Getting animated

I've been reliving my childhood today, and watching X-Men: the animated series. I loved this programme. It contained two of my favourite tortured souls, Wolverine and Gambit. I was always a little bleak that Gambit didn't make it into the movies, his Cajun swamp-rat attitude made a deep impression on my 12-year-old self.

Of course, my heart truly lay with Logan. I could never understand his fascination with Jean Grey, anymore than I could understand her love for Cyclops, who annoyed the crap out of me then with his goody-two shoes attitude and still does. And don't get me started on Jean's dark side. That whole Phoenix thing was just stupid. Anyway, Wolverine is your classic comic hero really - man with a past that is not entirely clear, suffering from an ongoing disability that crushes pretty much everybody he's ever loved (adamantium claws are not conducive to affection), looking for redemption.

I'm sensing a pattern in my superhero boyfriends - Batman's torturedness gets me everytime as well. The combination of deeply unhappy and trying to save the world: irresistable. That's why I always preferred him to the uber-wet Spiderman and the annoyingly perfect Superman. Bruce Wayne was at least flawed. And miserable. And rich. And hot. Ok, Christian Bale is hot, I take that back.

I was never much of a comic reader (although I appreciate the value of the graphic novel) - particularly with X-men there are so many threads and storylines that it was hard to keep track of the characters. And with K-TV's penchant for either showing the episodes out of order or repeating the same one for weeks on end, my actual knowledge of the series is a little sketchy. Thank goodness for the internet. And dvds. Now to find Conan the Barbarian and Cities of Gold.

PATTOTE: Better living through geeky nostalgia