When I was a little kid, just old enough to love cartoons, I went to the hall closet and grabbed an oversized towel and tied it around my neck. I then went to the kitchen, pulled a chair over to the counter and climbed up. I turned around and looked past the phone into the living room at the front door. Bending my knees slightly, I crept forward, reached my arms into the sky, cried, "Superman!" and lept.
Of course, I didn't soar away to fight Brainiac or Solomon Grundy. I hit the floor. And bounced.
My sister remembers coming in to see what had made such a loud thud, only to find me climbing up from the floor and taking the towel off. When she asked me what happened, I apparently shrugged and went outside to go ride my bike.
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I have thought a lot about this story lately. Partly because I have to write up my personal statement for my law school application and one of the things in vogue with these statements is to tell a story about yourself and relate it back to what kind of person you are or why you want to go to law school. So, for a couple minutes, I thought I could tell this story and relate it to my ability to deal with set backs, or my desire to push boundaries or something. This, as you may have guessed, would be a bad idea. Not only is it disengenuous, but it's more than a little trite.
So, yeah. I'm not sure if the personal statement I have now is gonna be as memorable as that story, but it's honest. And it's not so formulaic. So. There's that.
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Of course, another reason I've been thinking about that story is to wonder what the hell was I thinking as a kid. Honestly, sometimes I think it's a miracle I made it this far.
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The picture I'm displaying is by Alex Ross, who, for those of you not lucky enough to have come across his work, is the best. He is a painter who has worked extensively in the comic book genre, and, as you can see, he makes very life-like images of the superheroes he depicts.
If you're looking to see some of his best work and have a good read, I recommend Kingdom Come, which looks at the intersection of faith and superheroes (among other things). It's one of my favorite graphic novels and it owes a lot to the thought Ross puts into casting the superheroes. I say casting, because he will often model the superheroes on people he knows. And if you think my praising him is at least partly motivated by the thought of him appreciating my praise and thinking I would make a good model*, well, you know me only too well.
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I was never a big fan of Superman as a kid. Maybe I was before I bounced off the kitchen floor, but not after, that's for sure. I was always partial to Batman. Maybe I lacked the imagination to identify with the super-powered characters, but I think it was also because I knew I couldn't ever become one. I had accepted that I would never shoot lasers out of my eyes or be able to fly. But, maybe I would be able to be a great detective who helped people. It's not so much that I could see myself fighting people or anything. I knew better than that, but I thought I could do the other things.
As I've grown up though (and you could argue a sign of my growing up would be to stop reading comics, but whatever), I've started to feel more affinity for Superman. I don't really watch Smallville, or even follow his character in the comic books. (But, then, I'm not reading any Batman books now either.) I just like the idea of him. And how he's been portrayed in some of the books I've read (like Kingdom Come). He's not so much the cocky, all-powerful man of steel I saw him as when I was younger. He's more riddled with doubt. He's burdened by expectations--some external, but mainly internal--that he is the last, best hope of everyone. That he has to do everything better than anyone else. In short, he's much more human than I originally thought.
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I can't talk about my comics love without mentioning how awesome Blackest Night has been. I'm a little behind in my reading, but seriously, Geoff Johns is writing some great comic books. I mean, the premise is one of those so simple ideas that you can't believe it hasn't been done already. So, you had the Green Lanterns, who are powered by will power, right? Well, Johns takes the rest of the ROY G BIV color spectrum and gives them lanterns and emotions that power them. And then throws in black, which is run by death. Such a great idea.
His run on Green Lantern, from bringing back Hal Jordan (who has become my favorite character), to everything in Blackest Night, has been phenominal. And it's probably changed the character forever, in a great way.
*Note 1. I have often thought I would make a nice Foggy Nelson.
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