When I was a kid we didn’t have a lot of money. Some of our Christmas’s were homemade, most of our holidays were to see family in neighboring cities, and some of my toys were made out of paper.
My brother’s loved comics and I got to read them sometimes. I remember when Superman died (and I cried). I remember when the symbiote Venom first made an appearance (and I instantly loved him). And I remember Batman, before the Dark Knight.
But something I had of my own were my X-men paper dolls. I fell in love with the characters on my own, before my brothers found the comics. It was so long ago (circa 1980′s), but the second wave of main characters were all there: Jean Grey, Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Beast, and yes….my fave….Wolverine.
Now you will see those same characters as I once did on Teletoon at night, where the classics are replayed for us Gen X’ers. But what gets me more excited than seeing those old replays is finding an old comic (before graphic novels came into existence). Those newspaper thin reads, where if you stuck silly putty on the pages you could get a copy of your favorite character’s face or logo, were the ultimate back in my day.
Since then YA has come a long way. We have tons of great reads out there that weren’t available 20-30 years ago (I’m still not telling you how old I am!). Dystopian really took off, as well as sci-fi, and finally genre fiction is being taken more seriously.
X-men’s theme: finding equality for those who are different, is an important one. The X-men have always had to fight for acceptance and equality. But no matter how powerful the villian, none compares to one of their own: Apocalypse. This monster came out when I was pretty young and basically haunted my dreams, for no one, not even my dear X-men, were able to stop him. At least, not in the beginning.
So sit back and enjoy this epic movie trailer for X-Men: APOCALYPSE. WARNING: If you’re anything like me, this ultimate villian will give you nightmares. You’ve been warned.
