by Marty Coffey

Created on: April 27, 2010

I grew up as a Marvel Comics reader.  I may have missed what some people would call Marvel's heyday, or the “Silver Age” of the comic industry.  This was the period in the early to mid-sixties that saw the introduction of characters like Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and many more that I still read and collect to this day.  However, I believe that every era of Marvel has been fantastic in its on way, and I'm glad I grew up when I did, in the “Copper” or “Modern Age” of the eighties and nineties.  I believe the first comic book I ever owned was a copy of Alpha Flight #10, cover dated May 1984.  It was given to me by an older cousin, who had quite a collection himself.  It was a few years later when I really decided to get into comics though, around 1991.  My mom came home from the grocery store and gave me a four-pack of X-Men comics, containing Uncanny X-Men #281, X-Factor #71, X-Force #1 & X-Men Vol. 2 #1, if memory serves.  This was a great time for the X-Men, as the introduction of new creative talent and new team line-ups breathed new life into the books.  From then on, I was hooked.  The X-Men and Spider-Man cartoon series that began on Fox around that time also helped to cement my obsession.

Comics seemed to be everywhere.  I could buy comics at the drug store, the gas station, and at all the yard sales and flea markets I went to with my parents.  Comics were always a topic of discussion among my friends, as well.  I remember reading and trading issues with kids at school and day care.  One thing that set me apart from my friends though, was my fanatical devotion to only Marvel.  My aforementioned cousin and friends were equally interested in DC, and even the newly formed Image Comics and other smaller publishers.  But for some reason, I started with Marvel and stuck with them.  I don't have any particular problems with other comic companies.  I just love the Marvel characters, and I guess I'm brand loyal.  Even now, only about a quarter of a percent of my comic collection is anything other than Marvel.  So it was that for the better part of a decade during my childhood, I rarely missed an issue of the major Marvel titles.

After a brief period in late high school and early college of thinking I was too cool for comics (a mistake, no doubt), I started back around the time of Grant Morrison's groundbreaking run on the X-Men.  Things had changed; the general tone of comics were darker, and comics were less popular and harder to find.  However, I got to know my local comic shop very well, and also discovered the Internet as a tool for buying comics.  Nowadays I'm even more interested than I was when I was a kid.  Again, I rarely miss an issue of the major Marvel titles.  For the past several years, mostly under the guidance of writer Brian Michael Bendis, Marvel has seen a new renaissance period, with deep, complex storylines that have kept fans on the edge of their seats.  Even now, moving into their “Heroic Age,” it seems Marvel's best days are still ahead of them, and I am definitely along for the ride.  There may come a day in the future when in some impetuous attempt to “grow up,” or some desperate need for cash, I sell my long boxes and finally bid these characters farewell, but I don't foresee that happening anytime soon.

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