Ask the Geek! X-Men

In 1992, when I was an awkward young tot of 10 years, the two biggest cartoons were Batman: The Animated Series and the X-Men. Although I watched both and now realize that Batman: TAS is far superior in both animation quality and story, at the time, I couldn't get enough of the X-Men.

I first decided I wanted to be a writer when I was playing make believe in my front yard and developed my own X-Men spin-off team. I had no intention to write it, but I drew lots of pictures, designed their headquarters, came up with a back story, and ran around throwing punches and making sound effects... much to the embarrassed bewilderment of my family. I even named them the X-Trackers.

I hated that name even then. Naming things has become the bane of my literary career.

The team consisted of the leader Glowing Fist (based on a picture I'd seen of Iron Fist with the personality of Cyclops), Axel (a heavy metal bruiser probably named after one of the villains in the video game Final Fight), Rocket (a female speedster), and others that I don't remember. They lived in a mutant sanctuary that doubled as a political lobbying group. I didn't phrase it quite so well as a child, but I think the idea was pretty good. In a recent writing exercise about what I'd do with the X-Men, I found myself strongly influenced by this idea I had as a child.

Getting to the point, if I had to pick one comic book concept that has inspired me the most, I would have to pick the X-Men, without a doubt. It's a place where freaks fit in, where their differences are celebrated and they can learn to express themselves... usually by blowing things up in the Danger Room.

Unfortunately, X-Men also has so many continuity issues and bad runs that it can be next to impossible to figure out what the hell is going on and why you should care. So I'm putting out an open call for X-Men related questions. Anything you want to know, just ask.

Just to let you know, I have read almost every single issue of Uncanny X-Men from #1 to #504 (with the exception of most of Joe Casey and Chuck Austen's horrible runs) and roughly one third of my comic collection is devoted to X-Men and X-Men spin-off titles (mostly the good stuff). So I feel comfortable saying that I am an X-pert on this subject (sorry, X-puns abound).