How old are you?

[Frobisher]

I'm 41. Implausibly, the first thing I read was Giant Size X-Men at the age of about 7 or so round another kid's house. I only realised the significance of the book many many years later, and at the time was mostly confused at whether I was supposed to know or care who the old characters who were getting shitcanned were.

A few years later I read part of Mutant Massacre (with Piotr throttling the whirlwind guy, who was kind of a dick), which was a back-up story in the Transformers UK comic, then a while after that a mate had all of X-Tinction Agenda, and then the animated series came out.

Eventually I got around to reading the comics, which I think I was probably supposed to have done in the first place.

[ermac]

I think I am fascinated by the characters and want to see them grow, evolve, become leaders...

And also want to see them achieve the dream of peaceful coexistence (maybe because the real world is so fkd up it would be cathartic? I dunno)

[Triniking1234]

I'm surprised some of you are in the same age range as me. Most people here type in young'un.

[Dante Milton]

36. My memory is **** so I'm not sure what came first: X-Men TAS, X-Men #1, Uncanny #281, or X-Factor #71. I was a filthy casual until about The Phalanx Covenant, and from there followed Uncanny, Adjectiveless, and Gen X pretty solidly until about mid-2000 (The Twelve broke me). Took a long break, ended up coming back around 2011/2012 and read all the stuff I cared to catch up on and Claremont's original run. Joined these forums about 2012, I think.

[pandafarmer]

for the people who have been reading X-men for so long. What is what has keep you reading them through all these years?

I grew up reading Avengers, Batman, and X-Books. To me they tapped best into the "weirdo" vein in me at a young age. As I grew older I've always had a soft spot for them and am so glad I "fell back in" to reading the comics as an adult. Going to get my first X-tattoo next month!

Fokken, I'll DM you the details!

[Big Joe]

Thank you for all the answers.
I don't know if i should make a separate thread for this but...

for the people who have been reading X-men for so long. What is what has keep you reading them through all these years?

It's an interesting question, and I've been following for over 40 years, so there must be reasons I guess. When I first discovered the All New All Different X-Men I was really intrigued as to how they could possibly all work together, then they seemed to gel into a team together really well. I was very happy with the (what was at the time) diversity of the characters, and also how each character was given star billing every so often. Then of course Byrne's art happened as well and that was kind of mind blowing and from there X-Men was by far the best comic on the stands, and that in an era when some decent and interesting stuff was happening. I then really liked the way new characters were sympathetically introduced and worked into the stories, and how spin offs were handled and used as if it was all part of an overarching whole.

So in essence, for me, it has always been the richness of the characters and the development of them over decades. I still enjoy how characters who we haven't seen for years can slip back in and become part of that overall family again. What is really interesting is to sometimes look back at very early appearances of various characters and compare them as characters to now, both heroes and villains.

I realise this is something that some people find annoying, and they don't like the fact that one of their favourites is being written out of character, but I see it differently. Over that length of time characters change (and often over a much shorter period - characters can change completely), I was a young teenager when I started reading X-Men regularly, now I'm very middle aged, my character now is vastly different to how it was 40 odd years ago.

There have been times, over the years, when the narrative has gone a little stale, but there have always been the characters that I've known for so long.

[Fokken]

I'm surprised some of you are in the same age range as me. Most people here type in young'un.

Which range would your range be, Trink?

[Triniking1234]

30

10char

[Snoop Dogg]

we have a fatal shortage of boomers

[Fokken]

we have a fatal shortage of boomers

........Tabby?

[Snoop Dogg]

........Tabby?

[Triniking1234]

we have a fatal shortage of boomers

Gamers, rise up.

[AppleJ]

X-Men fan since the early 90's. XTAS was my gateway. Have come and gone from the books a few times.

[Sandmans_Raven]

Currently 27. Not sure what age I started because I was pretty young. I used to steal X-Men comics from my brother's room and try to follow the story without being able to read. The TV show was a lot easier to follow haha.

[uebersoldat]

Pretty telling thread here.