Introduction

Oh, boy.

Chronicling all X-Men comics, past and present, is no easy task. Counting the dozens of ongoing series, dozens of miniseries, and numerous spin-offs over almost five decades probably amounts to more than 4000 issues, and keep in mind, that number is ever-growing. Assuming an average of 15 minutes spent on one issue, it would take a thousand hours - about 42 days - just to READ all of it, and I intend to do far more than that.

Let's face it: it's unlikely that I'll ever "finish" this blog. I'm probably not even going to reach the eighties publication-wise. But I'm going to try and see how it goes.

What could cause someone to go on such a daft quest?

I have a couple of reasons, none of them very convincing.

For one, I want to improve my critical thinking skills. I've considered writing reviews of books I read, just for my own sake, but throwing my thoughts online definitely can't hurt.

And also, the X-Men are my favorite comic book team and I want to know as much as possible about them, both the good and the bad. Extensive knowledge of a comic book franchise is a poor substitute for any useful knowledge, but I'm still very much interested.

Of course, I wouldn't mind if someone at Marvel happened to find this blog and was soooo impressed they'd bring me on board as a writer. Still, I'm not delusional. I am a writer, and I'd be interested in writing some comics one day, but that's not exactly my ambition.

Just a few notes before we get going:

Throughout this blog, I'm going to present myself as, well, an expert on comics books, but I'm really not.

Most of the things I say about behind the scenes information will be a half-baked concoction of half-remembered interviews and general understandings picked up on forums. I won't be able to source most of it. But I'll never say anything I don't believe is right. Just don't take me too seriously, and don't cite me on anything.

The X-Men are known for their incredibly convoluted history. Now, this won't be a problem for quite a while (perhaps never), but obviously, following the "timeline" perfectly is a laughable impossibility. I'll be going in approximate chronological order, but perhaps jump forward occasionally. That means I'll mostly be covering X-Men volume 1/Uncanny X-Men until the spin-offs and minis start. Once we'll have multiple ongoing series being published in parallel, I'll start reviewing them in turns and pacing myself by the crossovers. At least that's the idea.

Lastly, updates will be... infrequent at best. I'm going to university (though I'm not especially busy or anything) and there's a novel I don't want to neglect.

I am such a moron...