The last time I saw Charles Xavier, he was being blown into his individual atoms. Literally.
Back in 2006, the wheelchair-bound leader of the X-Men mutant clan was caught in the mental grasp of psychic Jean Gray, who was going insane at the time and turning into Dark Phoenix. Using only her mind, she poofed Xavier into oblivion in "X-Men: The Last Stand."
Shawn Ryan
Yet here he was alive in the new film "Logan," although he was in a much-diminished state and suffering from his own mental problems.
So how he got from atoms to upright, I have no idea.
Then again, I haven't seen "X-Men: First Class" or "X-Men: Days of Future Past" or "X-Men: Apocalypse" or "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" which, along with the post-credits scenes - don't ever leave the theater anymore until the lights come up - would explain all of it. I guess.
These days, keeping up with all the ins and outs of movies based on comic books is like, well, reading comic books. There are integrated stories that interweave among the various characters, the movies and the shared universes in which the characters live. These complicated stories get even denser with each new movie.
It seems you can't go to the movies anymore without a spreadsheet and CliffsNotes - and that's provided you've seen all the movies in a particular comic universe. And those universes are huge.
For Marvel movies, there's Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, the Avengers, Ant-Man and Spider-Man, who's usually a standalone character but showed up in "Avengers: Age of Ultron."
"Guardians of the Galaxy" fits into the whole Avengers milieu, as will the upcoming "Black Panther." And undoubtedly Doctor Strange and the in-development Captain Marvel will, too.
Then there are the X-Men, and let's not forget the DC comic world.
Money talks in a thunderous voice, and the money grossed by these films worldwide, especially Marvel's, is astounding. At last count, Marvel had earned more than $18 billion - that's billion with a "B." On just the ones released since 2000, including such off-the-ranch films such as "Constantine" and "Jonah Hex," DC has raked in $6 billion.
Understanding all the intricacies of these film series is something of a cool-kids' club. You must have seen all the films, stuck around for the after-credit scenes, even read tidbits on blogs and other online sites.
For those who only want to go to certain films for a couple of hours of entertainment, well, that can be had with caveats. Along with Xavier's resurfacing in the R-rated "Logan," there were references to past movies that made you wonder what had happened, if you hadn't seen them.
But if you glossed over those moments and just went with the flow, the film was grim and raunchy and bloody and quite good, especially in its character development. It seemed to end some things on a very final note, but in comics you never can tell.
Contact Shawn Ryan at sryan@timesfreepress.com.