My first introduction to comics, outside of newspaper strips, was because of my older brother. At some point (I can't quite remember when) he started collecting X-Men comics. I'd go with him to the LCS (a tiny place I can still remember bits of) and I'd get Ghost Rider. I remember it just seemed cool at the time. I mean, the dude's got a flaming skull for a head, he has a chain whip and he rides a motercycle — what more could a pre-adolescent boy ask for?
I also remember really wanting to read my brother's X-Men comics but not being allowed to. I can't remember how everything fit into the timeline, but I watched the X-Men animated series and thought it was awesome (I still do). I loved the epic-ness of it and the cast of characters, each with their own powers. I've always loved fantasy and sci-fi, and I especially love magic-users. Well, many super-heroes are basically like magic-users with a small subset of spells. Of course I'd love it all.
Even though I had never read or watched anything else Marvel-related, I had gained a decent knowledge of many of the characters and some plot points. Most people (especially more recently) know a bit about Spider-Man, and, this being the 90s, I knew of Venom and Carnage and some other general plots. I had a similarly general knowledge of the other major Marvel characters, too. My DC knowledge was limited to watching Batman: the Animated Series a bit and the Batman and Superman movies (and the big hullabaloo with the death of Superman). I'm not sure I even knew there were other comic publishers, let alone non-superhero comics.
