Call me an old fogey, but I’ve been attending hardcore and pseudo-hardcore shows for close to a decade, spent many sweaty nights at L’X and Café L’Inco during my time, and have come to watch the scene somewhat closely, and during that time, I’ve noticed the degeneration of “the scene” (as the kids refer to it as) into a muddled mess of wayward children who care more about their bandanas and cool kicks (often looking like a terrible biker gang than true fans of the music they’re there to listen to.) Although this has been happening for years, Thursday night served as a reminder of the disintegration of a once-enjoyable genre of music ruin

On April 17th I threw on my well worn, black t-shirt bearing a lightning bolt down the front -a shirt that has survived countless brutal slams in the pit and has been soaked in buckets of other people’s sloppily spilt beer. Wearing this shirt out could only mean one thing: I was going to a metal show.  

On May 21st, seasoned metal veterans Testament played to a packed crowd at Metropolis, with openers Unearth.

So maybe this one was a little late, but late is frequently better than never (and lets be honest here...late releases are something comic readers should be used to right now.) To make it up to you though, not only have we got some reviews of some of the best comic books to land in the month of February (New Avengers #50 and Eternals #8) from some of CJLO's best and brightest comic dorks, but we also have we have the hilariously jaded debut of "THIS MONTH IN THE X-VERSE!" That's right, curious what the X-Men were up to this month? ALL of them?

Every Wednesday, CJLO's resident comic dorks bring you the best in whats new and good in the world of comic books. However, since this is our first feature, we figured we'd throw you a bone with a ten point breakdown of the Marvel Comics Universe circa 2009 that may be necessary to understand some of the finer points of our rants...so, without further ado..

1. There was a Civil War amongst the Heroes that divided them into two factions.

      a. Registered Heroes recognized by the US government  - Mighty Avengers