Spider-man

Dear Ian:
It should come as no surprise that I am somewhat of a comic book geek. It's a label that I wear rather proudly, and somewhat undeservedly. I really don't think I carry around the knowledge required to be considered a full blown geek. Meaning to true geeks, the ones who can tell you every appearance of Kraven the Hunter, list every crossover anomaly, and memorized Aunt May's pancake recipe, I am simply a comic book "fan."

Oh, to split hairs.

Of the heroes out there, though, the one masked crusaders that I like to follow the most are Spider-man and Batman.

Going all the way back to running around the Smithville neighborhood and playing Superhero with the "gang." I think I always took the role of Spider-man or Batman. And the choice between the two was always pretty easy there as well, as we generally played DC Universe or Marvel Universe. Rarely did the two collide.

Don't get me wrong, there were still the debates over Hulk vs Superman confrontations, or Tony Stark's riches pitted against Bruce Wayne's fortune, and even who was cuter, Wonder Woman or Susan Storm. For some reason though, we never actually acted out a Hulk vs Superman slugfest.

We did act or re-enact Spiderman vs Thing, Hulk vs Thing, Namor vs Thing (we really didn't like Ben Grimm all that much and everybody got a crack at him at least once).

Spidey always held his own, though. Even though we all admitted that the Hulk was the strongest, hands down, and Thing and Namor were probably #2 and #3 respectively, Spidey always managed to "think" his way through any confrontation that much better than his opponents. When it came to mind against might, mind nearly always won. Hulk was no match. Thing, though more challenging, always fell. Namor for some reason always escaped back to the bottom of the sea, vowing revenge.

Now that I think of it, back then, Wolverine wasn't as much of a presence as he is now. Hmmm, must have hired a new publicist. But I stray.

Spidey and Iron Man, would nearly always fight to a draw. Odd, I really can't remember losing a lot of superbattles. And no one really ever complained. Todd as the Hulk resigned his defeat and shifted back to Bruce Banner. Doug always crept away vowing to bring Reed Richards to the fight next time (which would have been AWESOME!). Jeff always shouted from the waves that he still ruled the oceans. Kyle always called truce and invited Spider-man to join forces.

I chased down an issue of Spider-man recently that was missing from my collection. It was actually a rather recent one, not one from my youth. I had missed this issue in my regular subscription drop. It is referred to as the "black issue" or the "9/11" issue.

I really don't want to say much about 9/11 in this letter. That, again, is something that will have to be saved for a later date and many, many more letters. Suffice it to say, this issue was certainly more special, more moving than most.

After an attack on New York, Spider-man is confronted by the fact that despite his super powers, he may also find himself helpless, while others, who are simply regular men can act heroically when confronted by terrifying danger.

There bravery is made even more special because they face it without the guarantees of Spider success.

Meandered a bit there, as I always do, and I guess the point that I was trying to make was sometimes the Super Hero is the one you least expect.