Review - The Age of Apocalypse (X-Men)

One thing quite a few people know about me is that I have a lot of interest in comics. Truth be told, I know more about them than I have right to: I never really read them. I decided to change that, and ignoring my reading list altogether I read The Age of Apocalypse epic in the X-Men series of comics from Marvel, including the Prelude. Originally I had planned to review each of the four volumes in turn, until I realised that they were almost impossible to distinguish between.

They’re broken down into individual stories, following the likes of Cyclops, Havock and Sinister, Magneto and Rouge, Gambit and the Xternals, and a whole cast of characters taken from the comics and thrown into a new story. Everything changes in these comics, the logic behind it all explained in the Prelude. Introduce time travel and things are bound to change. And in the words of my fellow comic book nerd from college, ‘This is their masterpiece.’

How did you find reading comics to reading regular fiction?

It was...different. Essentially, the storytelling falls into two categories: the dialogue and the pictures. It’s literally a case of showing and not telling (except when dialogue and narration has to fill in the gaps for readers). One of the hardest things is getting used to looking at everything on the page in different orders – some scenes spread over two pages, the images being that big, so the whole layout of the comic changes.

As well as that, there’s the issue with reading dialogue and following what’s actually going on. It took me a while to get used to reading what was being said in the right order. This is no fault of the people who wrote the comics, of course; I’m just not that used to reading them. For me, the writing goes right across the page, no pictures.

What did you think of the story?

As I’ve said, this is their masterpiece. Each of the books (Prelude, and Volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4) fills us in on the little details: what caused the Age of Apocalypse to come about, how the X-Men planned to stop it, once and for all, what Apocalypse was doing to the world, what was happening to the universe and how they ultimately hoped to stop that, too. I won’t drop spoilers. For fans of X-Men, this is the must-read series of comics. They break open the whole world of X-Men and answer the question: What would happen if Charles Xavier never formed the X-Men?

This really is the ultimate ‘What if...’ story, and it certainly let down a lot less people than House of M and its particular affect on the Marvel universe...

What was your favourite arc, and what was your least favourite?

My favourite would have to have been that which followed Rouge. She was always one of my favourite characters (I know, the outsider being my favourite character... har har har). Again, no spoilers, but there’s a whole new set of stories being told in this group (which still keeps the old favourites around, too, like Storm).

My least favourite... Wolverine. My experience with Wolverine – known in these comics as Weapon X, I might point out – is that he’s the angry, distant type. He fights and he’s looking for answers and God help anyone who tries to get in his way. Well, with certain changes that still follow his character’s general story, he’s a bit annoying in how much he gets down in himself. And he’s missing a hand. That may have attributed to it all (because, you know, his hand is supposed to grow back..?).

Whose story were you happiest with?

This one is difficult... Cyclops has an interesting story, but he still maintains a lot of his usual morals and all that stuff that eventually wears him out. Beast is even more...delightful, we’ll say. I think they did a great job with him in these comics, taking him to an extreme they couldn’t have gotten away with in a different reality. Best of all, though, was Nate Grey. I stumbled across Nate in my extensive reading about X-Men a few years ago and never really understood where he came into the story. Well, AoA answers the very important question of his origins, and goes into some detail on his powers, his life and his personality. And he’s one of the coolest looking characters that isn’t grossly mutated beyond recognition as a human. (The white flick in his hair and the glowing eye certainly did the trick!)

Saddest part of the whole series?

This one would call for a spoiler. No spoilers. Just wait until you get to Volume 4 and you’ll see it all happening. You just have to wonder what made them do it. Then you realise it’s genius, if a little too tragic. You’ll see!

Who would you recommend this series to?

A few groups... firstly, if you like X-Men but haven’t read this series yet: this is for you. Do I have to say it again: It’s their masterpiece! Secondly, to people who generally like comics and haven’t read this series, even if you’re not especially a fan of X-Men. Thirdly, if you like a good story and think you can manage the images (and, can I just say, the artwork is brilliant, so it’s totally worth it), then you should give this series a try.

What’s next?

Well, I can’t possibly answer that for Marvel... they have the most convoluted plots in the world that I will forever be out of my comfort zone with them. I can only hope to catch up on some of the amazing stories they tell. As for me, I’ve got reviews coming up of a children’s book, a graphic novel, a Young Adult novel and a book about writing for children, none of which were on my list. (I think the list is cursed, because I chose too many big books and started reading too many of them at once...)

Internet Connection is Back!

I don't know if I should feel guilty about not posting reviews or not over the past couple of weeks, but I am here to tell you that this little problem I had is now over! I have two shiny reviews to post, probably on Tuesday and Wednesday next week (and I'll probably write a third review to fill in Thursday as well).

