Batman You Complete Me ...

Batman has always served as an important influence in my life. Unlike other kids who were dissuaded from reading and buying comic books as a waste of time and money, my mother's father owned a news stand and I was given comics as a young child. The Archie's, Richie Rich and of course DC and Marvel comics, were fixtures in our home. So were other news-stand favorites. It is obviously through this relationship that I developed a love of reading, writing and specifically reading newspapers and collecting things. I am ashamed to say, I was gifted the first issue of Tiger Beat (ask your preteen girl), with the Beatles on the cover, and cut it apart.  I also grew up watching re-runs of Superman and the first run episodes of the very campy Batman. I even had a crush on Robin (Burt Ward).

So, as the mother of three boys, it is little wonder that my children would collect (and lose) Batman figurines, visit the Warner Brothers store, wear socks, underwear, gloves shirts with the logo and adorn costumes throughout the year to play dress up as the character. Each wore pajamas, complete with matching cape, had Halloween costumes that they wore to bed and followed the many cartoon versions of the character.

My oldest son, was the most fanatical. Beginning with two scarves previously worn by his twin cousins, Batman was a permanent fixture in his life. Birthday invitations, room decor and many other infusions of Batman followed him from toddler to teen. Accompanied by is "cousins through love" we even went to Great Adventure to see the Batman show, only to go running from the park, when the bullets and fireworks scared him.

So it is little wonder that he is still enamored by Batman. A few weeks ago, a group of his friends trekked into NYC to attend Comic Con, so he could "meet" the Caped Crusader. And at a recent teacher's  conference, I was told about the eloquent argument he made to defend earlier versions of the Joker against the one made famous by Heath Ledger. He is very passionate about all things Batman. The Batman throw pillow and long forgotten figurines have resurfaced as "collectibles", discussions are held on who was the best and worst Batman; he even dressed up as Joker for Halloween this past week and why not, it's in his blood; a Batman cookie jar sits high atop my cabinet to protect our little Gotham City.