X is for X-Men

It was so hard to think of a topic for X, but then a blog post from Writing Rockstar Meg Cabot about her reading choices had me thinking about X-Men.

In case you couldn't tell from the blog title, I am a little obsessed with superheroes. I am, however, a bonafide Marvel lover. To me they can do no wrong. Don't get me wrong, I love Smallville and Batman (You did know Batgirl was a librarian, right?). Plus I am very excited for all the superhero films coming out this summer, but DC just doesn't hook me the way Marvel does.

My ultimate favorite are the X-Men and my favorite pairing is Jubilee and Wolverine (the whole movieverse thing had me disappointed for a while, at least my girl was in the director's cut). When I was in high school and college I used to read fanfiction based on the series. My favorite site was WolverineandJulbilee.com. The fanfiction is no longer up, but the site still sits there in honor of the best comic duo ever (yes, I wanted them to hook up. JeanGrey is just a skanky two-timer who can't make up her mind). The website creator, Marjorie M. Liu, went on to become a published author in her own right (New York Time Bestseller in fact!) and her books do have some x-factory goodness to them.

When I was student teaching, I had a student who wrote X-men fanfiction. It was pretty good, but the cooperating teacher thought she was wasting her time. I wish more teachers would recognize the value of comics in encouraging readers and writers who do move on to more challenging stuff (not to mention that there are some really deep topics covered in comics that can be just as challenging as anything to be found in a classic).