Category Archives: Marvel

Posts and lists and reviews for all things Marvel-if you make yours Marvel, then this is the place for you.

Five Faves: Favorite X-Men

Welcome to our second edition of Fave Fives. It won’t always be a list of characters from a film series or comic book series or whatever we are talking about. But this week, like last time, it is a list of characters. It’s one of the reasons people love the X-men- at least one of the reasons I love the X-Men- the diversity and range of characters. There are so many to choose from after nearly 60 years of publications. So this is my list of top five. It is probably different than yours, but I would love to know and see yours, so be sure to put it in the comments either here or on Facebook, so I can know who your favorites are.

So who did I pick? These are characters that for whatever reason have resonated with me over the years, the ones I love to see popping up in a story, or have an interesting back story or a cool power, or sometimes all three. I am not going to go into a lot of detail about why I picked each one, because the post will get really long, and this is supposed to mostly be a list with as little reading as possible- it’s Friday after all- I didn’t want to make you the reader work too hard. So maybe I won’t even list them here, but just put their pictures down below. You’ll notice the list is not numbered. This isn’t a ranking of these characters- just a list. Honestly, at any given time any one of these characters could be my number one, so it would be hard for me to rank them definitively. I just can’t do it. Don’t make me do it. So, just know that neither the first character listed or the last is my number one favorite. Or maybe it is, but I’m not saying it is. 

So, here’s the list:

Wolverine

Jean Grey

Nightcrawler

Cable

Kitty Pryde

So that’s my list for this week. If you want more X-Men content, check out my post from Monday and from yesterday.

If you want to see the first Fave Five list about the characters from the Last Jedi, then click here.

The X-Men and Understanding Others

I grew up as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in  Salt Lake City area of Utah. I was white and surrounded by a lot of people who were mostly like me. I didn’t experience a lot of diversity ion my life when I was a kid. The most I remember from my early childhood was that many members of my extended family were not members of the same church. And, I remember thinking I was weird because my grandparents smoked and drank coffee. This was the closest thing I had to experiencing anything different from em in my early childhood. 

Then, around the time I was 11 years old, my parents divorced, and I kind of stopped going to church for a while. Honestly, in the little suburb of Murray, Utah, at the time, I felt like a freak when I went to school. I felt like a freak and weirdo around the other kids in the neighborhood. I felt like an outsider. And it was around this time that I really  got heavily into comics, and especially the X-Men. The X-Men were freaks and weirdos too. They were outsiders just like me, and I loved reading about them. I felt like I could identify with them. I felt like they were me.

This was how my 11 year old little mind with little life experience saw the X-Men. As I got older, I began to realize that the X-Men were something else entirely, and something much deeper. I began to understand that there were a lot of similarities with the X-Men and groups I was learning about in school. The X-Men were marginalized and discounted by the main population in the Marvel universe, like so many minorities in the United States. I began to see similarities in the hate groups in the cartoons and comics like the Friends of Humanity, and hate groups in the United States. I began to understand that the X-Men, and reading the X-Men was helping me to understand something else. 

My time as an “outsider” was so small and insignificant compared to what a lot of other people had experienced in history. People who were hated because of the color of their skin, or where they were born. Our country’s history is steeped in prejudice and bias and hate of those people who are different, or who we deem different. And to be clear, different than WASP. The people we see as not fitting in with the norm, suffer from this prejudice and hate. The X-Men exposed me to these ideas at an early age, and as I got older and began to see these parallels, it helped me to appreciate and try to understand better those who are hated.

Now, I’m not trying to say I’m an expert on race relations or racism in this country. I’m not. But I am grateful to the X-Men because from reading these stories growing up, it helped me to understand others who are different than me. Why? Because reading the X-Men books made me want to understand others and appreciate them, and not fear them. And dwelling on fear of something or someone can and often does lead to hate. It starts as discomfort but evolves on its own to something else. I think a natural thing, meaning human nature, is a feeling a discomfort around people or situations that are different from what we know. And when we experience that, how we proceed will determine whether we end up avoiding ands possibility hating what is different, or trying to understand and then appreciate. 

Reading the X-Men for me, helped me to try to understand those who were different, and it is something I am grateful for. My wife and I have six kids. Three of them are deaf. When we found out, we had some decisions to make about what we were going to do. We decided to learn American Sign Language and to teach our kids American Sign Language. This has meant that our kids are part of the deaf community and participate quite a bit in the deaf community. A community that at the time I was completely uncomfortable because I had no idea about this culture and this world. Today, after years of interacting with individuals who are deaf, I feel more comfortable. But it took time and understanding.

