A Note on More Beguiling Beginnings for XMCG!

Last December, as I lay on my couch in happy contentment right after devouring a dozen plates of spaghetti and exchanging obligatory gifts with my little cousins, I thought about comics. Comics has taken a big chunk of my life as a woman in my mid-twenties and I want the online world to know it. I successfully spent the later nine months of 2014 reading and reviewing Batman in Batman Comics Geek, and two months from that was allotted for reviewing the first fifty issues of John Constantine: Hellblazer in HCG. Both had been fulfilling creative endeavors that I never could believe I managed to stay committed to for such a long time. So, I asked myself, "Should I start doing X-Men now?", fully knowing the extent of what I was in for, and then my other self answered, "Yeah, we should start doing X-Men now." So, by the second day of January 2015 since, I was popping out non-stop reviews of varied X-Men titles. Fast-forward to today. I only have three months left for this year and I've once again accomplished what I set out to do on that night, albeit while I was drunk on spaghetti and yuletide cheer. I'm very proud of myself because HOLY SHIT, X-MEN? Do you have any idea how many stories are there? Right now, I'm pretty sure I'm only 20% into its rich canon and I have never been so elated that I even managed to get through that percentage of reading material.

That being said, I think I wanted to do something more...interesting in my reviews for this new series I'll be doing until early November. I've been in a murky place lately, trying to come up with reviews for the shitty issues of Brian Michael Bendis' All-New X-Men which at first whisked me away in whirlwind romance for the first twenty issues or so, but lost me in a hurricane of bland storylines and baffling non-developments among its characters which unfortunately followed. I was relieved to close that chapter of my X-Men reading life once September ended. Now, we have Joss Whedon who will always be beloved for me because of his Firefly TV series (and, to a lesser extent, Buffy the Vampire Slayer). He is also the current writer for the recent two Avengers movie and the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D show. I know he's an X-fan and I'm very intrigued to see how the quality of his content holds up.

There are three things I aim to accomplish for my reviews of The Astonishing X-Men. 

(1) Take time exploring the series and individual issues more  --> I have done this in the past but not consistently, I must admit. Now I want to really explain in detail the amazing issues and their content, completely adhering to my "two reviews a day" format of posts here in the blog. However, I do understand and fully accept that there are just some issues and certain story arcs that are just not worth the precious words and the length. If that is the case, then I will resort to something I used to despise when making reviews..

(2) MAKE FUN OF AN AWFUL ISSUE, HOLDING NOTHING BACK --> I'm the kind of reader who actually wants to read literature that will never offend my sensibilities (I've learned my lesson with Stephenie Meyer's Twilight). It takes a lot of my spiritual energy and sense of decency to actually mock a certain piece of writing, mostly because I don't bother putting out negative vibes in my reviews if I can avoid it. But, of course, there are times I simply can't and I need to tear my hair out and call out bad, awful and godforsaken writing in the comics I read (For references, check out this, this, and this). But I'm aware that other online reviewers can make it fun and snarky so I should aim for that kind of style of narrative because it is progressive therapy to make fun of stupid things every now and then even if said stupid things can be mentally damaging and emotionally scarring. Which leads me to my most important goal of the triad:

(3) MORE CAREFREE .GIFs and FUN/SNIDE COMMENTARY --> ...especially when the occasion undeniably calls for it and that usually entails the aforementioned awful issues and shitty storylines that must be dealt with by unguarded, sparkling wit. Without the risk of sucking my own metaphorical cock, I think I can be funny enough for that. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm up for it.

So expect great and better things for my reviews of The Astonishing X-Men. I'm really gonna get down to it like never before. I've been writing comic book reviews for almost 2 years now (with an approximated total of 500 reviews divided among my three comics blogs) and I should never stop challenging myself to write more, fangirl more, lose my shit more and--for the love of all that is holy--

to NEVER EVER STOP CHERIK-ING!

I'm talking about these guys!