Rodney May Wander

     Friday nights were a very special time when I was a boy. School could be forgotten for two glorious days, and teachers’ scornful looks were behind me. I struggled through grade school and wanted nothing more than to be running barefoot outside, but Fridays were the light at the end of the long tunnel. Fridays were extra special because Mom would take us down to Video-1 to rent the latest new release on VHS, and we were allowed to stay up as long as we wanted, which never lasted much past midnight as my sisters and I would drift off on the couch or in our sleeping bags laid out on the living room floor. My younger sisters called their pile of blankets and pillows their “nests” and would go to great lengths to make them just right. Occasional bickering over territory was pretty common, as a clear view of the television was paramount.       I was usually reclined on the couch or soft chair and would yell at them to stay out of the way of our glowing ...

 A Little Batman in All of Us By Rodney J. May Every generation has their own version of Batman. The Caped Crusader has gone through many transformations through the years. Like Superman, the comics of the eighties first drew my attention to the Batman. I appreciated the simpler albeit darker storytelling as the issues were more psychological and less “world-ending” than Superman’s dilemmas. Batman would be up against a maniac with a gun rather than an invading alien army, or a poisoned city mayor instead of an erupting volcano. The darker color palate and heavily shadowed artwork of the Batman comics gave a grittier and sometimes more suspenseful mood. Even the Saturday morning cartoon, “Batman the Animated Series,” was drawn on black paper to ensure its dark style. To move from a greyscale Batman comic book to a rainbow-infused Superman story was jarring to the senses and could be annoying. I learned to start with a Superman comic, move to the Flash, then X-men, and end my childh...