Rodney May Wander

 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...

Growing Up with Superman By Rodney J May   My young life would change forever during the cold November of 1992. It was a different world growing up as a skinny blonde country kid reading eighties and nineties comic books. The wind blew a little harder the day I learned my hero, my idol, the one that I looked up to and who gave me hope and inspiration was dead. Superman had died. To boost declining comic book sales, DC Comics decided to do the unthinkable and kill off my beloved hero. I'll never forget desperately combing through the colored glossy pages of Superman #75 as I saw my hero battle the dreaded Doomsday monster. He fought with everything he had, spilling his rarely seen superhero blood and saving those that he could, but in the end, he gave his life to protect the citizens of Metropolis and the world. My mouth held a gape as my seemingly untouchable hero breathed his last breath. How could this be? Superman was not supposed to die. He was designed to be that eternal...