Genetic Quirks

X-Men, Circa 1985

I was ten when I really started liking the X-Men. Sure, I already liked the Avengers and the Justice League when I was about six or seven, and I’ve read X-Men adventures during that time (specifically issue #s 96-101, thank you National Bookstore reprints). But it was when I read Uncanny X-Men # 183 that I was won over. The characters had attitude; they had all these problems, and it was also cool that the art stood out.

I started relating to them a few years later, when I became a teenager, when I felt alone and misunderstood. Reading the X-Men comic book and its related titles became my escape to fantastic, more imaginative worlds. This was the first roster of the team that I truly loved, back when I was ten: Rachel Summers, Colossus, Shadowcat (and Lockheed), Nightcrawler, Storm, Wolverine, Professor X, and Rogue.