How Daredevil and Batman helped one man get through childhood and early adulthood.
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I still remember buying my first comic book from the quarter bin of a local comic shop. It was an issue of Detective comics with Batman fighting Clayface on the cover. There were three issues for the entire story and I bought them all. After that point, I was hooked. There were several things happening in my life at that time, too much for the average third grader.
When I was nine years old, my mother sat me down at the dinner table to explain a few things to me. “You know how you think your dad is your dad,” she started to say. After that my world was blown apart. Things I didn’t question as being true were suddenly tossed in the trash with nothing to replace them. I learned that my biological father was a guy she dated in high school and it would be over twenty years before I met him for the first time. I was also attending Catholic Schools where something like this was deemed unacceptable.
I tried to use religion as a way to cope with a rapidly changing world. Studying the beliefs of men who thought the world was flat didn’t work too well. On a cloudy spring day, I pulled a Batman comic book from a quarter bin and as a child I had some answers. If somebody asked me at the time what the appeal was, I probably couldn’t explain it. I started to read more, at first sticking to Batman then moving on to other titles such as Daredevil and the Punisher.
For years, Daredevil had me transfixed. Being one of the few Catholic superheroes, the mythology spoke to me. His questioning of his faith was something that spoke out to me, and there was the debate about morality that I never quite understood. Life felt like a battle of contradictions and the only people talking about it were dressed in costumes fighting the evil of the world. As a mythology, comic books answered my questions when old world religions could not.
When I was an adult, I started to learn why comic books had such an effect on me. During World War II, many boys lost their fathers overseas fighting the axis powers. When comic books started to be published again, the audience were boys that were seeking father figures. This was the time the side kick came into the picture. Batman had Robin, Captain America had Bucky, and the Green Arrow had Speedy. Sales soared and boys were able to read these stories pretending they were the sidekicks of these great men they looked up to.
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Comic books ended up being a healthy outlet for a young man who was trying to figure out this crazy thing called life. It was a bonding experience with the other boys in the neighborhood as well.
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I must confess that there were times I pictured myself as Robin hunting down the Joker with Batman. There was a void in my life and while comic books didn’t fill it they did offer direction and guidance I couldn’t find elsewhere. Unlike other boys who were in similar situations as me, I didn’t get involved in drugs or drop out of high school. The role models I chose for myself made sure of that. I would continue collecting comics through college and eventually stop when the new material being published no longer spoke to me. Maybe I no longer needed it to figure out how to live my life.
Comic books ended up being a healthy outlet for a young man who was trying to figure out this crazy thing called life. It was a bonding experience with the other boys in the neighborhood as well. I can still remember the arguments we would have trying to figure out which superheroes would win in a fight if it ever happened. Books were traded and friendships built. Looking back, the fondest memories of my childhood revolve around those pulp pages of mass produced art work and story telling that would influence my writing today.
While some people wish that we had real superheroes in our world today, the truth is, we already do. For every young boy and girl who feel like they don’t fit in, once they find a character they connect with, that hero is real to them. Sometimes the greatest salvation a person could hope for is the chance to escape and learn that things can get better. What superhero came from a perfect back ground. Daredevil’s father was killed by the mob. Batman’s parents were killed in front of him. The Punisher’s family was killed in front of him. The lesson to be learned is that regardless of how bad life can get and how hopeless one can feel there is the chance to turn things around and make the world a better place. What could be a better message could a future generation be taught in our world today.
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