I haven’t read X-Men comics in at least a decade, if not
longer. I would be hard-pressed to tell you if I’ve even read a single issue from this century, to be honest. But I do keep up with the news of X-Men the same way
that I keep up with what my ex-wives are doing these days – I used to care a
lot more, but I’m still curious. At the very least, I figure that I’ll hear
about current developments on Jay and Miles Explain the X-Men at some point in
the future.
I mention all of that to explain why I knew that it was a big deal that
Jonathan Hickman was going to be writing the X-Men. And why I knew that in the
new Hickman-written book, House of X, Moira MacTaggert was now a mutant who has lived several lives, reincarnating again and again to change things in her next life.
That's an interesting plot twist.
And then I saw on Twitter that author Claire North was
noting similarities between that plot and the plot of her 2014 book, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.
I did not see that coming.
I did find the interview that Jonathan Hickman did with The Beat back in 2016,
where he mentions The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August as a book that he’s
currently reading and currently enjoying.
No word as of yet whether anyone has pointed this out to
Hickman or Marvel, or gotten a response if they did. But it’s certainly something worth noting. Because Claire
North has certainly noted it.
So sorta this. I mean, maybe it's just a loving and honourable coincidence of tangled ideas? But it feels like a rip off right now, and I'd be curious to know where the line between "honouring" and "are you kidding" lies. https://t.co/liyvtkq5ir— Claire North (@ClaireNorth42) August 8, 2019
More to follow, I'm sure.
Why is this here? It's a long story. Mike Rhode first introduced himself to me when I first started vending at SPX. Over the years, we've talk to each other at Comic conventions around the DC area and never quite get around to sitting down for lunch.
When I moved to Arlington two years ago, I didn't realize that Mike lived within a mile of my building. Nor did I realize that he lived next door to my ex-girlfriend's friend from college. We also discovered, by accident that we work two buildings away from each other, because we work in adjacent organizations. The world is a very small place, sometimes.
It really feels that way when I run into Mike at the local farmer's market. Naturally, that's when I pitch him article ideas. I'm reading the entire run of Heavy Metal in public (in blog format) because I happen to own the entire run of Heavy Metal. This means that I'm engaged in an ongoing study of the magazine. In addition, I have a diverse and idiosyncratic reading list that tends towards the weird corners of comics history. Sometimes one circumstance or another results in long articles that I don't really have anyplace to put. Mike has been gracious enough to let me publish them here.
In summary: this is an article about comics from someone in the DC area.