The reason I was gone from the reviewing world is that our Internet provider here at home - i.e. the only place I have Internet access that isn't in work (where I definitely should not be posting reviews to books) - failed to let us do anything. Over the past couple of weeks our connection has been done almost every hour. We've had little bursts of activity every now and then, but never on Wednesdays when I was going to post reviews. It was very annoying. I was up until midnight last night hoping the signal would come back. It did not.

We have since received a new modem - it arrived this morning - and I have done some fiddling about, so we have now have Internet access. I just had to sacrifice the house phone. We don't have another cable available to plug the modem into the wall. Also, our desktop no longer has Internet access. I know how to fix this problem (fairly sure of it, anyway) so I'll use all those skills in computers they teach us in coll... no hang on, not in my college. God can fix anything but the incompetence of technicians, and DSL cables.

The truly annoying thing is that we had someone out in the house to look at it all, who then recommended a new modem. If my guess is right, we didn't even need a new modem. It was the wires hooking it up to the wall that are the problem. Our set-up - the one that doesn't work, but not the one I'm using right now - sends the wire from the computer upstairs, through the landing, into my room, into a little box. This box then has another cable that goes through my floor, down into the hallway by the door and into the phone box.

That didn't work.

One of the two wires or that little box on my floor doesn't work. One of those three things (at least one...) has stopped working. That is a plain and simple fact. The connection should work from the computer like it used to, but it doesn't. So I have to be right. I may be socially awkward and a little bit weird (and I sometimes under-estimate how weird I am...), but I know logic when it comes zipping through my brain. The current set-up works. The old one used to. The only difference is the wires used.

I win at Internet.

(That was an example of me being weird, wasn't it? It's for things like that that I wonder why I have any readers... or friends. I think it's so people can feeler cooler by comparison. That must be it. It makes perfect sense, because it's entirely true. Everyone is cooler by comparison to me. Enjoy being cool. By the way, I don't believe in cool, unless we're talking about a scientific measurement of heat. Why am I studying Religion?)

Anywho, long story short, I fixed our Internet connection, I will be posting reviews next week, and I am better at fixing the problems in this house than the people who will most certainly charge us for not fixing anything. And me? I'll have to clean up after dinner by way of payment.

System Failure

The past few days have been...boring.

Yes, this is another one of those woe-is-me-rants that I'm so annoying for. Well, not really. Okay, did you ever just want to talk to somebody and you can't because they've disappeared off the face of the earth? That's kind of what happened. That's made the week a lot less fun.

Also, my Internet connection keeps cutting out. We lost it four times since Monday, which kind of put a dampener on writing up a review on Wednesday. We've been trying to get it sorted. Every time the provider gets involved, things tend to get worse. Also, they're only giving us 1.8 MB broadband, when we're paying for 8. They really should have realised that a few years ago when they started receiving money from us. Now they're overcharging us and providing crappy tech support.

The biggest problem with the week is that I stopped writing. Just suddenly. No reason at all. I think I'll go on a mad one tomorrow and write a few thousand words (I am so very exciting all of the time...) Bliss, my Camp NaNo novel, is currently standing at 16000 words, while Dignity has a few thousand more (though less typed...) I want to get Bliss done quickly so I can get back to Dignity. Just needed to write something a little less...real? A Sci-Fi pretty much filled the bill, anyway.

Related to that first thing I mentioned... did you ever almost do something you might regret then have to force yourself not to be an idiot? Just me then. No matter how many times people call me smart, intelligent or any variation of the word, inevitably I will disagree with them because of one point: socially, I'm a bit of an idiot. If the various problem I've caused myself over the years aren't evidence enough of that, I almost used a loophole to get around a rule set for me on a list of things I am most certainly never allowed to do. A loophole. A God-damned loophole. They're great for some things, but not for this. So I went against the loophole, and that means I'm still stuck here wondering what on earth has made someone disappear.

Basically, it's all become a bit aggravating; the boredom of the summer is settling in as the list of things worth doing dwindles down into nothing (hence wanting to talk to the one person who has vanished). I'm still not at the stage where I'm so bored I want to go back to lectures, but I'm getting there. I think once I can get out of this slump (bad mood and exhaustion) I can get back on track to writing and to not having to resort to a blog to vent frustrations over little things in life. (I'm not frustrated at any of my friends, because I know they have lives; I'm frustrated with our Internet provider and with myself for being Sleepy and Grumpy and possibly two or three of the other dwarfs... Dopey?)

