10 Years of In Third Person: My Comic Book Phase

I was late to the comic book party. Though characters like Batman, Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Ninja Turtles have played an integral role in my life throughout my existence, I experienced them primarily through other forms of media, such as TV, film, and video games. For most of my life, this was enough.

Around the time Steff started reading comic books, I joined her as well. Between two omnibuses and a copy of All New X-Men Vol. 1, I began my quest to catch up on decades of stories I missed while keeping up with the current threads. Much of my journey was documented on In Third Person, right down to the moment where I bailed out from the scene.

It was an interesting point in the history of the site. With my interest in video games waning, I was looking for something new. Board games and comic books filled that void. I really enjoyed the process of mining decades of comic book material to see where some of my favourite characters came from and what adventures they went on before I gave them the time of day. In particular, I feel a lot better having read some of the most pivotal arcs in the Chris Claremont run of X-Men.

Some of the modern stuff was great, too! I still keep up with Saga, as this modern mash-up of Romeo & Juliet with Star Wars is always an entertaining read. Also have a soft spot for Wonder Woman by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang. Never really gave Diana Prince the time of day, but that 36-issue run was fantastic and gave me a whole new appreciation for the character.

No shortage of good memories with the medium, but I still don’t see myself diving back in with any sort of seriousness, whether that’s reading or writing about it. It can be a costly medium to keep up with, especially if you want physical issues at the time of release. A service like Marvel Unlimited would be awesome, except that I can’t for the life of me read comics on a screen. Never felt right and I’m too much of an old man to adapt now. I would also need to find my voice, as I couldn’t break beyond the most rudimentary criticism of, “I like the pictures and the writing.”

It was an odd time for the site, as there’s this year worth of comic content that just darts itself into a decade of gaming posts. Hope you found value in that work. For now, I’ll read an trade paperback here and there and keep what few comic exploits I have to myself until the time is right.