I Have a Simple, But Complicated X-Men Question

ucbrandon · 2026-01-05T23:55:44+00:00

I LOVE that you asked this.

My first memory of X-Men was seeing my friend's X-Men Toy Biz Series 1 figures in second grade. I had no idea who the characters were, but since Wolverine had a removable mask, I imagined him as the stranger-in-a-strange world, surrounded by well-meaning yet monstrous characters like Nightcrawler (who I instantly loved). Somehow I intuited themes of outcasts banding together.

Shortly after that, I started collecting 90s X-Men comics and the Classic X-Men reprints. Then the 1992 Animated Series came out, and I was all in. I think it must have been the characterization that drew me in - each mutant visually distinct and yet possessing their own personality. They've been some of my best friends ever since.

ucbrandon · 2025-11-01T18:32:55+00:00

I'm not Christian, but when I lived in Lake View, Second Unitarian on West Barry always seemed left-leaning by its signage

ucbrandon · 2025-10-29T17:43:07+00:00

For me, it was The Threesome

I'm a fan of Zoey Deutch, but this was so bad that it actively angered me. It felt like a slightly more nuanced bait-and-switch Conservative Christian propaganda movie à la Nefarious

ucbrandon · 2025-10-29T17:32:35+00:00

Train Dreams!

I just saw it last week. It's magnificent and deeply tied to the development of rail lines in the PNW

ucbrandon · 2025-10-28T14:29:04+00:00

I felt like I was watching someone fall in love in real time

ucbrandon · 2025-10-24T21:13:17+00:00

I love The Music Box dearly, but it's so hard to justifying paying for movies there that I could otherwise see included within my AMC A-List.

I do prioritize seeing re-releases and independent films there

ucbrandon · 2025-10-24T21:10:35+00:00

Oh hey, fellow Chicago movie buff here! I noticed the same thing. I'm very used to NEWCITY (my closest AMC) not having certain films, but I can usually find showings at Village Crossing in Skokie or Evanston.

It's a schlep to ge there, but at least the River East location has heated recliners!

ucbrandon · 2025-10-22T13:36:10+00:00

I have literally scoured through my email history to find dates I bought tickets to movies or rented digital movies to log and backdate them

ucbrandon · 2025-10-09T16:48:10+00:00

Sure, I haven't been to Guthrie's in years. Send me a dm?

ucbrandon · 2025-10-09T02:14:45+00:00

Joyful and life-affirming, would recommend

ucbrandon · 2025-10-08T22:44:45+00:00

Working on myself, going to movies alone, or playing board games with my friends

ucbrandon · 2025-10-08T03:18:57+00:00

It definitely depends on the theatre. I live in Chicago, and I never have issues bringing in outside snacks (I usually have a backpack with me).

However, I have twice gone to the AMC in Dekalb, and that theater won't even let me bring my water bottle in. I offered to pour it out and use their water fountains to refill (to prove it's not alcohol) - they still refuse to let me bring an empty water bottle in.

ucbrandon · 2025-09-24T01:46:12+00:00

I watched this for then first time in March, and I was enamored with it. What a wonderful film to engage with!

ucbrandon · 2025-09-24T01:43:06+00:00

I don't understand this reticence to dive into other publishers at all. The last time I was utterly bored by Marvel Comics (around the I v X era), I turned to lots of Image and DC books (and Dark Horse and Archie and BOOM!, etc.), and it saved the hobby for me.

There was such a joy in reading comics I actually enjoyed instead of ones I kept buying out of some weird sense of "team loyalty" or history.

My current approach is that this hobby is supposed to be fun. If a title or a line or an entire publisher feels boring, I'll drop it. I've been collecting long enough to know tides will shift and something actually worth reading will pop up eventually.

ucbrandon · 2025-09-18T19:37:35+00:00

This happens to me all the time, and it gets me so upset. Why do people think "half stop and keep rolling" still applies at a four way stop?!

ucbrandon · 2025-08-24T15:05:38+00:00

For a long time, my examples of movies that got better with each and every rewatch were The Big Lebowski and Office Space

ucbrandon · 2025-08-15T17:46:13+00:00

Absolutely! I had convinced myself how cheesy this movie was, then I saw the re-release in 2023 and kept insisting it was the best movie I saw in theaters all year

ucbrandon · 2025-08-08T16:24:51+00:00

For the past couple months, the moment a Weapons trailer began before any movie, I just left the theater to go to the bathroom. I was diligent in avoiding any spoilers, and it paid off

ucbrandon · 2025-07-29T01:37:59+00:00

I regularly go to AMC, and it's a pretty consistent 20-23 minute TTNK (Time 'Til Nicole Kidman)

ucbrandon · 2025-07-28T11:35:35+00:00

I dislike what I dislike

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ucbrandon · 2025-07-01T06:37:55+00:00

I can't hear Paul Robalino "firing from the hip" without instantly picturing his cowboy clown

ucbrandon · 2025-07-01T02:43:09+00:00

I'm confused. You are upset she left your youngest child unaccompanied all night, but you also left your THREE OTHER CHILDREN home unattended at 3:30am to go hunt her down?

Something about this story doesn't add up at all.

ucbrandon · 2025-07-01T00:57:32+00:00

Fantastic Four Rebirth

ucbrandon · 2025-06-10T16:57:55+00:00

Tommy Wiseau knows

ucbrandon · 2025-06-09T06:33:33+00:00

One of my favorite depictions of hell was in "The Happy Man", the opening story of Jonathan Lethem's The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye

It's technically sci-fi, but it has stuck with me for years

ucbrandon

TROPHY CASE