In some ways, superheroes have gone mainstream with movies and TV shows becoming blockbusters, but the act of reading an actual comic book is something that's still rare. For decades, reading comics has been considered only something that socially awkward and unattractive people do. In reality, there are comic books that can appeal to people of all backgrounds, not just a few. Yes, comic book readers don't all fit the mainstream stereotype of the scrawny glasses-wearing nerd. Some comic book fans are not just normal, but famous and totally hot.
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In recent years, celebrity fans have been coming out of the woodwork, expressing their love of video games and comic books. Part of that has been a result of the surge of comic book movies and TV shows that attracts comic lovers both behind and in front of the screen who want to bring their beloved characters to life. Many of them are actually surprising, because of how they don't fit what people think of comic book fans looking like. In the interest of showing the world what true comic lovers are made of, CBR is here to present 15 famously hot celebrities who are also die-hard comic book fans.
15 ROSARIO DAWSON
Ever since she was discovered on her porch to co-star in the 1995 movie Kids, Rosario Dawson has been a burning hot presence on the screen. Not only is she absolutely gorgeous, but she also has a fire and enthusiasm that has earned her lots of fans. She's also earned her geek love with roles in Men in Black II, Sin City and her role as Nurse Claire Temple in Marvel's Netflix series.
On top of all that, she's also revealed she's a major geek behind the scenes. Not only is she a Star Trek fan who knows Klingon, but she also loves comics. In interviews, she's said she read Wolverine, Watchmen and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. She was even a fan of Daredevil before she was cast. She also created her own comic book, O.C.T.: Occult Crimes Task Force in 2006.
14 MEGAN FOX
Megan Fox became a major geek crush back in 2007 when she starred as Mikaela in Transformers, and has only continued to grow in popularity as she played April O'Neil in 2014's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. She's already in the eye of geekdom, but it turns out she's also one of them.
The truth is that Fox is actually a comic book fan from way back. Fox not only has said she's a comic book fan, but also revealed on many occasions that her favorite comics were independent comics released in the 1990s like Witchblade, Gen 13 and Fathom. She also called out J. Scott Campbell as one of her favorite creators. The fact that she's not just a fan of the standard Marvel and DC heroes is impressive.
13 RYAN REYNOLDS
Ryan Reynolds is an actor who's been associated with a lot of geeky roles. After his first ABC sitcom Two Guys and a Girl in 1998, Reynold first stepped into the comics world as Hannibal King in 2004's Blade: Trinity (2004). He moved on to play Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009, Green Lantern in 2011 and Deadpool in 2016, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination. He was also voted the Sexiest Man Alive by People in 2010.
It turns out the reason he was so determined to play so many superheroes is that he's read about a lot of them. Reynolds was a fan of Deadpool and Green Lantern before he ever put on the costume. In fact, it was a joke in a comic about how Deadpool looked like a mutated Ryan Reynolds that made him want to play the role.
12 KATE BECKINSALE
Kate Beckinsale is an English actress whose first film, Much Ado About Nothing in 1993, started her string of popular movies, which took her to the sci-fi genre with the Underworld series starting in 2003. Beckinsale continued to become a geek icon with 2004's Van Helsing and Total Recall in 2012.
When it comes to comic books, Beckinsale apparently married into the art form. She's said in multiple interviews that her ex-husband Les Wiseman and daughter are big comic book fans and she goes shopping for them often. To share an interest with them, she started reading them as well, which has introduced her to the art form. She says her interest is nothing compared to her family's, but their level of obsession is hard to match.
11 JAIMIE ALEXANDER
The stunning Jaimie Alexander is an accomplished actress who earned her sci-fi cred in 2006 when she appeared on the TV show Kyle XY before her casting as the Asgardian warrior Sif in 2011's Thor. She played Sif again in 2013's Thor: The Dark World, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. before starring in her own show in 2015's Blindspot.
Along the way, she was (of course) asked if she read comic books, and she revealed during interviews that she is a comic book fan. In case you're wondering if that was pandering to the audience, Alexander brought a potential storm of controversy from her Marvel benefactors by admitting that she prefers DC comics to Marvel's. She's a big fan of Wonder Woman and Batman, and said she always had a Superman cape growing up.
10 HENRY CAVILL
Henry Cavill is a handsome British actor who started his career in 2002's The Count of Monte Cristo. He went on to appear in TV shows like BBC's The Inspector Lynley Mysteries and Showtime's The Tudors. After that, he crossed over to Hollywood films like 2006's Tristan & Isolde and Immortals in 2011, but his biggest role was as Superman in 2013's Man of Steel and 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
In his spare time, Cavill liked to do things like play World of Warcraft. Henry Cavill was also a big reader of DC comics, devouring Superman's classic titles. To prepare for his role as Superman, he specifically cited his love for such titles as 2003's Superman: Red Son, 1992's Death of Superman, and 2008's Superman/Batman: The Search for Kryptonite.
9 ADRIANNE CURRY
Adrianne Curry first entered the spotlight as the winner of the first season of America's Next Top Model in 2003, but she proved to have way more staying power than any of the other winners. She became a reality TV star twice over with her dating and marriage to Christopher Knight in VH1's reality show My Fair Brady and became a major supermodel. However, she became even more well-known as a major cosplayer and fan of nerdy topics like video games, fantasy, and yes, comic books!
Growing up, Curry describes herself as a tomboy who loved Star Wars and comic books. She described loving Batman as a child and growing up to read more mature books like Watchmen. She even admits to having a crush on Rorschach. Her perfectly accurate comic costumes always draw crowds at conventions.
