I think I accidentally reset the entire DC Universe. It’s not entirely my fault, it’s partially Jamie McKelvie’s fault, too.

 

Jamie did the AMAZING artwork for the new Art Brut album Brilliant! Tragic! Since then, he has been trying to if not convert me wholesale to from DC to Marvel, then to at least get me to expand my comic book horizons and maybe take in a different universe’s worth of Lycra-clad super people.

 

Jamie’s plan to get me was pretty simple: he lent me Grant Morrison’s run on X-Men.

 

I hadn’t really understood the X-Men growing up. I think I was always a bit confused by the fact that they weren’t fighting crime. I like the super people I read about to regularly give criminals a punch to the face, and the X-Men always seemed a bit more concerned with sorting their feelings out and having a chat in the garden of their school. They also seemed to have a leader who was a bit of a whiny prick. That Cyclops guy is unbearable; just a thoroughly unlikable fellow. In fact, I would say he is the main reason why I seldom picked up a Marvel comic during my childhood. I was worried that sanctimonious moron would pop up in one of the stories. Anyhow, I’m digressing…

 

Jamie’s plan worked, of course. Grant Morrison’s X-Men is—as Jamie well knows—unputdownable and brilliant in every way. I’m only part of the way through it, and I am already a little bit in love with Emma Frost and I especially like that Cyclops is having a pretty rum time of it. More importantly than that, it is a brilliant starting off point for me to get a handle on what X-Men is really about. Thankfully, some people do still get punched in the face now and again.

 

I fear that my enjoyment of the X-Men is what led to the DC reboot.

 

You see, Art Brut just played a run of five sold-out nights at the Lexington in London, and Jamie came down with Kieron Gillen (whose Uncanny X-Men I’m about to start reading) to see us. This was coincidentally the same day that I had finished reading the first X-Men book Jamie lent me. I was in high spirits, as it is awesome, so I thought I would change the lyrics of Art Brut’s song “DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake” to “Marvel Comics and Banana Milkshake”. As I reached the final third chorus, the tension built and I realized I’d invoked an old magic spell. There was a flash of lightening and a crash of thunder, and then the entire DC universe started again. Sort of.

 

As a caveat, I should say that Jamie hasn’t succeeded in making me switch sides to Marvel. He’s just made me appreciate something that I really should have already liked in the first place (Cyclops is still a prick though). I should also add that I’m probably not really to “blame” for the DC reboot, as I imagine they had been planning it for a while and my magic powers sadly don’t really exist.

 

 I started off a bit worried about the DC reboot—one of my favourite things about the DC universe is that it is a massive mess of contradictions that’s been unfolding for over 80 years. Over the last couple of days, though, I’ve started to get really excited about it. Jeff Lemire writing Animal Man? Fuck Yeah. | Eddie Argos