My friend tried to explain the X-Men timeline to his grandma at a family BBQ

Last Sunday, my buddy Mark was at his family cookout in Cincinnati and his grandma asked him what he was reading. He spent 45 minutes trying to explain the whole Dark Phoenix Saga, alternate timelines, and the Krakoa era. She just kept nodding and finally said, 'So it's like a soap opera with lasers?' Honestly, what's the best way you've found to explain a complicated comic story to someone who doesn't read them?

3 comments

3 Comments

grantschmidt28d agoMost Upvoted

Forty five minutes is impressive honestly. I used to think you had to get every detail right for people to understand comics. But last year my neighbor asked me about the new Spider-Man movie and I started explaining the whole multiverse thing. About two minutes in he just says "So it's like if every decision you ever made happened somewhere else at the same time." That stopped me cold. He was more right than my ten minute explanation would have been. Grandma's soap opera line actually gets to the heart of it better than most fans ever could. Sometimes the simplest answer is the best one.

danielr941mo ago

Grandma nailed it with the soap opera line though. What did Mark even say back to that?

jade_singh1mo ago

Remember my aunt said something like that at Thanksgiving once. She told my cousin his love life was like watching a bad hospital drama. He just stared at his plate and mumbled about needing more gravy.