Uh oh. Dark Phoenix. (Avengers vs. X-Men 11, Marvel Comics)

I hate to say this because I grew up reading DC Comics, but Cyclops’ fall from grace in Marvel’s Avengers vs. X-Men 11 is one of the most compelling issues I’ve read in a long while. Every page was resonant with painfully believable (if you can say that about a comic book) betrayals and agonizing attempts at redeeming an old friend — which is how I feel about my old DC favorites. The New 52 characters now feel like strangers to me opposite Slim Summer’s tragic but understandable transformation as the Dark Phoenix. He’s been drinking from the cup of power incarnate, which, thanks to his friends, makes for one, big action-packed intervention story.

AvX 11 was my only download this week. My first from the Marvel app. I just realized I’ve been downloading fewer and fewer titles from the DC app store. This new universe of…superstrangers is not working for me. Which validates my sentiment that I am not the target demographic anymore. But I’ll never forget the day my imagination exploded when I bought my very first comic book (for 5 pesos!!!), Tales of The Teen Titans 64: Interdimensional devil daddy come to claim to his teen-aged demi-demon daughter, fighting her heroic homies while laying waste to the earth from atop the old World Trade Center. But they rallied and they sent him packing, even after he dropped their Titans Tower Headquarters on their heads! Sensational story-telling from Marv Wolfman and George Perez.

Uh. Oh. Dark Raven. Wait, what is it with dark birds!?!? (Tales of the Teen Titans 64)

Since then, this has been the stuff of my (extended, ongoing) childhood.

I do miss the old Titans.

DC, I know you still have it. But, as I am getting older it’s becoming easier and easier to accept that friends, even fictional ones, do come and go. Some, they just go crazy — and even if it’s hard, all you can do is walk away.

The New Teen Titans 39