As a kid, my imagination always got the better of me. I would constantly drift off to distant places and far-off worlds where magic was real, or alien races would be met, or men could fly. It was the life of a child brought up in an era where Saturday morning cartoons were fun and comics were a gateway to adventure.
Superheroes were always my favorite. For a child who was always picked on at school, it was these muscle-bound amazing beings who always gave hope that someday you'd grow up to be just like them and nobody would ever go after you again. The only problem with the dream was that you usually had to encounter some sort of freakish accident or experiment to gain the powers or you had to be from another planet. This was true for almost every super-being that graced the pages of the comic books—except one.
As my mom tells the story, when I was a babe and learning to speak there were only two words that I would use consistently. Most kids learn "da-da". Mine were "bish" ('cause I had a goldfish at the time) and "ba-ban" ('cause even at that age I was an avid view of the 1960's Batman TV show).
I wanted to be Batman. He was strong, he was smart, he could fight, he had all those gadgets, and most importantly—he was totally human. There was no accident or experiment to give him his abilities and he wasn't from another planet. He had to work hard to develop his body into the shape it was. Years of practice and training and exercise and studying which made him the superhero he was. He was the only one that was totally reachable. He was the person a kid with a dream could become. (Well, if you ignored the whole "multi-millionaire" thing.)
Almost all superheroes have great physiques, but it seemed that most of them were either born with the perfect body types or their freak accidents/experiments gave it to them. Not Batman. He constantly has to work his tail off to be in peak physical condition. The best part is that they would show that in the comics so you knew how hard he really had to work to be the hero that he is.
Batman has been an inspiration to me for practically all my life, since I was a wee one staring at the glowing picture box. His comics took me on wild journeys that me and my friends would re-live in the woods out behind our houses, all dressed up with our beach towels that substituted for capes. No fancy powers, no alien birth, just some guy who had the drive to make himself more than the average person.
The one superhero that any kid could become.
Batman is totally hot.
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