Henry10MY LIFE IN COMICS PART 4
February 8th 2007 12:17
What a momentous day it was, in 1991, when my a friend of mine dropped a stack of comics in my hand and said, "Read these." I rifled through the covers, and was immediately struck by how awesome they looked.
Now I was familiar with the X-Men already, as I have noted in Part 1. I liked them a hell of a lot from what I knew, and after reading these I liked them a hell of a lot more.
The first issue of the bunch (#275) was a bit heavy-going, though. Most of the regular team was different, and there were something like 30 or 40 different characters in it, but the importat thing was that it looked cool. Jim Lee was doing the pencils at this point, and there hasn't been a penciller before or since who I've loved as much as I did Jim Lee at the time. Say what you will of him, but Jim Lee's talents are perfectly geared towards entertaining 13 year old boys.
The writing was also great. Chris Claremont was near the end of his 15 year stint writing the X-Men, and he was in cracking form at this point. The first plot of the issue involved the X-Men in space overthrowing an evil empress, and for a while I just thought that's what the X-Men did - the only stuff I'd read with them was in outer space. The second plot involved arch-villain Magneto, and his ultimate renouncement of the heroic path that he'd been on for 5 years previously (also: dinosaurs). Claremont's version of Magneto is possibly the most rounded super-villain ever, and a character that I love dearly. This issue is a big part of the reason why. The rest of the issues had shapeshifting Skrulls and a massive battle against the telepathic Shadow King, and all of them were at least fifty kinds of awesome.
From that point on I've been a rabid X-Men fan. There have been moments when I've given up in disgust (most notably during 1993 when I rebelled against the number of crossovers), but I've alway come back. It seems that four-colour crack is too powerful a lure for me to resist. By this point I've read every single X-Men comic produced, and a fair number of the spin-offs too. I've enjoyed most of them, as sad as that is.
There's been a lot of crap stories over the years, though. Phalanx Covenant. Onslaught. Zero Tolerance. Every word Chuck Austen ever wrote (exploding communion wafers!!!).
There have been a lot of highlights, too. X-Cutioner's Song. Age of Apocalypse. The Joe Kelly/Steven Seagle run. Chris Claremont's return to the title, which most people despised but I really loved. But nothing compares to Grant Morrison's three-year run. He took a tired and muddled franchise and breathed a real spark and vitality into it, dragged it kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Aside from Claremont (who is untouchable) there has never been a better X-Men writer than Morrison.
I'm still reading the three core X-titles today, but I'm not particularly enthused about any of them. Joss Whedon on Astonishing X-Men is good, but the title is too infrequent to hold my interest. Brubaker started really well on Uncanny, but has tapered off due to the year-long focus on a totally boring villain. Carey on regular X-Men has barely even registered with me. To be honest, I can't remember when I've been less enthused about the X-Men. But, they're always there, and I figure I'll read them now until I die (possibly buried under three complete runs of ROM: Spaceknight). I just hope they get cancelled before I go - I can't deal with the thought that there'll be X-Men comics I can't read!
NEXT: HOLY CRAP, I CAN BUY STUFF FROM A COMIC SHOP NOW!!!!
Now I was familiar with the X-Men already, as I have noted in Part 1. I liked them a hell of a lot from what I knew, and after reading these I liked them a hell of a lot more.
The first issue of the bunch (#275) was a bit heavy-going, though. Most of the regular team was different, and there were something like 30 or 40 different characters in it, but the importat thing was that it looked cool. Jim Lee was doing the pencils at this point, and there hasn't been a penciller before or since who I've loved as much as I did Jim Lee at the time. Say what you will of him, but Jim Lee's talents are perfectly geared towards entertaining 13 year old boys.
The writing was also great. Chris Claremont was near the end of his 15 year stint writing the X-Men, and he was in cracking form at this point. The first plot of the issue involved the X-Men in space overthrowing an evil empress, and for a while I just thought that's what the X-Men did - the only stuff I'd read with them was in outer space. The second plot involved arch-villain Magneto, and his ultimate renouncement of the heroic path that he'd been on for 5 years previously (also: dinosaurs). Claremont's version of Magneto is possibly the most rounded super-villain ever, and a character that I love dearly. This issue is a big part of the reason why. The rest of the issues had shapeshifting Skrulls and a massive battle against the telepathic Shadow King, and all of them were at least fifty kinds of awesome.
From that point on I've been a rabid X-Men fan. There have been moments when I've given up in disgust (most notably during 1993 when I rebelled against the number of crossovers), but I've alway come back. It seems that four-colour crack is too powerful a lure for me to resist. By this point I've read every single X-Men comic produced, and a fair number of the spin-offs too. I've enjoyed most of them, as sad as that is.
There's been a lot of crap stories over the years, though. Phalanx Covenant. Onslaught. Zero Tolerance. Every word Chuck Austen ever wrote (exploding communion wafers!!!).
There have been a lot of highlights, too. X-Cutioner's Song. Age of Apocalypse. The Joe Kelly/Steven Seagle run. Chris Claremont's return to the title, which most people despised but I really loved. But nothing compares to Grant Morrison's three-year run. He took a tired and muddled franchise and breathed a real spark and vitality into it, dragged it kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Aside from Claremont (who is untouchable) there has never been a better X-Men writer than Morrison.
I'm still reading the three core X-titles today, but I'm not particularly enthused about any of them. Joss Whedon on Astonishing X-Men is good, but the title is too infrequent to hold my interest. Brubaker started really well on Uncanny, but has tapered off due to the year-long focus on a totally boring villain. Carey on regular X-Men has barely even registered with me. To be honest, I can't remember when I've been less enthused about the X-Men. But, they're always there, and I figure I'll read them now until I die (possibly buried under three complete runs of ROM: Spaceknight). I just hope they get cancelled before I go - I can't deal with the thought that there'll be X-Men comics I can't read!
NEXT: HOLY CRAP, I CAN BUY STUFF FROM A COMIC SHOP NOW!!!!
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