I just dropped about $45 in the Batman store at Another Universe, just on back issues, trying to plug some of the holes in my collection that I let develop over the last couple of months. I haven't even ordered this month's comics yet. The X-Men movie, and all of the publicity surrounding it, has been tempting me to get back into the X-Men comics again, but I don't really see that happening. I already spend an average of $60 a month on Batman titles, and there are almost twice as many X-Men titles each month (I could never limit myself to just a core group of favorites, I always had to have them all). Then I'd have to find time to read them all. Plus, I'd have to hunt down significant back issues that would tell me what the hell has happened to various characters (i.e. how/when did Cyclops die, when exactly and under what circumstances did Pete Wisdom take over X-Force and where the hell is Cable?). No way can I afford the time or money to take up that habit again. I suppose I'll have to just keep gleaning plot summaries from various web sites.

Or I could give up comics altogether and spend my time and money on entirely more grown-up and feminine things.

Yeah, right. That reminds me of an exchange I had the other day at a toy store. I bought a stuffed R2-D2 that beeps and whistles when you squeeze him (it's really very cool).

"Do you want it gift wrapped?" asked the clerk.

"No thanks," I replied, "he's just for me."

"Ah," said the clerk, and then, upon inspection of my check, which was from the DC Superhero series, "You're kind of into this sort of thing, aren't you?"

"Yeah," I replied, "kind of."

He nodded, handed me my bag and receipt, and I headed toward the exit, where my friend Stephanie was waiting. She asked about my exchange with the clerk. I repeated it to her.

"No wonder you don't have a boyfriend," she said.

Whatever.