You Have 100 Gold

I think we've covered that I'm into comics. I have been for a long time, since the third grade. I still have my first comic, it was an Avengers with Dr. Doom on the cover, purple back ground, very comic(y). I'm aware that I changed tense in the last sentence, it's bugging me, too. But what tha comic was, is more important than what it is.
I can go get it right now, I know exactly where it is, that's not important.
I'm stuck here now, what is important? Is it important that it rooted a deep love of comics and my collection is now well into the thousands? No, let's not think about how much money I have in those things. Is it important that for love of reading those comic books, I branched out and read "real" books, and went on to get a degree in English Literature? Maybe, maybe not, I don't do so well when English Lit is one of the categories on Jeopardy, damn you, Trebek!
I think what is important is that I carry on the torch of the mythos of these characters and love them and love story. These characters are important to me because they...strive to be more, even when they know the game is up.
There are so many stories involving these characters that it's impossible to know them all, or make them adhere to a timeline. That's how they become an oral history, that's how they are remembered, that's how they become mythological.
Whenever the more dork inclined of my friends are around, our conversation usually tilts, then cascades into comics. And we all carry with us these stories and they're told so many times there comes to be a certain truth to them.
JCS always talks about the time The Hulk was trying to keep the Submariner out of the Avenger's Mansion (because they were setting up a surprise birthday party for him inside) when the two get into a full blown fight! Of course, the fight looks like it's going the Hulk's way, untill it starts to rain.
DAC can walk you through the torments, the corruption, and finally the total destruction of Hal Jordan. RLD can explain to you, with patience, exactly how Batman can defeat anyone you care to mention.
My story would have to be early on in Spider-Man's career. He was down by the waterfront, battling Doctor Octopus. I forget what Doc Ock was up to, but he was getting the best of Spidey. Meanwhile Aunt May was waiting for the medication Peter was supposed to be bringing her, it's nearly lights-out for her, and here's Peter having to deal with Otto. Well, the tide begins to turn in Spidey's favor, so Doc Ock decides to make a break for it, toppling all this equipment on top of Spider-Man to gain some time. Like I said, this is early on for Spider-Man, so he's still getting the hang of fighting super-villains and firing off quips. So, there's Spider-Man, trapped under all this tonage of lab equipment, hydraulics, all of it. The water is coming in now and pooling up around him and he's sputtering around for air. He can't get a handle on anything, he's flat on his stomach, that water is cold and he's tired, he's wore down to the bone. He doesn't have much to lose at this point, things aren't going great with Mary Jane, maybe he'll go out with Gwen Stacy, or maybe Betty, down at the paper. He's just a kid, he can't fix the world, he's so tired. He actually thinks about giving up, dying there in the dark and cold, no great loss. He closes his eyes, his body relaxes, he was in over his head, this is the end. Then he sees Aunt May, lying there near death, he can see it so clearly in front of him he must be hallucinating. If he doesn't get his ass out of there, May will surely die. He snaps out of it and his fingers search again for purchase, he can't grip anything, it's so wet! Finally he gets his knees up under him, his fingers dig into the metal. And slowly, panel by panel, he lifts the wreckage off, holding it up over his head, and he's free. He gets the medicine to Aunt May in time, and everything's fine.
That's the story I bring to the table. And if you go back and look at that issue, maybe all that isn't conveyed as I've told it here. Probably after years of telling the story I've imprinted a little of myself on it, but that's ok because it's the story I carry.
That, and the time Captain America punched Thanos in the face. That was great.