|
Yes, that's right. No cute title with a cheap pun in it. I'm doing something a bit different this month, since there isn't much for me to rant about for the time being. Give me a few weeks, and a few new x-books, and we shall see, shan't we?
This month, I have decided to regale you with a story that goes back to 1994. I was still in high school, and X-Men were...eh. This thing called the Age of Apocalypse was looming on the horizon, and I had already deduced what it was going to be basically about.
Then, in March, Excalibur 75 came out. Written by Scott Lobdell. In this issue, he sent Phoenix off into the future, getting rid of her, and we eventually found out she never came back, and she died an old woman. Here starts my grudge against Scott Lobdell. It didn't help that he couldn't, and still can't, write his way out of a paper bag.
Also this month, my comic store was closing shop, and I had no other place readily available in the area. Combined with my anger over Rachel's death, I quit comics.
I still had some subscriptions though, which ran through until the end of the year. They stopped just before Age of Apocalypse, so my collection was more or less `complete'.
As `95 moved on, I was rather happy. More money in my pocket, able to do more stuff, but I missed the characters I had come to know so well over the years. And contrary to popular belief, no longer being a comic geek did NOT score me any girlfriends.
Later that year, I went off to college, and discovered the internet. Yes, this is where it allllll began. I played around a bit, found IRC, and the x-books newsgroup. I heard some good stuff about this new writer on Excalibur, and luckily, there was a comic store no more than a ten minute walk away from the college!
So, I got caught up on Excalibur, and was rather impressed by this new guy writing Excalibur. A damn sight better than the Lobdell/Ashford issues. Who was this writer, you may ask? Why, non other than Warren Ellis himself. I've even talked with him a few times online, and have found he's not as caustic as some folks say he is. Opinionated, yes, but he's a firm believer in his ideas, and doesn't waver. I respect that in a man.
Anyways, I started hearing a few more good things, and picked up a few other books, including the Age of Apocalypse, which was quite a head trip, but managed to be a well crafted story.
I slowly got back into comics over the next 18 months, until I was buying more than just before I quit the first time, and aside from a few books being dropped over the years, I've never regretted coming back to some old friends.
Oh, by the way, Warren Ellis is a god, and Liefeld sucks. All is right in the world.
|