That’s what the X-Men are about, for me, on some level. Yes, I love the sci-fi feel of the comics and the movies, and I love the characters and the stories, but this idea of understanding others, accepting those who are different are at the core of who and what the X-Men are. They live in a world that hates and fears them simply because of a label. Simply because they are born different. People in their world feel threatened by the mutants because  they don’t understand. They buy into the fear that their society has sold them. The idea that all mutants are dangerous simply because of who they are. In their world, there are two sets of standards for super powered beings. Humans and aliens like Captain America, Thor, Spider-Man and others are loved by the masses (Spider-Man by most, jut not J. Jonah Jameson). They have super powers and wear costumes, and people love them. The X-Men are very similar- they have powers and wear costumes, and they are hated. It is a clear double standard.

Simply because they are not “human,” simply because they are born different. If this is not a parallel to the racism and prejudice that exists in our world, if you can’t see that, then I’m not sure how to help you to recognize it. And if you are turning a blind eye to what is happening right now in our world and our country, then you are like the mutant haters in the comics. To hate and fear simply because something is different, to make people less than human because they are different than you, it’s not acceptable. I would say it is evil and wrong. And we can do better. We need to do better. The X-Men helped me to see that when I was younger, and I understand that more now that I am older. 

This week is all about X-Men on the blog. Check out the post on Monday for more X-goodness. Click here to view it.

Why I Love the X-Men

I can’t remember the first time I saw an X-Men cartoon, or read an X-Men comic. I’m sure it was my pre-teens/early teens. I think one of the first things I remember about anything X-Men related was playing the X-Men arcade game at the now defunct 49th Street Galleria in Murray, Utah. Maybe it was when my dad bought me a Wolverine action figure from the store when I was pretty young. The grocery store we went to at the time carried these Marvel action figures, and I remember when my parents would go shopping my dad would buy me one. I had Captain America, Spider-Man, Daredevil, etc. For some reason, Wolverine’s always stood out to me. When I saw the game at the Galleria (as we called it back then), I only wanted to be Wolverine, because he was the only one I really knew.

As I got older, and started buying more comics, I bought some of my first X-Men comics. Mostly, I stuck to Superman and Justice League, and for various reasons I had the odd Spider-Man issue. But one time, at a Costco of all places, they had this package of Marvel comics you could buy. It had like 20 random issues in it. One of the issues was the iconic X-Men #1, with art by Jim Lee and story by the iconic Chris Claremont- so I was at least 9 years old. That particular comic really stood out to me for a couple of reasons. One reason was because it was a number one. I didn’t know much about comics at the time, but I was already a sucker for number ones. I mean, I even bought Super Pro #1 because I was that big a sucker. Another reason that issue stood out to me over the other issues in the pack was what it was. 

I have always been into superheroes, but the X-Men felt different. They didn’t have the super flashy costumes that the Justice League had, and their secret identities weren’t really that secret. And they weren’t overly powerful. And they fought a different fight. Superman, for example was beloved by the people he helped. He was like a celebrity in the DC Universe. He was trusted and respected. The X-Men weren’t. It was kind of the opposite. They were hated by regular people. They were feared. No one trusted them. The reasons for that and why that mattered is something I am going to discuss in my post for Wednesday, so I won’t dig deeper into that here. Suffice it to say- the X-Men were different, and for me and my pre-teen little self, they were the right kind of different.

As the 90s rolled on, I clung to the X-Men. I have always considered myself a DC guy when it came to comics and superheroes, but the one major exception to that was the X-Men. As I have gotten older, I also love a lot of other characters and stories in the Marvel universe, but the X-Men were the first characters to draw me over to Marvel, and I am drawn to them still today. I just think there is so much to love about them. I think the number one thing, though, that draws me to them over and over is that I have always felt like an outsider. I think everyone does as a teenager or beyond. I think everyone does regardless of age at certain points in their lives. I was never the popular kid in school. I have never been the guy with a bunch of friends. Mostly that’s my fault, but that’s a different post for a different time.

The X-Men became my best friends in my middle school years. And more secretly all through high school. And less secretly now. I was so excited when the first X-Men movies was released. I couldn’t wait to go see it. I didn’t have any friends who wanted to go with me, so I went by myself opening weekend It was awesome. And very lonely. But mostly awesome. These were characters I have grown to love and appreciate, and I learned a lot about what it means to accept “the other” (again, more on that later). This team of misfits and outcasts got me through my formative years. I loved the comics, the films (the first two anyway, and now the newer ones), I loved the cartoon series, and the comics. There was just a lot to love. And in the 90s, Marvel was all about the X-Men.

