Second Adolescence

Re-living Middle School Obsessions in Mid-life

(Cover art from X-men #1 by Marvel Comics)

I recently used my son’s burgeoning interest in superheroes as a springboard to revisiting my own X-Men obsession from my late elementary- to middle school years.

I bought some collections on Kindle and IRL and have been paging through them obsessively. I remember the artwork of Jim Lee being a revelation. The heroes looked so cool. They had personalities. It has to be said… the X-ladies were very hot. I wanted to be their friend and their ally in saving the world.

This might be stretching the utility of generalization, BUT I’m going to do it. It seems like many of the common midlife crises follow a similar pattern: some interest or desire that occurred in adolescence, that had lain long dormant gets rekindled. Often, they are elemental human needs that had been successfully sublimated but now come rearing back in all the intensity of when we first start coming online as hormonal beings: trying to find an attractive sex partner outside of marriage, buying an unnecessarily fast, flashy and impractical car, sporting new clothing to make oneself feel cool and attractive, etc.

With the X-Men, I like to flatter myself that I am finding something a little deeper- an aesthetic interest that inspired very specific and good feelings in me. I am now thinking of exploring some other things from my early years to search for similar feelings. It does seem to hint that there might be something there — a mission not undertaken, a task not complete — that my adolescent mind unearthed for the first time and my adult self has not yet gotten to. It may be worth pursuing, or it may end up being childish. But, for now, it seems fun and harmless.

To imitate (X-Men creator) Stan Lee’s usual send-off - Excelsior!