So I'm to this whole blog thing so please forgive me If I deviate from the topic at hand. My name is Chris and I'm 25 years old.

Ever since I was a little child, I had always had an interest in comics. While the interest waned from time to time, it was there in some shape or form one way or another. I was introduced to comic books by my brother who was introduced by my uncle. My brother was very much into the X-Men and I kind of just read whatever my brother had bought. One of the earliest comics I remember reading was a comic book called X-Factor who at the time was written by Peter David. While looking back on it now, I didn't really understand a lot of what was happening (being under 10) I was immediately hooked on all of those characters.

While it wasn't the first comic I had read, the first comic I remember really enjoying and really knowing I love this genre was X-Factor #95. I remember the cover and grabbing it from my brother's room and my interest immediately perked up. A woman with long green hair was floating on the right of the cover staring menacingly at this large grotesque grey man with a cigar falling from his mouth and a bandanna atop his head. Not to mention that his hands looked like a turret and he was ready to start firing. All it said on the cover was Random vs Polaris and I was instantly thrown into the story. The green haired woman, I would come to find out, was named Polaris and had the same exact power as Magneto who was one of the X-Men's biggest foes. Her visual instantly resonated with me when I saw her as I loved anything green as a child. As I grew older, my enjoyment of her character would only grow as I'd have seen her days being corrupted by the villainous Malice, the rest of her tenure on X-Factor showing her strong political views and her days training in Genosha under the Master of Magnetism himself.

And this was only the beginning. From Polaris and X-Factor, I finally had holiday money to spend on comics of my own. And I went nuts whenever it was Wednesday. When I looked at the comic book store I couldn't believe how many comics there actually were and how much of a selection I actually had. My brother and I were Marvel only for our entirety of growing up all of our purchases came from the House of Ideas. And from there on out I made sure to explore a lot of the Marvel Universe besides the X-Men that my brother had covered and found favorites in the Avengers, Venom, the New Warriors and Ms.Marvel to name a few.

I just visited the comic book store today after years of never really shopping in one and it really brought back a lot of memories of me as a kid sifting through the back issue pile of X-Factor or Venom on tippy toes. As I found myself picking my first few DC comics with the recent launch of their New 52 with the Flash and Batwoman, I couldn't help but feeling nostalgic of buying my first Marvel comics when I was little. And so starts another cycle. At least this time I don't have to mooch off of my brother. :)

And that was my trip down Memory Lane.