Blogging A to Z: X is for X-Men

When in doubt, go back to your root right? Well, comic books is where it all started for me. Yeah, the gateway drug into the greater nerdery. As a kid, I think Batman was a favorite but when I entered my teens, I discovered the X-Men. And things changed for me. This was the first time that I could really identify with the characters. Sure, they were mutant rebel outcasts, but I was going through puberty when I discovered them and those changes alomost seemed like a mutation. Add to that that I was almost cataclysmically shy, just got braces, had to start wearing glasses, grew to be a 6'2" super skinny (oh, yeah, that was long ago wasn't it?), and all the rest, and I really felt like a mutant. Since my mother had remarried and we relocated to Nuremburg, Germany from Mascoutah, Illinois - yeah, I felt like an outcast as well. So the X-Men spoke to me for sure. For me, the classic team was Len Wein and Dave Cockrum. The John Byrne/Chris Claremont idea is good (and many folks cite it as the best X-Men era), but I tell yah, Len and Dave really hit a home run. Afterall, they are the team that is responsible for bringing us the New X-Men team of Storm, Colosus, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, and Thunderbird. Not to mention that Dave Cockrum's work on the X-Men is top notch. Witness this classic image:

Good stuff for sure. If you want to see more of Cockrum's work you can visit this tribute web site here. along with his X-Men work, he did some fantastic stuff for another one of my favorites, Legion of Superheroes. It's well worth looking up his stuff.