Before super heroes came into my life, there were pulp heroes.
My dad had reprints of old Robert Howard Conan the Barbarian stories and some Doc Savage collections lying around the house. Meanwhile, my grandmother, for as long as I could remember, was a fan of The Shadow.
So while I was devouring my dad’s books, grandma was simultaneously picking up old cassette tapes of The Shadow radio drama, the same one she listened to weekly when she was a child. The pulp heroes of yore were a vital part of my life long before I knew of The Fantastic Four, The X-Men or The Justice League of America.
Still, the pulp heroes did give way to the super heroes, and it would take years for me to rediscover my geek roots.
But rediscover them I did and this rediscovery led to a harsh, stark realization. It happened when I was on a long car ride, listening to an episode of The Shadow I’d loaded onto my iPod, and it rocked my world more than a little: The Shadow (one of the inspirations for Batman, no less) is much cooler on almost every level than Batman.
I say it shook me because as a comic geek, we’re pretty much conditioned from the moment we venture to the DC side of the comic rack that while he may not be your favorite, there’s no denying Batman is the coolest.
And not just in DC. Batman, we’re taught, is number one on any list of cool heroes, super or otherwise.
But listening to that old drama (The Death House, I believe it was) I realized that I’d gotten wrong.
We’d all gotten it wrong.
As pro-Batman as I am, he plays second fiddle to the one man who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.
Read more »
My dad had reprints of old Robert Howard Conan the Barbarian stories and some Doc Savage collections lying around the house. Meanwhile, my grandmother, for as long as I could remember, was a fan of The Shadow.
So while I was devouring my dad’s books, grandma was simultaneously picking up old cassette tapes of The Shadow radio drama, the same one she listened to weekly when she was a child. The pulp heroes of yore were a vital part of my life long before I knew of The Fantastic Four, The X-Men or The Justice League of America.
Still, the pulp heroes did give way to the super heroes, and it would take years for me to rediscover my geek roots.
But rediscover them I did and this rediscovery led to a harsh, stark realization. It happened when I was on a long car ride, listening to an episode of The Shadow I’d loaded onto my iPod, and it rocked my world more than a little: The Shadow (one of the inspirations for Batman, no less) is much cooler on almost every level than Batman.
I say it shook me because as a comic geek, we’re pretty much conditioned from the moment we venture to the DC side of the comic rack that while he may not be your favorite, there’s no denying Batman is the coolest.
And not just in DC. Batman, we’re taught, is number one on any list of cool heroes, super or otherwise.
But listening to that old drama (The Death House, I believe it was) I realized that I’d gotten wrong.
We’d all gotten it wrong.
As pro-Batman as I am, he plays second fiddle to the one man who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.
Read more »