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Saturday, April 4, 2009

From our secret headquarters...

A shadow drifts through the empty base. The silent alarm is tripped. The signal is sent. I don my costume and race to our HQ ready to face whatever nefarious, evil thing has penetrated our defences.
Oh... it's just a cat.... Bugger. I squeezed myself into my skin-tight, rubber cat suit for naught but a pussy cat! Oh well, while I'm here I may as well do something.

Meeting up with my fellow comic-philes is like an AA meeting of sorts. It allows us to support each other for one. It lets us know we are not alone (I told myself I wouldn't cry). Together we can fight our addiction. Sadly, I think ours is a losing battle. You can see it in their eyes, they lust after those pristinely printed and pressed pages. The smell of ink on recycled paper. I NEED ONE! I MUST HAVE ONE!!! NO! No! I must calm myself, I don't sign on for another few days and can't afford my 'fix' yet.

Recently I borrowed my friends X-Men Essentials #1 graphic novel. Although I like the X-men I've never bothered with more than a look-in now and then. So reading this awesome collection (and it is pretty awesome) was like a lightning-bolt. For those of you who don't know what the hell I'm going on about X-Men Essentials #1 introduces characters like Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Storm to the ranks of the X-Men. I found it quite a buzz to see their induction in print form, even though by today's standards the first few issues -written over three decades ago- look a little cardboardy now. Then, just a few days after, he handed me X-Men: Deadly Genesis -written only a year or two ago- which was a big thing (trust me those of you who don't know, it really is). Basically The first issue of Essentials has the new X-Men rescuing the original X-Men from the monster/island of Krakoa after a brief but intensive training 'montage'. What Deadly Genesis does is reveals that the new X-Men weren't the first team sent out to rescue the original team. I'll leave it at that. Think of it in a round about way as 'My Recommendation'.