If I didn't have work tomorrow, and if my body didn't outright refuse to stay in bed, I would just sleep all day. Nothing beats Sunday morning in bed when you're tired, except maybe sleeping in your own bed after being away for a few days. Or sleeping on the ground.* I'm completely drained, I'm going to the cinema tonight and I'm fairly certain that I won't last another week of losing sleep (because of the heat and the constant muttering in my head wondering why I can't seem to make plans with the people I've seen the least all summer).

Hopefully my Internet connection won't die (again) before Wednesday so I can put up a review. And mayb,e just maybe, my slump will be gone by then.

* Yes, I have slept on the ground before. We did it in Connemara (Galway) during Transition Year. It wasn't entirely uncomfortable, though the sunrise was less of a rising sun than the sky gradually turning more bright blue, because of the altitude and the trees. Yes, we slept among trees. We were warned about badgers. That scared a couple of people. We were told to carry sticks to break if a badger bit us - they don't let go until they break a bone, apparently. Fun...

Two Years Ago

When I was eighteen, I made a decision that would change my life. Most Irish teenagers make a similar choice at this time of their lives, sixth year in secondary school, Leaving Cert leering its ugly head on the horizon and one form to fill in that would decide everything we did for the next fifty-odd years of ours lives: the CEO form.

I still remember it all, the going to different colleges for different open days. Except, for me the choice was never one that included leaving home. I wanted to go to college in Dublin. I wanted to stay close to what friends I had; at that age, I was even more socially awkward than I am now and I mostly got close to a limited number of friends in school, most of whom I still talk to on a regular basis. And of course, I didn't want to have to wake up unnaturally early to attend lectures. This also cut out Maynooth.

I went to two Open Days, looking at English courses, Journalism, Marketing, Business; really, my options were limited to my specific tastes and the subjects I was studying. Mostly. I didn't want to go into further study in design. I didn't want to study Science.

When it came to filling in the form, then, it was all to do with one of the above-mentioned courses (with the addition of Philosophy and Psychology each combined with English at Trinity College, both of which I had my reservations about because (1) I wasn't sure I was cut out for the courses and (2) I wasn't sure I would get the points.) My top three included the college where my friends from then are now all studying (the aforementioned friends I still talk to) and the college I am attending now.

Form filled in, I "only" had to sit the exams and get the points. No biggie, right? I'd be in college with my friends in no time at all. Except, when I tried to picture myself in college, the green grass I sat on wasn't in that college, and it wasn't with those friends. I never suspected I would stop talking to them, it just didn't feel like I would be spending the next four years of my academic life with them. In my mind it was a scene out of a brochure: me, a guy and a girl sitting on the grass at the college I'm now attending (my classmates will know that there are only two areas of grass in the college I have ever acquainted myself with, neither of them being the football pitch - it was the larger of the two, opposite the library.) The sun was shining, the atmosphere felt good, and I knew deep in my heart that this was what I wanted, that this would be a reality, if not so literally.

Two years ago, when I was eighteen years old, I knew that when I was studying to become a teacher I would meet two people who I would definitely be happy to spend the rest of my life talking to. (Turns out it's more than two; go figure.) Two years ago I knew I would find my best friends in a college I had yet to earn the points to get in to, had yet to receive my place on my course of choice and had yet to actually see. I just knew.

I've never told anyone that before. In my head it was going to be a dramatic speech made if times ever got hard. Literally a few hours ago I was going over it all in my head. I knew who I was talking to and I knew why it was important. Times have been hard, on and off, over the past few years of my life. I've been bullied, I've been drawn completely within myself, I've felt completely cut off from the world (last summer was horrible for that one!) and every time of late, the people in my brochure photo of an idea of college were there to help me through it. Two years ago, I knew about the cups of tea and the long talks on the phone and the hardships of starting over, and the joys that would follow, and all the happy times I would have that let me know that no matter how hard it all got, things would get better.

I don't get to see my friends so much during these months when college is out, but I always know these great and wonderful truths that life is always so much better when I can be with them. And when I can't, I fantasise, make a cup of tea and look back at all the photos taken that serve as story I've been waiting to happen to me my entire life.

A Life of Its Own

Earlier this evening I allowed my brain to decide what I was going to write, rather than writing what I had been writing all summer. It chose to write Bliss. I've had the idea for Bliss for about two years now, and when I started writing it today, it decided it was going to be a bit different than I'd planned.

See, originally it was going to be just a simple story of cross-dimensionality, neuro-transmission, androids and love - sometimes all at the same time - and now its taken on new characteristics. Without meaning to, I introduced an eco-system of poisonous cloud and venomous journalists, made a society of long-living archetypes of perfect humans, and gave my protagonist a wife who is more than just a bossy bitch as I'd originally planned. Now she's a hot blonde model. Who cares about stuff. Who thinks. She's actually amazing. For now.

