Let's party like it's 2008!!!

Wow, I TOTALLY blanked on the two year anniversary of when I started this blog up! Back on October 2, 2008 I published my very first blog post to this here blog. So it's been TWO full years of me rambling about my favorite subject, comic books. In those two years I've managed to post 1,445 times(not to mention the posts on my other two blogs)... That's a LOT of posts! I have to say, I honestly didn't expect this blog to last one month, let alone 2 years. I can't even begin to explain how surprised I am to see that this blog is not only still around, but that it's still going strong.

In celebration of this momentous occasion, I went back and decided to check out a few of my REALLY early posts. After looking over a few of those posts, two thoughts came to my mind. #1, I used to post an INSANE amount of times over the course of a month! From October 2nd to October 31st, 2008 I posted 115 times! 115 times?! Really?!!? Man, I must have had even less of a life back then than I do now! The other thing I noticed about my early work is that by and large it was bad... At times it was painfully bad! I had so many bad writing habits back then that I can see so clearly now two years later. That's not to say that my current work is great, because let's face facts, it's not, but my early work was rather cringe worthy!

Anyway, in celebration of my two years of blogging, let's take a trip down memory lane and see just what was going on in the world of comics WAAAAAY back in magical world 2008, what I thought about it and how it compares with my thoughts today... If this post was a movie, now is where that wavy special effect would take place indicating a flashback was imminent. In the DCU Final Crisis was still going strong, with Darkseid himself finally showing his ugly mug in FC #4. Back then I wasn't really thrilled with the way FC was playing out, although I was still hopeful that Grant Morrison would manage to put together an amazing story... We all know how THAT particular storyline ended, with Superman's infamous god killing song... While I wasn't completely sold on FC, I was insanely into Geoff Johns' writing, with his work on the JSA being among my favorite stuff going on back then. Back in October of 08, Geoff was still putting together his brilliant Gog storyline. I loved it then, and I STILL think back fondly on that storyline now. However, my feelings towards Geoff have changed from admiration to contempt as he gone from an amazing writer who delivers awesome stories month in and month out to a guy who only cares about erasing the past 50 years of DCU storylines in order to appease his inner child and the old school Silver Age fanboys. A major source of posts for me when I first started this blog was the Nightwing series, which I managed to score off of eBay. I probably posted well over 100 Nightwing oriented posts and as a result developed into quite the Dick Grayson fan. That's one thing that I can say definitely hasn't changed these past two years as I am STILL a huge fan of Mr. Grayson. A few other DC related early articles would include me decrying the death of Bart Allen(who WAS eventually resurrected)and Superboy(who likewise also came back to life).

Over on the Marvel side of things, I was pretty negative... I couldn't stand the X-books(and this coming from somebody whose blog moniker is X-Man!), with X-Men Legacy really scraping the bottom of the barrel when it came to story quality. Lately I've actually been warming back up to the X-books, with the current vampire storyline showing WAY more potential than it has any right to. As for X-Men Legacy, that is one of the very few comic books I've actually dropped, which is sad considering I had collected the first 200+ issues of that series. So yeah, the X-books were bad, but NOTHING was as bad as the main x-over that was inflicting itself on the Marvel Universe, that's right, I'm talking about Secret Invasion! Ugh, Secret Invasion... Just typing those words automatically makes me to want to vomit a little. The BEST thing I can say about Secret Invasion was that it was bad... Really bad. And that's the NICEST thing I could say about SI! Back then I hated Secret Invasion, and looking back on things, I had every right to hate it, it stunk! Speaking of bad things, there's the curious case of Brian Michael Bendis. Two years ago I loathed reading anything that sported Bendis' name on the cover. Now? Now I find myself thoroughly enjoying almost every series Bendis is currently working on! What a difference two years can make. If you would have told me two years ago that by 2010 Bendis would be putting out not only good, but at times great comics, I probably would have laughed in your face and possibly kicked you in the groin. But it wasn't all bad on the Marvel side of the fence as Mark Millar was doing an amazing job in Wolverine with the Old Man Logan storyline, Peter David was solid on X-Factor(he still is by the way)and Ed Brubaker's Captain America was among the best comic from any company(and still is).

Okay, let's return to the present with a confession... The reason I started this blog was as a desperate attempt to connect with my fellow comic book fans. It's not like I could just walk up to somebody on the street and ask them if they were into comics. Well I could, but I don't think that would end very well for me. This blog was really the perfect way to try to reach out to my fellow comic book junkies, and you know what? My scheme was a success! I've managed to amass 33 followers, as well as a few people who although I've never actually met them, I'd count as friends. So first I want to give a heartfelt thanks to anybody who reads the stuff on this blog whether or not you leave a comment. It's always nice to check out those stats and see that low and behold, there actually ARE people coming to this blog! So thanks for stopping by, and remember, you're all welcome to comment. As I've said countless times, I LOVE comments, it helps me connect to those of you who are actually reading my rambling, nonsensical words. But that's not all... I'd be remiss if I didn't give a very special thanks to my regulars, and lately my AIM chat buddies. So in no particular order, a huge thank you to Kello, the very first person to take the time to comment here and an insanely funny guy(and I mean that in a nice way!), Marc, who may just be the most knowledgeable comic book fan I know(well, besides myself of course! :D ), not to mention an amazing writer, the lovely and talented Falisha, whose artwork is truly comic book worthy, seriously people, her work is THAT good, and my brother from another mother, JT, who has commented SO many times he deserves some kind of award... JT, your no-prize is on its way! And I think that's it. These past two years have been a blast, here's hoping the next two years are even better. Tomorrow I'll get back to my regularly scheduled reviews, but tonight I just wanted to say thanks, so I will. Thanks! Until next time, X out.Well, since this IS X-Man's Comic Blog, I figured I should close this post out with a scan of the man himself.