When I was a kid the Uncanny X-Men were my thing. I remember reading one of their comics for the first time, I musta been at around age ten. A friend had a copy of X-Men 111 (I just looked it up). Written by Chris Clairmont and penciled by John Byrne, the X-Men were trapped by Magneto in some big top circus. I thought it was the absolute coolest.
Colossus was my favorite, and if I could have picked any superpower back then it would have been the ability to change my flesh into indestructible steel. I don’t know if that would still be my first choice, but I wouldn’t mind having that super-power today. Wolverine was a close second, of course, but yeah Colossus ruled. And together, their fastball special would warm my nerd heard. Really, the whole team was great (except maybe Cyclops. I always thought he was kind of a weenie. But even he had his place, you betcha! Zapping people with his eyeballs!).
I followed their comic through Junior High and into High School, which is when my interest in comics in general started to wane. I still loved em, but was just busy with other stuff I guess, plus I was always broke haha. I’ll be honest, the X-Men did kind of wear me down at the time too though. Even though some great characters like Apocalypse and Cable were introduced around the same time and in these alternate history story-lines, there just started to be too many of those alternate histories, with too many of Jean Grey and Scott Summer’s children coming back from the future (or past!) to the present to set things right. I mean, I love that sci-fi stuff… but in moderation. I clung on to them for as long as I could, but by the time I went to college and they were trying to get me to buy all their metal foil covers, I was out. I pretty much quit buying comics for over ten years.
But I have always had a soft spot for the X-Men.
Back in maybe ’04 or so I came across Grant Morrison‘s “New X-Men” for sale and I decided to pick it up. Illustrated by Frank Quiety, I guess these issues kind of got me back in. Not as fanatically as I was when I was a kid, but I did read more of the series, along with related titles like X-Force. So damn good. I’ve gone backward and forward in time since then to get caught up.
Anyway, I am writing about the X-Men because the new X-Men: Days of Future Past came out this weekend and I just saw it earlier. Great movie, and brought back very fond memories!
