have individual issues on their site? No, but CV has over 100,000. As for those other sites, like Marveldatabase, etc. Those sites are designed for individual publishers and sure you'll find a nice page on Wolverine or something, but on CV you can find pages on character's you'll find nowhere else.

For example, this page, "http://www.comicvine.com/drizzt-dourden/29-43472/", its Comicvine's biggest and I doubt you'll find a bigger one anywhere else. The point is, CV is a specialization encyclopedia AND it includes all the general stuff as well, so in other words its got enough to draw you in and than its got the addictiveness to keep you there when you realize you can make pages for your favorite characters and fill out all your favorite stuff.

Besides all that, CV also has its forums, and a great community of RPG'ers and the like, sure if you don't have the most likable personality, you may be rejected, but if your only looking for an encyclopedia, I recommend it. If your looking at it as a social network or a place to be an annoyance, I'd say go use some other site if that is your sole purpose.

So anyways, join CV, check it out!!

Oh and another bonus, the site has the most awesome group of staff/moderators you could find anywhere! (no I am not one of them)