Reflections on "This Week In X-Books"

For just over a month, I had committed to a weekly round-up of the X-Men-related comic books released by Marvel. Now I want to take a moment to reflect on how I feel that went, as I'm now at a crossroads; asking myself the question of whether to continue with that approach to posts or not.

I think, quite clearly I do not. There was a lot of good that came from that structure and I feel that I definitely improved as each week went by. Amongst other things, adding appropriate credits and reaching more interesting conclusions about the texts I was examining were things that I found myself really coming to terms with, but I can't help but feel that this structure was a failure of what I wanted this blog to be. These quickly became reviews, rather than analyses, and, while there is a fine line between the two, I want a consistent blog identity that aligns with my interests. Particularly, I am interested in the intersection between the cultural and the political. Reviews rarely give me the opportunity to delve into the ideologies and discourses surrounding these texts, partially due to how little content is in each issue, but also because I end up examining multiple issues, from different series', spanning characters and genres, in one sitting. I end up looking at how comic book issues work as individual entities, not looking into the wider culture around them or indulging in any deeper form of commentary.

A lot of my ambivalence towards continuing these kinds of posts comes down to turning this whole project into something I feel like I can proudly share across social media and to my peers. Reviews of niche media is not something I think would interest most people in my networks, but posts with more rigour and exciting commentary on contemporary culture should. It may not, but, at the very least, that is the kind of writing I'd like to be seen doing. That isn't to say I dislike commenting on "niche media", rather I want to do so in a different way. Writing pieces that are fewer in number, but of higher quality, should also allow myself to build up a broad portfolio of written work. The blog, in its current form, is currently nothing more than a sample of my writing style.

No doubt the most significant positive thing these weekly posts did for my blog was creating a consistent flow of content, so, with how I move forwards, I'll be considering how a minimum one post a week system has benefitted the state of this blog. I may simply move X-Books of the week down to a singular Book or I may force myself to work on something new and exciting on a weekly basis. I can imagine myself still doing the occasional review post, but I want the main drawing point of this project to be draped in cultural studies.


Those five "This Week In X-Books" posts show development in how I write and construct posts, but it is development in the wrong direction. While I may not completely abandon that format, I want to put more time and effort into creating higher quality pieces that I am more willing to share.


This post could be taken as a commentary on the state of X-Books released this week.