What's your age group?

[Diammandis]

Early twenties, but i did however join this site/ start reading comics when i was probably a junior/senior in highschool

[AppleJ]

Out of 132 so far, 0 who are presently teens. I'm not surprised really.

If the X-Men hit the big screen to create a surge of interest AND we see a migration of comics toward less costly digital comics and more trades, I wonder if we see this change?

I have a 7 year old and an 11 year old who very much enjoy trades, but are pretty uninterested in floppies. My now 11 year old actually was mad when she got to the end of one and realized it was an incomplete story with a cliffhanger. LOL But they're used to binging their cartoons on Netflix or watching two hour long epic movies, which give full story arcs even if there's a cliffhanger. They can handle weekly installments for shows like Loki, but I can't imagine them keeping attention for month to month single issues that must be acquired in a store that is nowhere near walking distance and also released in the middle of the school/work week and at sold at $4-$6 a piece.

I can barely handle it anymore!

It's a dying model for how to deliver content and very expensive relative to competing entertainment. Shops need to evolve their strategy if they want to survive and not go the way of music stores.

Meanwhile, Scholastic is making a killing with this age group on graphic novels through book fairs and book stores. My kiddos are obsessed with Wings of Fire and there is almost no merchandising for the series, which is surprising.

[GeneTitan]

I was going to school one day in 8th grade (1988) and saw Uncanny X-Men 227 on a comics spinner rack at a newsstand. I hated 8th grade, had no friends, was the awkward acne-ridden black nerd and had so much anxiety about going to school. I had always been into superheroes, but had never seen this group before. I had no idea who the X-Men were, but they looked cool as ****. So, I picked up the issue and I've been a hardcore fan ever since.

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[JB]

I was going to school one day in 8th grade (1988) and saw Uncanny X-Men 227 on a comics spinner rack at a newsstand. I hated 8th grade, had no friends, was the awkward acne-ridden black nerd and had so much anxiety about going to school. I had always been into superheroes, but had never seen this group before. I had no idea who the X-Men were, but they looked cool as ****. So, I picked up the issue and I've been a hardcore fan ever since.

Thank you for sharing your story. Wow, my first X-Men book was Uncanny #225! We both got in during the Fall of the Mutants.

[Chubistian]

I'm 25 years old. The Fox Kids' X-Men animated series was one of my favorite tv shows growing up and I loved the first X-Men trilogy back when it came out. I was condemned to be a X-Men fan and to have a special interest on Wolverine (Logan). With the passing of the years, many things can change, but even when I'm not up to date on their comics, the mutants will always have a place in my heart

[GeneTitan]

Thank you for sharing your story. Wow, my first X-Men book was Uncanny #225! We both got in during the Fall of the Mutants.

You're welcome. Fall Of The Mutants was such a good era! Claremont and Silvestri had a feel to those books I've never seen duplicated. But, I guess I romanticize that time because it was when I began my journey. And those were good books back then.

[Lucyinthesky]

Thirties, my introduction to X-men was X-men The Animated Series.

[Kitty&Piotr<3]

Out of 132 so far, 0 who are presently teens. I'm not surprised really.

If the X-Men hit the big screen to create a surge of interest AND we see a migration of comics toward less costly digital comics and more trades, I wonder if we see this change?

I have a 7 year old and an 11 year old who very much enjoy trades, but are pretty uninterested in floppies. My now 11 year old actually was mad when she got to the end of one and realized it was an incomplete story with a cliffhanger. LOL But they're used to binging their cartoons on Netflix or watching two hour long epic movies, which give full story arcs even if there's a cliffhanger. They can handle weekly installments for shows like Loki, but I can't imagine them keeping attention for month to month single issues that must be acquired in a store that is nowhere near walking distance and also released in the middle of the school/work week and at sold at $4-$6 a piece.

I can barely handle it anymore!

It's a dying model for how to deliver content and very expensive relative to competing entertainment. Shops need to evolve their strategy if they want to survive and not go the way of music stores.

Meanwhile, Scholastic is making a killing with this age group on graphic novels through book fairs and book stores. My kiddos are obsessed with Wings of Fire and there is almost no merchandising for the series, which is surprising.

Comics really don't make any sense as they are currently. And even with the minimal content, Big 2 creators still have the nerve to use decompression/avoid hypercompression. At $5 a pop, every issue should be pretty packed/epic/bombastic but that ain't always the case. Young people are overwhelmed with affordable or bang-for-your-buck content options, so the floppy numbers are what they are.

[Su_Whisterfield]

Thank you for sharing your story. Wow, my first X-Men book was Uncanny #225! We both got in during the Fall of the Mutants.

I really can’t remember what was my first issue, it was a B&W reprint in Marvel UK comics, somewhere early in the Uncanny run, issue 97 or 98?
Because it was B&W, I didn’t realise Storm was black in the one I read.
I then started buying back issues, this had to be 1980 or 1981 because I was at collage doing my A levels.
I was getting a lot of them from a really dodgy comic-cum-sex-shop on Deansgate in Manchester (run by the deeply dodgy and sometimes imprisoned Dave Britton). I think I was the only girl who went in there, I would buy the tatty copy for £3 rather than the nice copy for £5.

[CellarDweller]

52 from NJ and gay.

[CellarDweller]

This begs a question of everyone:

What was your first X-posure?

For me, it was the arcade game, and then the first thing I actually read was the Chaos Engine Trilogy.

I started seriously collecting the X-books after getting into the 90s cartoon.

However, my first exposure to the X-men was one particular book, which I can still remember.

[MechaJeanix]

I'll be 40 in March.. when I first joined the x-men message boards 20 years ago I was among the younger set. I've grown up in between posting on and off about one of my fav hobbies. I belong to another x-men group that is made up mostly of younger fans in their 20's.

I am def doing my part by introducing my soon to be 6 year old niece to the X-men. Storm is her favorite but she likes Jean too.

[Dementia5]

The combined age of my kneecaps is 102.

Also, I can’t help but think that the total absence of teenagers from this poll may bode ill. Or maybe they just don’t hang out on forums like this anymore, who knows.

[myownlittleusername]

Also, I can’t help but think that the total absence of teenagers from this poll may bode ill. Or maybe they just don’t hang out on forums like this anymore, who knows.

Yes, CBR is very much an old people place, even Facebook is probably trending younger!

Not that many teenagers are reading superhero comics anymore either.

[Devaishwarya]

Although I've been reading my uncles' Eerie, Creepy and Mad magazines long before...I only got into superhero comics in my first year of Secondary School. Issue 175 was my very first UXM issue bought off of the spinner rack in a drugstore. I saw the Black, white-haired Woman with blue eyes and a punk get-up and thus began my undying love with the X-Men and Comics. (I still have that comic, in all its tattered, yellowed, memorable glory...though I've replaced it with a more pristine copy)

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