Comic Book Wednesday: The X-Men

It's Wednesday, which means it's comic book day! Despite the fact that the other two books on my pull list came out today, I didn't buy them this week because I had bio lab and then I had to study, due to a wholly unproductive yesterday (homework wise, at least). So the plan is to buy them next week when I don't have lab, and then to re-up my pull for next month. Anyways, in honor of it being Wednesday, I'm gonna write about comics today, specifically, my favorite comic series ever: X-Men.

I first encountered the X-Men on the animated TV show X-Men: Evolution when I was in grade school. It was good, and while I did have a certain fondness for the characters, it was nothing to write home about at the time. Then the movies came out, and, thanks to [Nightcrawler] I watched the first two shortly after the second one was released. Funnily enough, this is also how I saw the Men in Black movies, because I told my dad I wanted to rent X-Men, and he somehow managed to get MIB out of that.

Anyways, I loved the movies, and, in my attempted to find more content, I discovered the graphic novel section at my local library, which lead to me spending most of middle school consuming every comic book I could find, particularly every X-Men book. This, of course, lead to monthlies and pull lists, and spending hours at my local comic book store. I can credit X-Men for introducing me to comics, which are still a major part of my life. Even when I'm not actively reading and buying comics, I generally keep up with what's going on, because over the years I really have come to care about what happens to the characters and the world they inhabit.

Of all of the titles I have read, X-Men is the one franchise that I will always return to, no matter what stupid things Marvel does with them. This is mostly because I absolutely love the concept, which I think is one of the most original in all of comics. The basic idea, is the some people are born with a mutant X gene, which, during adolescence, manifests itself and gives them strange abilities. These run the gamut, from insane superpowers to physical changes to relatively harmless abilities. Because these people are different, mutants if you will, the world at large hates and fears them, and generally tries to oppress and oppose them at every turn. In order to show the world that mutants can be trusted, Charles Xavier gathers together powerful mutants at his School for Gifted Youngsters and trains them to fight evil doers as the X-Men. That's basically it, and although I could go into way more detail about the nuances of mutant-human relations and the political ramifications of M-Day, etc, I don't think that you, my imaginary readers, really care all that much about the specifics of Grant Morrison's run on New X-Men vs. Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men.

Seriously, I could probably talk about the differences between these two titles for day.

One of the reasons that I love the X-Men so much, is because I have always identified really strongly with the concept, and thus, the characters. This is probably because mutants are a near perfect allegory for homosexuality. I mean, really, X-Men, really? Could you have made it any more blatant? Something innate about you makes people hate and fear you for no reason. This something becomes apparent during adolescence, and is a reason that people oppress you. It's genetic. It really couldn't be more clear.

Even before I realized that I'm gay, I identified really strongly with the X-Men, which is probably because I always felt different, but I didn't have a reason why I felt that way for a long time. I was twelve; it was a lot easier to imagine that I was going to have superpowers than that I was gay. Honestly, I'm still a little bit bitter about not having superpowers, but that's what spending my formative years reading comic books gets me.

X-Men is the book that I will always return to, no matter what else I'm reading, or what's going on, it will always have a special place in my heart. Except for the third movie, because that was a crime against nature, and the First Class movie, because I don't care what anyone says, Havoc CANNOT come before Cyclops in continuity. IT MAKES NO SENSE. *grumble grumble grumble*

On a less abominable note, X-Men is awesome, and my favorite series ever, and everyone should love it as much as I do. Everybody should at least read the Dark Phoenix Saga, because it truly is amazing.