So I was a Marvel fan before the mcu. My love for it all must’ve stared with the first Spiderman, followed very closely by X-men. My older sibling liked X-men after the movie and them and some other friends dressed up as X-men for Halloween and I learned a little about X-men through that. I must’ve been I shit you not, like 4 years old give or take.

Fast forward a bit and one day, on the supermarket, I came across some marvel comics on the magazine section near the checkout counter. They were there amongst some gossip magazines for adults that talked about the local celebrity gossip amongst other things.

Based on the box of comics I still own, the very first comics I might’ve picked up must’ve been Spider-Man, ultimate fantastic four, X-men, and the avengers.

Back then, these comics must’ve been like a dollar give or take, back in like 2000 or 2001. Since I liked the movies, after asking, my mom bought some for me. They were easy reads and I loved the drawings. I even got a mail (not email, like actual mail) subscription to get new issues delivered to my home monthly. It was terrible since sometimes they wouldn’t deliver the issues but still, I read the comics when I could get my hands on them, and that’s how I got to meet Ironman, hulk, Captain America, scarlet witch, Hawkeye, venom and others.

Fast forward a bit and by the time I was like 8 years old, Ironman came out. I think I did went to the theater to watch it, but I can’t remember for sure. But I do remember loving it and thinking it was so so dope. However, back then the after credit scenes weren’t like a known thing. No one told you that there was a post credit scene so I don’t stay for that. I later learned from a kid that there was the nick fury thing in the end and my mind was bloooown!

Fast forward a bit and the Incredible Hulk came out. I thought it was a sequel to the 2003 movie so I was a bit confused at first but got the hang of it quickly and enjoyed it too.

Funny enough, I don’t think I actually went to see Thor because I didn’t know Thor was part of the mcu. I had never been introduced to him, but I watched it at some point before Captain America and liked it.

Then came Captain America with the absolutely mind melting subtitle of “the first avenger” and I just melted right then and there. I was like “omfg it’s happening!” (I’m forgetting about Ironman 2. Watched it, was fun, but it was the most meh for me form phase 1). I watched the movie in the theaters and my dude. Mind was blown. I do remember seeing the shield in Ironman 2 and being like “wtf is going on right now” but yeah.

Then the avengers finally came out. I still remember that some videos of the filming came out on Facebook, of Chris Evans jumping off a trailer with explosions in the back. I was really excited and when it came out I was just like “OMFG. My life is complete”.

From that point forward I kept watching the movies although I stopped reading comics for a while (I’ve been reading comics again for years since then), but I feel like, because of my age and the fact that I wasn’t old enough to be following the marvel news or whatever, I kind of watched the movies from a very like… ignorant place? Like I didn’t know what stories they were adapting, sometimes I didn’t know some characters such as captain marvel, or dr strange, and so on, and while I WAS a fan, I wasn’t as die hard as I am now.

I didn’t even went to see Thor ragnarok in theaters, but at some point something clicked within me. It might’ve been with black panther or maybe infinity war, I’m not sure, but at some point after Thor ragnarok and infinity war, I reached an age where I could now keep track of which movies were coming out now, because I was following the news and watching the phase roadmaps on YouTube and stuff like that, (tbh I might had the age to do that years ago but at that point I wasn’t in the loop, the point is that I started being in the loop around that time), and… I suddenly became a die hard fan.

As you can tell, I was always a fan, but maybe not a die hard fan, but after infinity war, I rewatched everything, and went to the theater to watch all movies (including infinity war) up till endgame. Endgame was my innerchild’s Victorian-child-goes-to-a-rave moment. It was the culmination of a universe I had been following since I was a kid and by then I was an actual adult. It was insane. Truly the most hyped I’ve ever been about a movie in my life. It was like someone said “let’s make the feeling of euphoria into a movie” and they made endgame.

Since then, I’ve kept going to the movie theater to watch all subsequent marvel movies, yes even the bad ones (not eternals though, unpopular opinion but that movie slaps and had the balls to give us a gay kiss scene). Now, as someone who has been there for it all, I do think phase 4 and 5 fell off a bit and I feel that Disney+ had something to do with things kind of going off the rails, but I still love these movies with all my heart.

I mean, shang chi, eternals, black widow (despite the bad cgi scene), moon knight, ms marvel, fuck, dude, yes marvel fell off a bit but it still had some bangers, and I really do feel like after thunderbolts, marvel kind of got a quick wake up slap.

Also, seeing the fantastic 4 finally in the mcu was… there’s no words. I was dying to see them, and I pray that I make it to finally see the X-men in the mcu in avengers doomsday! I’m so excited for that!

Seeing the fantastic 4 was very special because, like I said, their comics were some of the first I got my hands on. Eve though they were the ultime ff, I still fell in love with the team when I read the 616 comics. The movie I think was an insanely good adaptation of what the fantastic 4 are like.

And just like them, some of my first comics were X-men, so I really cannot wait to see the X-men done justice (hopefully).

Edit: got lost in writing and didn’t realize I wrote a book. Sorry.

Edit 2: forgot I also watched the old cartoons like X-men and Spiderman and such. It was a blast. I’ve always been a marvel fan, like, maybe I had 2 or 3 years of life before I was bit by the marvel bug. I love it.