X-Men

From Marvel Comics #1 to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and the X-Men feel fine in this week's [Celluloid Hero].

I’m an old enough nerd to remember when the first X-Men movie came out in theaters. At that time, comic books were not the number one driver of all things in popular culture. Bryan Singer’s X-Men certainly featured all the comic’s beloved heroes and villains, but there did seem like there was a concerted effort to tamp down some of their comic-book-ness. Everyone dressed in black. There was no spandex. The story was grounded in weighty real-world themes like prejudice and vengeance. It was the X-Men you knew, but watered down just a bit. It was a rum and coke, not a shot of gin. X-Men: Apocalypse, in comparison, looks like a bottle of Beefeater.

[Celluloid Hero] takes a trip into theaters for the latest X-Men movie.

Over the next few days, I'll be rolling out the Mike Krenek's 2011 Mike Krenek Awards (stylized as MK2k11MKA). Who needs the Oscars/Emmys/Tonys/Grammys/AMAs/Source Awards/Blockbuster Entertainment Awards when you have a non-credible radio show hosts' picks for the Best Of everything. My favorite film of 2011 is after the jump.