#00 And So, A Book Club Was Born

Of course, it started in 1989.  I was in high school and a huge fan of horror movies.  That was my thing.  But I met this other kid at school who was a fan of comics.  I'd read a few over the years.  I subscribed to DC's Star Trek and Hellblazer, but when it came to Marvel Comics, all I knew were the most obvious characters.  Spider-Man, Hulk, Captain America, and Fantastic Four.  They were characters I knew mostly through pop culture.  When that kid asked me who my favorite X-Man was, I said something about liking that blue guy with the tail and yellow eyes.  I didn't know his name (Nightcrawler) and I didn't know what his powers were, but I couldn't very well answer "Batman".  I'm pretty sure the kid didn't hear me.  He was too busy showing other kids at our school, a particular issue of the X-Men, with a pale toothy villain, clutching a group of heroes over a fiery inferno.  That cover caught my interest.

Inferno was the name of that storyline and it not only got me into the X-Men, it got me into comics.  It encompassed most of the titles Marvel published and because of that, I also started reading Daredevil, the Avengers, New Mutants, X-Factor, Cloak & Dagger, and the best of all of them, the Uncanny X-Men.

That kid and I became best friends and because of him and this very cool comic world, I ended up spending up to hundreds of dollars a month in order to keep current on all the drama and excitement going on in the Marvel Universe.  With another of my best friends, the three of us would get together on a regular basis for trips to the local comic shop and to talk about the adventures of our favorite characters.  The biggest common element in all of our pull lists was the Uncanny X-Men.

Over the years, I became a comics maniac.  the X-Men's soap opera continuity shaped me as a story teller, and I even tried my hand at writing comics myself.  I introduced other friends to some of the best stories ever written and was totally enamored with all things "House of X".

Our little best friend group spread out as the years went on.  We'd all stepped away from collecting comics to the degree we were.  I saw the continuity that drew me in, fall apart and make less sense as the characters I grew up with were changing and becoming flashier to look at but less interesting overall.  But during the recent pandemic lockdown, in an attempt to make sense of some of the more recent X-Men content being published, I decided to read all of the X-Men books starting with 1963's X-Men #1.

I brought "the band" back together and with our enthusiasm in rekindling our connection, found ourselves talking about comics.  Then the challenge was posed:

Let's make an X-Men book club!  We'll read all of the X-Men comics in order and then talk about them once a month.  We'll read five issues at a time, and not just the one X-Men title, but all of the books important to the X-Men universe.  Let's read them in order, so we have the magic of continuity.  We'll discover how the Beast turned blue, why Magneto became a baby, and discover whatever Jean saw in Wolverine.  And since we're all in different parts of the country, we'll do it online, which will allow others to join in.

And so, a book club was born.

So far, we've already learned so much about the comics we grew up loving, and taking this trip, we're starting to learn so much about ourselves.  It's a journey that we have no plan to end, and we hope that it'll only gain more momentum in the years to come.

So, join me, Rob Hawthorn, and my friends Shane, Roger, Rowan and Drew in the House of X Book Club.  And as they say, "Hope you survive the experience."