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When writing the review of a comic there are inevitable times when every author has to let the reader know about possible spoilers. They do this by writing the word “spoiler”, in the review, to let anyone reading know that a very important part of the plot is going to be revealed during the review. A “spoiler warning” is a very important thing to provide for readers, because it has the potential to ruin a story with its early reveal. What counts as a spoiler? I mean, by default, a reviewer has to discuss the story, but at what point does a revealed plot element become something that needs to have a spoiler warning? (I’m afraid I might have to divulge some spoilers as examples but I’ll try to make sure they’re items that the majority of people are aware of, or that people already know.)

First, spoilers aren’t just for comics, they exist for movies, books, television shows, and in some cases for sports. Spoilers generally exist to let someone know that the proceeding information could ruin the plot of a story, reveal key details that impact the overall story, or reveal something that is suppose to be kept secret for the story to have its full intended impact.

How does a writer decide what is a spoiler and what isn’t? Knowing that the boat in “Titanic” sinks is a story element, but why doesn’t that count as a spoiler for the movie? It’s my belief that the knowledge of the boat sinking is common knowledge. Hence saying that the boat sinks doesn’t give away something that audience doesn’t already know before viewing the movie.

Due to the long history of comics there can be many elements of a story that readers might not be familiar with, like the murder of Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben. It’s a very important story element to Spiderman but should that information be considered a spoiler? While it’s a very important plot element to the character of Spiderman, the chances of knowing that it has happened won’t greatly impact the current story in which Spiderman is starring. It’s not a real big surprise that Uncle Ben dying had a big impact on Spiderman but since that occurred a while ago its become common knowledge and therefore not a spoiler.

The term that keeps appearing to justify something as not a spoiler is the idea of common knowledge. Common knowledge might not be the right choice of words to describe it, but yet it refers to “shared knowledge”. It is shared knowledge that lets comic readers know the Superman’s home planet was destroyed, or that Jean Grey was found at the bottom of Jamaica Bay. It’s this concept of shared knowledge that also lets an audience decide which details should be identified in advance as spoilers, like the ending of House of M, or reveals in Infinite Crisis. The audience realizes that the story elements are important to the story that revealing them to someone who doesn’t share this knowledge would ruin the power of the narrative that the story creates.

In the end that is what spoilers do, they ruin the enjoyment that a story provides. They spoil it, duh. The reason these warnings exist is to prevent people from ruining something that would bring them enjoyment. It seems kind of strange to be worried about ruining a story, considering it has been ruined the second time you choose to read it, but that first time is what’s important and that what spoilers are trying to protect: the genuineness of emotion or curiosity that comes from reading something new. What is a spoiler? It can be anything that ruins one’s enjoyment of a story or experience. When should one give notice of a spoiler? Any time the information being supplied that could cause someone’s enjoyment to be diminished. We all read comics for enjoyment among other things, and why would we want to ruin our enjoyment of comics?