Batman Saves The Day

I was an all-or-nothing child. Things were either perfect or horribly defective. There was no in-between. There were no shades of gray. My worldview was formed by a need to survive. We moved often, and every time I made friends, I had to leave them and make new ones. My little ego had to form some sort of outer shell to confront the world, because rejection of some form was always just around the corner. If I was perfect, then all would be right with the world. If someone hurt me, I cut them out of my life completely. This does not make for a great social life.

I found solace in books. Lots and lots of books. I read until my head hurt. It was safer to escape in a book like Half Magic or The Secret Garden than to try to make new friends. After I had read every single book in the kid's section of the library on base, my parents started buying me comic books to read. Those were cheaper, my mother said, and I didn't seem to mind reading them over and over.

That's where I found Batman. I adored the Dark Knight from the very first issue I read. He was the only superhero I knew at the time who didn't actually have any superpowers. By sheer will, Bruce Wayne made himself into a hero, the World's Greatest Detective. He was intelligent, but in a way that I had never considered before--he was street smart. Bruce Wayne understood the heart of darkness that is in all of us because it was in his heart as well. He IS the heart of darkness. Batman knew what was out there, and he was ready for it.

Batman isn't really an all-or-nothing type of character, except that he never intentionally kills anyone. He doesn't always do the right thing. Sometimes he is willing to break laws to catch the criminals. He scares the bejeebers out of people on purpose. Technically he IS a criminal, a vigilante. Batman takes the law into his own hands on a regular basis, if it suits his purposes. For Batman, right is relative; the world is full of shades of gray. The ends, getting criminals off the streets, justify the means.

Batman wasn't perfect, but he was still a hero. He certainly changed my perspective. Maybe the world isn't black and white, I realized. All-or-nothing people don't live long in this world. Those comics inspired me: what was I doing hiding in my room? Just because someone I thought was my friend hurt me today didn't mean that they would do the same thing tomorrow. I needed to be out there. I needed to experience the world, learning as much as I could, so I could be ready for anything.

Like Batman. Except for the cape. I don't do capes.

It's Thorsday

My husband is a HUGE comic book superhero geek. While I know who some of the bigger names in the Pantheon, my husband can recite the superhero family tree in minute, exacting, detail. Without looking anything up.

He's been excited about seeing the new movie Thor. Very excited. What he's been most excited about has been the idea of seeing the movie with his son. Which I happen to think is very cool.

However, I had to be the rain on the proverbial parade. I had concerns regarding this particular field trip.

Concern about my son's age and the resulting attention span of 1/10000th of a second.

Concern about the darkness of the theater once the movie starts.

Concern that Zane will raise a ruckus because he doesn't want to sit still in his seat.

Concern that the other patrons attending will smite us for ruining their viewing experience when Zane throws a fit.

Concern that the loud volume of the movie will scare Zane.

Concern that there might be inappropriate language, or worse...boobies.

Concern that some of the 'monsters' in the movie would scare Zane.

Concern that in the dark, Zane will fall down the stairs if he runs off.

Did I mention that I had concerns? I am the party pooper in my family, sad duty that it is.

Larry listened to all of my concerns very attentively and thoughtfully. Then he told me that he still wanted to take Zane to see Thor. I was incredulous.

Did he not hear all of my completely logical reasons for not taking Zane to the movie theater?

He will eventually be going to the movies at the theater, Larry pointed out, so why not get him started now?

I countered with my final fear that if we had to leave the theater with Zane because of his behavior, we would be out the money we had spent on the tickets.

Zane himself has been ambivalent much of the time. Sometimes if you ask him if he wants to see Thor, he says that he wants to see it. Other times, he says that no, he does not want to see Thor.

Larry stuck to his guns, and he had a plan. He would keep an eye on Zane during the movie, and if Zane becomes rambunctious, he would be the one to take him out of the theater. We will go to the earliest possible show, so there won't be 400,000 people in the theater, Larry told me. That was before we found out that many theaters would be showing the film in 3D. No way would Zane wear the glasses; he doesn't like anything covering his face. Finally,Larry found a movie time that wasn't 3D, at 11:30.

Today is the day. It has been officially deemed "Thorsday" by my husband, and Zane has concurred. Keep your fingers crossed that we at least make it through the opening credits.

Inner Sanctum

My husband is looking for certain action figures for my son to play with. He's been a little OCD about it, looking them up online, bidding on eBay, and driving all over the place looking for these figures. Today our journey took us to a store that sells comic books and other collectibles. There aren't very many of those stores around anymore, unfortunately.

I have a special fondness for comic books. When I was growing up, my parents were very indulgent about buying my brother and I any sort of reading material that we wanted, and comic books at the time were a quarter. We had a footlocker full of comics, several of them first issues, that I read just about every day. One day we came home from school and they were all gone. We were moving back to the States, and we had to make weight, my mother said. She had taken them all to the base thrift shop. (I still give her a hard time about selling off our college fund.)

This particular store was on the other side of town, and is one of only three or so stores in the San Antonio area. We walked into the store, and it was like we had walked into a cathedral; a reverent silence permeated the place. The people who were in the store spoke in hushed tones so as not to disturb the air of hallowed sanctity. It was such a distinct change that I automatically looked around for the pews, and I expected to smell incense.

Then my eyes adjusted to the lighting inside the store and I saw them. Comic books. On every wall. All of them sealed in those plastic bags with the board in them so they didn't bend. I think that my eyes sort of glazed over as I began wandering about, looking for familiar titles. I found Batman, including issues written by Neil Gaiman(he wrote Coraline), and Kevin Smith(writer/director of more movies than I can name). I found Green Arrow, Green Lantern, and even one of my very favorites, The Tick. It was Nerdvana.

Of course, I wanted to buy them all. Buy them all and take them back to my house, hoard them away. And then tuck myself away into a corner of my room, just like when I was a kid, and read them all. I demonstrated great restraint, and did not whip out my credit card and go crazy. This proves my overall theory that I can behave like an adult on occasion.

I did buy two of the Kevin Smith books. Just the two.