How well do you think you would have done if you'd found yourself in another genre than superhero comics ?
Oh...I'm going to first tackle this by considering this as the same medium but a different genre, so that it's still comics. And it's hard to say...it really depends on a lot of factors.
My knowledge was very much very deeply specialized in superheroes, but that wasn't all I read/watched; I had a broader base of pop culture knowledge, so that I would still be genre savvy in horror, sci-fi, fantasy, detective fiction, etc. That extends to comics specifically too. I've read some Buffy, some IDW and Archie Sonic, I've read some Jughead, I've read some Star Trek comics and the like. I mention that because my connection to Gutter Space, which allows me to observe and manipulate the comics medium, seems to be innate to the way I traversed universes, since the team from the future suggested those powers would inevitably develop within me. So I would even know, like, the artistic conventions for those other genres.
That said, one of the big edges of superhero fiction is that crossing the line from extra to important is pretty easy. Once you get a mask and a codename, you're a hero. You're someone who matters. For a lot of those other genres, that's harder to do, and being a protagonist comes with less security. Like, in a horror comic, even knowing the tropes of horror, I don't know that I could necessarily avoid a horrible fate.
I think slice of life might be one of the harder ones, funnily enough, because I've always had a hard time with ordinary social situations...or maybe it would actually be perfect, since the rigid social scripts and exaggerated larger than life scenarios would make it more of game that I know the rules too, and I could actually navigate it. And it's easier to be confident if you have a framework for confidence too, like being (or aspiring to be) a protagonist....
As for non-comics mediums, I guess a lot of that stuff still generally stands. I have a good breadth of pop culture knowledge, I'm a geek about a lot of things, I would do my best to play the narrative to my advantage and move into the sphere of agency instead of victimization. Oh! I think I might be great in a video game universe, since I was something of a gamer, and meta powers are absolutely outstanding in a context like that...
I don't know what my meta powers would look like in a purely written medium but I guess they would have to be subtler in certain ways. Less reaching across a panel border and more kind of trying to stretch or condense the pacing, twist a narrative arc, break up the flow of storytelling...I guess I would maybe have to interfere with the narration somehow, or descriptions of the things surrounding me, if I wanted to do Gutter Space equivalent things? But also my Gutter Space is far from always within my access, and I've made my way without it for long stretches. Just knowing how the story goes and how you can try to position yourself within it can be a major boon to surviving and thriving.
I guess playing into archetypes in the same way I played into the role of a superhero could also be helpful too...and you can also lie as much as you need to the reader and other characters in order to better solidify yourself in such a role initially. A lot to think about. I don't really know for sure without a more specific scenario, but it's really interesting to think about. Thanks for the ask!
