Comic Books

I used to love to read comic books when I was a kid. Actually, the truth is, I loved reading. Period. But comic books were cheaper, updated more often, and available at the newsstand when my dad picked up the Sunday New York Times. Hence, I read a bunch of comic books.

For some reason, I never really caught on to any one superhero. I was a DC reader (rather than Marvel) and ended up with a bunch of issues of The Flash and Green Lantern for some reason. Maybe I wasn't interested enough in flight or bodybuilding to read a lot of Superman, but it didn't hold my attention.

As my vision began to change, I had more and more trouble getting through comics, to the point that I could only really read the pictures without a magnifying device. At a point, even magnifiers didn't help, and I didn't have a color CCTV yet. So, at a point, I just dropped the habit.

This may explain my joy at first watching Spider-Man in a movie theater. Sure, there had been comic book movies before -- I had always been a big fan of Christopher Reeve's skinny Superman -- but here was the real thing, a true comic book universe portrayed perfectly on the big screen. I didn't realize it at the time, but the movies were about to enter an era when I could finally enjoy comic book reality again... even if I don't like reading the actual comics anymore. The Dark Knight was the latest in a series of films that have made me very happy, and even if there are a few duds in the bunch (just because I'm blind doesn't mean I liked Daredevil), it's definitely an improvement in my life.

I have a couple of friends who have kept up with comic books. I happened to have read the issue when a character named Superboy Prime was born, and my friends tell me that he practically destroyed the universe. That's nice. When they make the movie, I'll watch it. In the meantime, I still haven't see the sequel to to the first Hulk movie, and as bad as that one was, I do want to redeem it... and, simultaneously, please that little boy in me who wants to read about a big green guy who smashes things. Childhood is so innocent.