The reason I'm writing this, of course, is as a warning for people who think they decide what goes into the book in the end. No, as writers we're just the people who have developed typing skills and whose brains act as the hyper-dimensional gateway for ideas to make it from the Realm of Forms into the world we live in. Essentially, I'm my book's bitch, if you want to get ghetto about it all.

But it's not just the book that takes control of the final product, and that's where this gets serious. When entering the world of publishing, first time novelists will be astonished to find out that someone wants them to change their book. Yes, it's true. There are these people called Editors who, if they existed alongside God, would have made sure things ran smoothly before we were release into the world.

Using the all powerful Red Pen, the Editors are what get a book from the submitted draft to the book on the shelves, and its entirely out of the hands of the writer. Well, they still have to do all the work the Editors suggest - and they're quite pushy, so really it's an order, not a suggestion - but they don't get to put their foot down. If they do, they generally do it without a publishing contract. C'est la vie.

Anyway, midnight is staring at me. It's giving me a threatening look, like it knows I should really be in bed by then if I want to do anything productive tomorrow. With 3440 words written on Bliss - just tonight - I think I should be able to manage Camp NaNoWriMo. I hope this book doesn't decide to take control and shut down...

Ideas Worth Keeping

I've read a lot about writing - a lot - and one thing that comes up every time is what to do with ideas when you get them. I have seen two different suggestions, and I don't agree with either one as being the best reaction to my brain churning out ideas that may or may not be of any use.

I couldn't tell you the specific books that take each side of the argument, but the two suggestions are this:

• Write down your idea the moment you get it in a little notebook so you don't forget it
• Do the exact opposite, because if you forget it it wasn't a good enough idea in the first place

The problem with the first is the very reason the second is a good suggestion: you could write down any old idea and assume it's going to be a good one. You won't know the difference when it comes to looking back over your notebook between the good ideas and the bad ideas. Of course, the problem with the second suggestion is that you may actually forget a good idea! Not everyone has a perfect memory. I generally consider myself to have a good memory, but I don't remember everything that happens all the time. Life has a habit of making thoughts become a blur.

My suggestion, while maybe not the best one, incorporates both: keep a notebook, but don't write everything down immediately. I have a small hardback notebook that I bought it in work; it fits in my pocket in work, which is perfect when I'm doing menial jobs like packing books away, if I get an idea or see or hear something that may be of use, and fits in any bag I might have with me wherever I go. But I don't just write down anything. I usually wait a day, unless it's something to add to an existing idea, or specific words I want to use, or details for somewhere to submit. If, the next morning, I can remember the idea I had the day before, I will write it down in my notebook.

This is useful for ensuring the bad ideas don't stick around - if you forget them overnight, they weren't that great - and for keeping the good ones - that really shouldn't be forgotten so quickly. Any and all opinions on this method of idea-keeping are appreciated.

Which of the two suggestions do you follow, or are you a half-way kind of person like me?

A Year in Blog Stats

One year ago, Blogger introduced stats. These allowed for people to track how many pageviews we received, where they came from, what they viewed, stuff like that. I thought it'd be fun to share stuff like that, so here's the run-down:

• I posted 151 posts since July 1st 2010 (not including this one)
• I received over thirteen thousand pageviews (I'm still shocked that anyone bothered to read anything I wrote)
• I took a two week "holiday" in August, another break at the end of September into the middle of October, then a two month break in December until February
• I posted 37 reviews of books and CDs
• I discovered several new authors
• I caused a stir with tantrums, pottermore.com and NaNoWriMo
• I was linked to a lot by two popular blogs

That's just some of it. If it wasn't midnight I'd go through more of it. However, IRL I've gone through my second year in college, continued to make amazing friends and realised how great the friends I had really were. I wrote a lot of fiction, read a lot of books and I think once or twice (or five or six or seven times) I lost my mind. (I think I found it again, somewhere.)

So, I can face another year like that, I guess. I'm still reading away, and Lord knows I have a lot of stuff to read for college next year, I have a head full of crazy ideas (really, really crazy) and I know that time and time again my friends will show me that they're even better than I first thought. Also, something really mad: I'm going to turn 21 within the next year.

Permission to feel old?

Granted. It's weird to think that this blog will be three years old in August, too. Everything's getting older, everything change, and I'm sure I'm not the same person now than I was back then. I've done Big Important Exams, met Really Cool People, changed my outlook on life and I've written more than I thought I ever would.

Do I have plans for the year ahead? Nothing's set in stone, a lot of stuff actually depends on chance. Except for the fact that I'll be reading and writing a lot. That's a guarantee.