Comic Books and Graphic Novels

So for some reason or other last night -- I suddenly got nostalgic about the X-men. And decided to see if there were any comics I could grab electronically to read on my ipad. This lead me down a rabbit hole of sorts...the series has become insanely twisted. Everyone has done horrific things. (Also how many times have they killed off Professor Xavier now?) Poor Cyclops. Apparently he gets infected by the Phoenix Force and kills Professor Xavier. Which results in a rift between him and Emma Frost. Their romantic relationship apparently has ended. Not that I cared that much about it, one way or the other.

The character also becomes a bit of an anti-hero and joins up with Magneto. So that Beast, decides to go back in time and bring the teenage versions of the original X-men forward - hopefully to make their adult versions see the light? This does not quite work out as planned. Instead, according to the plot summaries, which feel a bit like reading the plot summary of daytime soap opera, Jean breaks up with Cyclops once she finds out what happens to their adult selves, Cyclops takes off with his father Corsaire into space (because honestly why would he bother sticking around for this dark and depressing future?), and Jean, upset over it, attempts to proposition the older version of Cyclops, who refuses her advances. (Because seriously? Been there done that one too many times.)

The problem with long-running serials is the writers either repeat themselves, take the story to a really dark place, write themselves into corners, throw characters off cliffs just to see if they can redeem them or bring them back again ad naseum. Also characters have a funky way of dying then being resurrected repeatedly. To the point that it is hard to get overly upset when they kick the bucket.
As for relationships? They don't last. They get together. They break apart. They get together. They cheat on each other. They break apart. They are together again. Anyone who watches or reads a serial figures out at a certain point not to ship any of the characters relationships, in self-defense.

So, I bought Funhome by Alison Beidel on kindle, which is not a superhero comic and has zip to do with the X-men. Nor is it a serial. So no rabbit hole. Also cheap - $5.99. X-men volumes are between $10.99-30.00.

And I'm debating buying House of M ($10.99)- which apparently changed everything in the Marvel verse. [ETA: I bought it - it was only $6.99.]Also debating buying Second Coming and Messiah Complex...along with Uncanny Revolotion...and All New X-men one...except for one problem, the damn story goes on forever. I don't enough money or time to invest in this. And I'm not sure I want to dive into the comic serial rabbit hole again. You can spend a mint following these stories and be deeply unsatisfied at the end of it. However, Cyclops was my favorite character - and I'm intrigued by the idea of a dark edgy Cyclops. (Yes, I know, you probably thought it was Wolverine or Kitty Pride aka Shadowcat. But no. Close second was Magneto. Really found Magneto to be interesting. On the female end of the spectrum, I liked Jean Grey, Rogue, Mystigue, and Storm (not in the movies - she was horribly written in the movies)) Used to have lengthy discussions about this with friends in college - we'd debate which character was the most interesting. (I was the minority, no one liked Cyclops. Sigh.)

Also debating reading the Buffy comics (post S8, already read that and got rid of them). Except that is another rabbit hole that I'm not sure I want to throw money down. It goes on and on and on...I'm wondering if I can just skip over S9, and start with S10? Flist seems to like season 10, they really didn't like Season 9.

I looked for Brian K. Vaughn's Saga series on Kindle, but alas, not available.

Any suggestions?

X-men and Buffy comics and writing sci-stories...

( current cultural obsession )

[ETA: Ugh. I can't seem to write anything without skipping words. I don't know what is up with that.
I'll re-read what I wrote and go, wait, what happened to that word? I know I wrote it. It's almost as if my brain is moving faster than my fingers can type. Or it thinks my fingers are typing the word and they aren't. I need another pair of eyes and apparently fingers. Does this happen to anyone else or is it just me?]