It’s hard, because I obsess about a lot of different things, so sometimes it feels like I forget about some of the things I have obsessed about. Then something happens that helps me rediscover one of those obsessions. I have definitely had times where I didn’t focus so much on the X-Men, but whenever I remember my obsession, these old friends are always waiting for me. These heroes, who are fighting a very different battle are always there.  I am excited to talk about the X-Men with you all this week. I think it is important to talk about the X-Men right now, and talk about the lessons they teach us. Now, maybe more than ever, it is important to talk about “the other” and how we can understand them more. Maybe not more than ever. It’s probably something that has always been this important. In any case, the X-Men have helped me understand it more, and I think that is crucial right now.

Episode 9: Counting Down the MCU, Pt. 2

Here it is, the much-anticipated follow-up to Monday’s episode- this part 2 of my MCU countdown. This is where you can find out which movie I have listed at number 1. For those that know me, it probably isn’t a huge surprise. I have talked about this movie a lot. I have even been a guest on another podcast to discuss this movie. It isn’t just my favorite MCU movie, it’s one of my favorite movies. Period.

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Episode 8: Counting Down the MCU, Part 1

Due to technical issues, I had to take last week off. I just couldn’t deliver a good, quality product, so I decided it was better to skip it. But I am back this week, and I have brought with me an epic double episode! And it is all about the MCU. The MCU now consists of 19 films. Some are better than others, and others still stand apart in a class of their own. In this episode, I begin to break down which are which. This is part 1, breaking down numbers 19-11. Part 2- the top 10- will be released on Wednesday.

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Episode 7: Avengers: Infinity War

Infinity War is here, and it was quite a ride. I know there are probably quite a few people who have not seen it. I get it. It is not always possible to get to the theater on opening night, sometimes you have to wait a week or two or a couple of days. I understand. For that reason, let me warn you, this episode has spoilers. A lot of spoilers. Like, seriously, don’t listen until you have seen the movie. But, then come back and listen.

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30Days30Characters: Day 9-Thor

In comics, it’s not uncommon for creators to take a mythical or legendary figure and turn them into superhero or villain. Hercules and Ares are a couple of examples. These are fun characters, and it is interesting to see how the comic creators tie their ancient stories in with modern lore. It seems like an easy, yet effective way to create a new hero. You have a back story already, a cast of characters, including a main bad guy. It works. None of them have been as successful, though, as today’s character.

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30Days30Characters: Day 6- Spider-Man

As I put together this list of characters, I had to decide what kind of list this would be. I knew it would not be a countdown type list. Sometimes it’s hard to do a countdown and rank something. It’s hard to quantifiably say this character is better than this character. At different times in my life different characters have meant different things. What was important to me in high school is typically less important to me now. A few characters still mean the same to me, and some characters mean a lot to me now, but for different reasons than when I was a kid. Today’s character fits in that category- he meant a lot to me when I was younger and means a lot to me now, but for totally different reasons.

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Liz’s Goodbye: Some Spiritual Lessons from Fandom

If you haven’t heard by now, Jake has decided that The Geeky Mormon needs to go in a new direction, and as me contributing articles does not fit with his vision for the site, I will no longer be writing. For the time being, plan on me still writing, but exclusively for my personal blog, The Jedi in Jeans. It was a pleasure writing for The Geeky Mormon and sharing all of my geeky thoughts with you. Before I go, here are a few things I want to share with you that I have learned from both my interests in sci-fi and fantasy, and from my faith as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in other words, from being a Geeky Mormon. I won’t elaborate on some of the themes too much. A picture’s worth a thousand words, so I will include pictures/quotes from our favorite stories as well as appropriate scripture references. I may very well have addressed some of these themes in my other posts. Other than that, I will leave the interpretation to you.

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The Marvel Movie Villain We Need

Looking at the last ten years of Marvel movies, we’ve been through a lot of villains. A lot of them didn’t last more than one fight with the main character.

It’s not that I don’t trust the Russo Brothers (or that I don’t want to trust them). And it’s not that I don’t think that Thanos doesn’t have potential to be a GREAT villain in Avengers: Infinity War. But it is very hard to not buy into the online fandom rhetoric that Thanos hasn’t really done anything to show that he means business.  He is willing to work with dangerous people to get what he wants. He technically ruined the lives of both Gamora and Nebula. And I don’t underestimate the amount of damage Thanos could do with a loaded Infinity Gauntlet. But most of what we know about Thanos in the MCU is by reputation.

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