I get what's being asked here, and I've seen the same thing happen with other people: Non-comics fans who like superheroes in other mediums, like films, think they know a comics character even though they never really followed that character in the comic books. What I think Ed is asking is how do these people think they know what is the correct portrayal if they don;t even read the comics the characters came from?

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I tink it's fairly normal for moviegoers to form opinions about what they see on the screen whether or not they're familiar with the source material. It's just what people do and the number of people who see a movie usually far outnumbers those who have read whatever it was based on, comics or otherwise.

People have been debating Connery vs. Moore for decades and yet I would assume many of them have never read an Ian Fleming novel.

Maybe they don't know the "correct portrayal" but it's never stopped anybody from expressing their opinion and I doubt if it ever will.