Geeking Out Over Our Favorite Celebrity Geeks

It’s hip to be square. Or at least, it is when you’re a high-grossing celebrity. We all knew that geek culture had escaped the confines of parents’ basements and dusty comic shops, but we didn’t realize just how vastly it permeated popular culture. Comic books and science fiction properties are so common now, that famous celebrities openly gush about their geek love. And we’re not talking about industry heroes like Kevin Smith here. Marquee, red carpet- walkers are now comic book fans too, able to name-drop their favorite Uncanny X-Men arc with the same ease as you or I.

While some could call the celebrities bandwagon fans, we like to think of them as ambassadors. When someone with social clout says that comic books are cool, people are more likely to listen. They help legitimize the industry to the naysayers, while giving us closet geeks the courage to wear our Green Lantern T-Shirts proudly. Below, we run through the celebrities we geeks are proud to call our own.

1) Seth Meyers

The latest Late Night With… host and Saturday Night Live alumnus is an unabashed comic book fan who’s even dabbled a bit in the industry. A Marvelite through and through, Meyers co-wrote a humorous one-shot, “Spider-Man: The Short Halloween” a few years back, and even attended a Marvel holiday party in New York City. But with a comedian’s blood running through his veins, Meyers is also a fan of the Keith Giffen and Kevin Maguire-era of “Justice League International,” complete with a Maguire-drawn picture of him as Bluee Beetle. When he’s not hosting Late Night, Meyers is working on his tribute to super-powered teams with The Awesomes. An animated comedy that’s exclusively available through Hulu, The Awesomes follows a group of inexperienced and dysfunctional superheroes. While it’s great to have celebrities advocating comic books, we’re extra appreciative of ones like Meyers who contribute something back.

2) Megan Fox

3) Rosario Dawson

4) Robin Williams

5)Nicolas Cage

Nic’s not the coolest celebrity geek out there, but he’s certainly the most…passionate. Even his name is a tribute to comics. While he was born Nicolas Coppola, he legally changed it to “Cage” in honor of Marvel Comics’ Luke Cage, a.k.a. Power Man. Not to be the only comic book tribute in the family, Cage also named his son Kal-El, after Superman’s native Kryptonian name. We’re sure that always went well for the young Cage during middle school roll calls. Cage is also a serious comic collector, once owning more than 400 comics, including Action Comics #1 and Detective Comics #38 (Robin’s first appearance) before selling them off. Bankruptcy will do that to a man. And of course, there was that time Nic Cage almost played the Man of Steel in Tim Burton’s failed Superman film, Superman Lives. Not one to take “no” for an answer, Cage once again tried his hand at comic book acting with 2007’s Ghost Rider—and it’s sequel, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. You have to give credit to man who’s so passionate about comic books, he’ll play Johnny Blaze twice.