8 OLIVIA MUNN
Olivia Munn is a model who made the leap into actual acting in small movies and TV shows like 2006's Beyond the Break. She hit the big time as the co-host on Attack of the Show! from 2006 to 2010. She also became a correspondent on The Daily Show, and co-starred on two seasons of The Newsroom from 2012 to 2014. Most recently, she appeared as Psylocke in 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse, making a whole generation of fans fall in love with the character (as well as the actor, herself).
With her appearances on Attack of the Show, a lot of sci-fi and comic book lovers became her fans, but she was there first. She has read a metric ton of comics and lists the post-apocalyptic graphic novel Y: The Last Man (2002) as her all-time favorite comic book. She's even written a book called Suck It, Wonder Woman!: The Misadventures of a Hollywood Geek.
7 MAISIE WILLIAMS
Maisie Williams is an English actress who hit the big time when she won her first professional acting role as the young Arya Stark in 2011's Game of Thrones. As the tomboy turned mystical assassin, Williams has won a ton of fans among the geek and comic book community, especially after she crossed over to Doctor Who as Ashildr in 2015.
Williams is also a major comic book fan who has named Spider-Man as her favorite character growing up. She says she decorated her house with posters of Spider-Man and wore a Spider-Man mask to the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con to avoid being noticed. At the same Comic-Con, she wore a dress made entirely out of recycled comic books. She doesn't just love comics, she wears them.
6 KARL URBAN
The ruggedly handsome Karl Urban became known for his 1990s roles in Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys as Julius Caesar and Cupid. Later, Urban was cast as Éomer in 2001's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Vaako in the Riddick film series, and a younger version of Dr. "Bones" McCoy in 2009's Star Trek reboot. He's also played Judge Dredd in 2012's Dredd. In 2017, he'll be playing Skurge in Thor: Ragnarok.
Urban was passionate about his portrayal of Judge Dredd because he was a long-time fan of the character. As a teenager, he was introduced to the Quality Comics reprints of Judge Dredd, and became a huge fan. He used his knowledge of the comics when developing his character and making sure the movie was faithful to the original books.
5 DEBORAH ANN WOLL
For a long time, Deborah Ann Woll was best known for appearing on HBO's True Blood as Jessica Hamby. However, she really came into her own as Karen Page on the Netflix's Marvel TV universe with Daredevil, The Defenders, and the upcoming series The Punisher. With all her work on the Marvel universe, she's been asked a bunch of times if she's into comics, and the answer is yes.
When she won the part of Page, Woll did reading on the early issues of Daredevil to get a sense of where the character was coming from. Many of those issues came from her boyfriend's comic collection, which she's been steadily devouring. However, it wasn't her first dive into nerd culture, since she's been a longtime fan of Dungeons and Dragons and video games.
4 ELVIS PRESLEY
Elvis Presley was a sensation when he first hit the music scene in 1956 with "Heartbreak Hotel," and quickly became known as the King of Rock and Roll. Not only was he a good singer, but he was also devastatingly handsome and charming. He was an award-winning musician who sold a ton of music both before and after his death, and is one of the most successful singers of all time.
What's not usually talked about is the King's love of comic books. When the comic book Captain Marvel Jr. came out in 1941, Elvis became a huge fan. Even as an adult, he kept a large collection of Captain Marvel Jr. comic books. His famous hair with the spit curl was based on Captain Marvel Jr. and his white jumpsuit in the 1970s was based on the superhero with the high collars, lightning belt buckle and short cape.
3 EMINEM
In the 2000s, Eminem became the biggest musical artist of the decade. Since The Slim Shady LP in 1999, he's released 10 albums hitting number one on the Billboard chart, and five number one hits. He's sold millions of albums and digital tracks, been the best-selling hip-hop artist for years, and influenced the hip-hop genre forever. Besides all that, he's earned fans through his good looks and bad boy persona.
In private, Eminem is (like many hip-hop artists) a massive comic book fan. Growing up, he wanted to be a comic book artist and has a huge comic book collection with several rare items, like 1952's Amazing Fantasy #15 (Stan Lee, Steve Ditko) with the first appearance of Spider-Man. He also makes references to Spider-Man, Thor and Superman in his lyrics.
2 FREDDIE PRINZE JR.
With his charming good looks, Freddie Prinze Jr. has been the star of a string of hit movies, starting with I Know What You Did Last Summer in 1997, 1999's She's All That and the Scooby-Doo movies in 2002 and 2004. He's also appeared on TV with 2002's Friends, Boston Legal in 2004, and his own 2005 series Freddie. He also joined FOX's 24 in 2010, and voices Kanan Jarrus on Star Wars Rebels.
Freddie is also an avid comic book fan who once said he learned to read from comic books, and also said he reads more comic books than magazines. He has a collection of rare and limited edition comic books that he considers an investment, and he made a memorable appearance in The Ultimates where his date with Betty Ross was interrupted by a jealous Hulk.
1 RASHIDA JONES
Rashida Jones is best known for her role on 2009's Parks and Recreation as Ann Perkins, but she's had quite a few other performances. She first began acting on 1997's The Last Don miniseries, and went on to several other TV shows like 2000's Boston Public and 2006's The Office. She also acted in movies like 2009's I Love You, Man and 2010's The Social Network. Along the way, she also wrote screenplays for 2012's Jesse Forever and the upcoming Toy Story 4.
As a child, Jones described herself as a "huge nerd" who would read five books at a time. In 2010, Jones achieved a lifelong dream by creating her own comic book, Frenemy of the State, about a socialite who secretly works for the CIA.
Know any other celebrity comic book fans? Let us know in the comments!