As a kid, I was a fan of Thor. Why? Mostly because one of my favorite movies, “Adventures in Babysitting,” the young girl was obsessed with Thor so I bought comic books and liked Thor, too.
As I grew older and fell more in love with music, I got over it. I didn’t watch any of the Marvel movies when they started with “Iron Man” or “Captain America: The First Avenger.”
As much as I loved Robert Downey Jr. and thought Chris Hemsworth was possibly the finest piece of a specimen on earth next to Nick Carter, I just never watched the movies.
Then I went on the 2018 Backstreet Boys cruise.
On our comic book theme night, I sat right above the stage, just inches away from the guys only to have Nick Carter walk out dressed as God of Thunder himself, the mighty Thor.
And something inside of me just twitched.
It didn’t help that he eventually made his way over to the drums, dressed like Thor, playing the drums to “Poison” by Bel Biv Devoe (one of my favorite songs EVER).
I sat there in my Superman shirt (I know, the horror!) totally amazed at why I thought Nick Carter dressed like Thor was possibly the hottest thing I’d ever seen in my life. Was it the horrible wig? The fake, huge muscles that caused him to get too hot and leave the party early?
Whatever it was, it did something to me.
After coming home, and no thanks to Lisa who was starting to have her own fascination with Captain America, Chris Evans, I watched Infinity War. Then I started watching the other Marvel movies and then I realized I was becoming obsessed with another fandom. I dressed up like Captain America on Halloween. I started getting the Funko Pops.
I currently own 10 of the 21 movies on DVD.
I have other T-shirts and a pair of Marvel leggings. I have a painted piece of artwork with the main Marvel guys – Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and SpiderMan on my wall in my bedroom.
When tickets to “Endgame” went on sale earlier this month, I got them right at 8 a.m. for the first 6 p.m. showing the day of its release. The past two weekends, I’ve held my own marathon, watching all of the movies. I’m watching “Thor: Ragnarok” right now and have just “AntMan and the Wasp” and “Infinity War” left.
All of this happened because of Nick Carter dressing like Thor on the last cruise.
Much of the things in my life, I usually jokingly blame on Nick, because, well, he’s Nick and he says do something and I usually do it. But … my new Marvel fascination. It’s all on Nick Carter.
Last year Nick asked me about what my necklace symbol meant, saying he always noticed it. I told him it was from the TV show “Charmed.”
Only later, watching “Thor” did I realize that same symbol was on the side of Thor’s hammer.
So Nick, thank you for introducing me to a new fandom, one that I love and kind of makes me go back to that little girl loving Thor.