And now for a guest post from our popular podcasting pal, Kiley:

It was hard not to be an “X-Fan” growing up in the late 80’s & early 90’s. With Marvel’s great crossover events, such as The Mutant Massacre and, to a lesser extent, Fall of the Mutants, it seemed there was nowhere to go but up! Chris Claremont then re-booted X-Men in 1991 with, what the fan boys believed to be, super star artist Jim Lee. All around, the fan boys couldn’t be happier. Then, BAM!, it turned ugly. It was as if you became a geek getting one of the biggest wedgies! Year after year Marvel could not put out a comic that wasn’t a X-title. I don’t know about the other people out there, but I became very bored, very quickly and quit reading anything with an “X” in the title. It wasn’t until nearly a decade later that Marvel rekindled my love for the mutant universe with Grant Morrison’s New X-Men storyline.

Now, I have a love hate relationship with Mr. Morrison’s comic book writing style. The man has done great work, i.e. Arkham Asylum, WE3, and Hellblazer, but then it is followed by some truly horrific work, i.e. Batman R.I.P., All Star Superman and Final Crisis (I know many people may disagree with the All Star Superman, but remember, it is just my opinion). New X-Men may have revived my love for Marvel’s mutant books, but the problem with the series was it ended terribly. For example, it was great ending to the series when we found out that the character Xorn was revealed to be Magneto, which then led to Wolverine, not even hesitating, separating Magneto’s head from his body! This was the greatest X-Men story ever, well, until Marvel revealed that Wolverine did not actually kill the real Magneto, and yet again, ruining the X-Universe for me.

In the last few years, I have begun picking up some X-titles (call me a sucker). I got lucky. From the beginning, X-Force and X-Factor have been top-notch titles. Then I went along for the ride when Marvel connected these series with the crossover event, Necrosha, which in my humble opinion, was Marvel’s feeble attempt to cash in on DC’s Blackest Night event. Needless to say, the story seemed very forced and badly written. They even threw in X-Men: Legacy, which had nothing to do with the story lines of  X-Force and X-Factor. Marvel seemed to have the what-the-hell attitude and just shoved into the crossover as chapters, but I digress.
Once again, I was almost done with the X-Universe. Well, that is until I got my hands on a copy of the 1st issue of the mutant crossover event, Second Coming. Now, I am trying to do reviews on recent books and that this series ended last week, but this story just grabbed me by the nuts and pulled me (with a huge grin on my face) all the way to the end of the crossover! This is the way an X-Men crossover is meant to be!

You start with the mutant population in the triple digits trying to survive, while a small group of evil doers decide it’s time to exterminate the mutants once and for all! This crossover also brought back the villains I loved from the good old days, Bastion, Bolivar Trask, William Stryker, Graydon Creed and Cameron Hodge.
Marvel also grew some balls and killed off a couple of major heroes in the X-Men Universe. Plus, they mutilated and seriously maimed others, always a fan boy favorite! I am not giving any more details to avoid spoiling it for anyone who has not read the series, but I strongly urge everyone out there to try to track down the issues that comprise the story line of X-Men: Second Coming.

Now, I know what those of you who disagree with me are starting to think, but I am way ahead of you! I understand that in the world of comics these “killed-off” characters will eventually return from the dead, but until then, I think that Second Coming has been the best X-Men event in decades. Just enjoy it for now knowing we can all bitch about their resurrections when they inevitably come to pass!

Now that I finished with the good, let us get to the “What to AVOID.” You read above that All Star Superman, Batman R.I.P., and Final Crisis were three DC Comic series NOT read. I mean, why DC thought it was a good idea to trust Grant Morrison to these money-making series is beyond me. Seriously, Grant Morrison should be paying me back the money I spent on those books. Those books that were poorly written; had painfully, long-winded, pointless dialogue; and my favorite, indecipherable storylines.

But can we really forget Marvel and their newest “What to AVOID” comic … the new X-Men #1! By purchasing this, yet another painful Marvel re-boot, at $3.99 you get … wait for it … Vampires! Yup, Marvel follows up the great, nut grabbing Second Coming event by sending their band of merry mutants to battle … ugh … vampires. Un-freakin’-original vampires! Need I say more?