"For me, Batman was never funny." ~Frank Miller

The interesting thing about this whole thing is thinking back on MY origins with Batman. What I remember about Batman was a silly tv show that I saw here and there as a kid and thought it silly. Yeah, I was always a serious kid. But, it wasn't anything that grabbed me and as such, I never even ventured the thought of reading a comic. Most of my life, my closest friends have been boys or men and it surprises me that not one ever said, hey...I know you. Read this.

That the first Batman I read seriously was Snyder's Batman seems like some kind of failure on my part but upon reflection it was like I needed the right story at the right time. That story, it had to be dark, not funny and like a lot of us, I had to find pieces of me in him. I love that it finally grabbed me. Grabbed me by the throat, pushed me up against a wall and has yet to let go. It made me ready for more.

I've always had it in my head that Batman couldn't be Batman without Alfred. But, now I am just as certain now that Batman couldn't be Batman without Jim Gordon AND vice versa. Gordon is, in his own way, just as much a superhero. The struggle for them both to find the thing they want to be is intense and the constant growing pains as they both learn how to make the bad guys afraid. I got chills when Batman is driving like a maniac repeating over and over, "I have to make them afraid" and then almost crashes into Gordon who is pretty much saying the same damn thing. Fear is a powerful thing, no? It was a cool read for me. I guess all origin stories are...when you really start to put the pieces together and not so much understand but feel what a character is about...and I got that for two characters in this story.