Hot take: Binging the entire Dark Phoenix saga in one night was a mistake

I collected all the X-Men comics from the 80s run on Ebay and tried to read through the whole Dark Phoenix storyline in one sitting last Saturday. By issue 8 my brain was fried and I realized I mixed up which character betrayed who. Has anyone else ruined a classic run by trying to speed through it?

3 comments

3 Comments

holly_sanchez752mo ago

Yeah I used to think speed reading through a series was the best way to go. But I tried doing the same thing with the Death of Jean Grey and by the end I couldn't keep track of who was a clone or not. It totally changed my mind about binging comics. They're really meant to be enjoyed one issue at a time so you can let each story beat sink in. Now I force myself to space out the big arcs over a few days at least.

the_ryan2mo agoMost Upvoted

Yeah I learned that lesson the hard way too. Now I keep a sticky note inside my longbox with the date I finished each issue so I know when I can pick up the next one. For something like Hickman's X-Men run I actually set a timer on my phone - 48 hours minimum between issues. Makes a huge difference when you're dealing with time travel or alternate reality stuff.

grantadams22d ago

And the pacing thing is huge too, not just for keeping track of clones but for the artwork. When I binged through a whole arc of Immortal Hulk in one night I realized I was just flipping past all these really detailed horror panels. You miss so much of what the artist is doing when you're just trying to get to the next plot point. I started using sticky notes to mark pages I wanted to look at again later.