Retrolective: From the Ashes

This was, barring a couple of Spider-Man comics I stumbled on as a young boy (I was unimpressed, although largely because anything with Black Cat in is too predicated on the UST between Spidey and not-Catwoman to appeal to a six year old), my first brush with Superhero comics. I was fourteen or fifteen (I know, right, but seriously for years I had literally no idea that either Superman or Batman had been in comics first) and I found it in the library. I wasn't new to comics - I'd been reading Marvel UK's slightly expanded Transformers run for years and read through most of Judge Dredd: Cursed Earth during rehearsals for Oliver! - and I knew of the X-Men in passing from a choose-your-own-adventure book I'd picked up - also in the library - which hadn't been very good, but which had intrigued me enough to check out this comic, or rather trade paperback.

I must have read it cover to cover three or four times in a couple of days.

Having no background with the ongoing series, I had no idea what the Phoenix Force was or who Jean Grey had been, but that was part of what intrigued me; the fact that this seemed to be part of a much larger world. Part of the reason I read and re-read was to pick up on as much detail as I could. It also contained challenging storylines - Madeleine Pryor might just be confusing, but the same volume has the introduction of the Morlocks, including Storm's fight to the death against Callisto, one random mention of Colossus's sister having been kidnapped by demons and, best of all, Rogue's original face turn.

The latter begins with Rogue - short hair, modest green outfit - showing up at the Mansion after absorbing Ms Marvel's powers and conscience, only to get punched out through the roof by Marvel (now called Binary), which is awesome, followed by a clash with Silver Samurai's minions alongside a highly doubtful Wolverine which contained such a critical mass of sparky, antagonistic banter (ending with Rogue testing her newly-gained invulnerability almost to destruction and Wolverine thanking her with a super symbolic kiss to transfer his healing factor to her temporarily) that I've never entirely forgiven either Gambit or Jean Grey for being their official main crushes in the wider narrative.

The conclusion of the main storyline (a wizard did it, or at least a mutant with illusion powers) was actually a bit weak compared to the rest of the book, but this was still the one that got me into superheroes and comics in a big way.

I should probably write something about Transformers at a later date, as that was a big influence, and possibly the X-Men cartoons on My Life as a Doge...