Act 0: Prologue

[rebelpk]

I'm 30, happily married and I've never been to a comic convention.

 

I've been around the forums for a bit, I've bought some nice comics, tried to complete some collections, but I've never been to a comic convention.

 

And I've never met Stan Lee. The two kind of go hand-in-hand.

 

This year (2017), that's going to change.

 

 

The problem is, even if I had gone to a convention, I live in the UK.

 

Having someone like Stan Lee come over was rare, but not only that, a few years back, he stopped touring Europe all together.

 

So why is this so important?

 

Let me tell you a bit more about myself (yawn)...

 

I was born in South Africa and moved to Portugal when I was 6. Spoke a bit of portuguese but not that much. The first friend I got in Portugal, was the son of my grandfathers neighbour.

 

He was a few years older than me, and the first interaction I had with him was him showing me X-men toys. I had no idea who any of these characters were. He explained them to me, told me the backstories.

 

He then showed me the show he had recorded on a VHS. I was hooked! I loved it!

 

Fast-forward a few years.

 

I must have been 10 or 11. I loved going to the cinema and one day after I left the cinema I saw what looked like an American comic.

 

It was such a rarity to see those in Portugal.

 

We usually got those horrible little books. Great for reading but it never felt authentic. (image attached)

 

Anyway, saw this comic. X-Men. It was part of the Onslaught Arc.

 

I loved it. Started collecting these portuguese variants from a publisher called Devir.

 

Bought all of the X-men books I could find.

 

Marvel became 2nd Nature. I'd consume any media that was Marvel.

 

TV Movies (Generation-X), OLD movies (Punisher with Dolph Lundgren, Thor, Ferrigno's Hulk)

 

And finally, I heard it, in a Spider-man video game. Excelsior! The man himself. That voice, slightly raspy. Recognisable, friendly, familiar.

 

I become a Stan Lee fan.

 

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