When I was a kid I loved a few comic books. I collected Superman, Batman, and the X-men. I was comfortable with the story lines, I knew the characters as if they were friends of mine.

Then, DC Comics decides to kill Superman. Not only do they kill him, but they kill him violently leaving every fan of the red and blue icon in a state of panic and sadness. This was, after all, a character that we all grew up with. Spawned television shows, movies, action figures. He was a household name.

As our inner-child’s wounds were scabbing over, here come some a few guys who try to take Supe’s place. One is Steel, another is SuperBoy who is a clone of Superman, and some strange dude with long hair and a black costume claiming to be Superman reborn. That was the last Superman I ever bought.

Okay, I bought into the alternate reality of the Kingdom Come series. But lets face it, that was some damn good art and the storyline was pretty cool. Seeing all our faves as old people and their kids.

Now let’s look at the X-men. I was there from the start, some of those older ones yellowing in plastic bags. Then, The Age Of Apocalypse happened. Shattering our current reality into some other reality where Apocalypse rules the Earth and a handful of mutants are starting a resistance.

It was a good story line. But then, when the series reached it’s conclusion and reality was to be returned to what it once was, bada bing bada boom, there are some slight changes in the characters. But they were changes I could live with for the most part.

Marvel also came up with their own future storyline with Earth X and that was a great story line as well. But then, Ultimate Marvel comes in, changing everything. Origins, team ups, secret identities, etc. Sure, some of the changes have made most of the Marvel characters hot, like the Ultimate Anaconda is less butchy and more supermodely. But seriously, the entire revamp and several different realities in the Marvel Universe is just too much for my old brain to handle. Can’t the bullpen come up with Marvel Classic Universe? Or Marvel Geezer Universe? Please?