I just read that Batman, my favorite superhero, is making a comeback in a film co-starring his arch rival Superman. I can’t wait to see the Caped Crusader again. The old bat and I go back a long way together.
We met when I was a little kid growing up in a Brooklyn apartment house — and he was just breaking into comic books. Every day after school, I’d down a glass of U-Bet flavored chocolate milk with a box of Mallomars — and race into the courtyard. I’d look up at the third floor, take a deep breath and yell, “Mondrol’s mother …Can Mondrol come down and play?” (It wasn’t until I was all grown up, that I realized my friend’s name was actually Monroe.)
We had imaginations in those days. We had to. There was no television, no video games and radio was a mind’s-eye challenge. My favorite acting-out game was Batman and Robin, with Mondrol in the lead role and me as all the other characters. How I looked forward to those weekday afternoons and our fantasy comic book lives.
Then a strange thing happened. I know it’s hard to believe, but the real Batman showed up one cold afternoon just as Batman (aka Mondrol) was being dragged under water (a snow bank) by the pointy-eared Submariner (me).
“Hi kids,” he said in his batto profundo voice. I dropped Mondrol into the snow and the two of us stared up at the black caped figure in the ebony leotard. “Looks like you’re having fun,” he said. “Mind if I join in?” Did we mind? Was he batty?
Twice a week for the next few months, the Dark Knight took time off from fighting evil to fly his batwing plane into Brooklyn. I once asked why he never brought Robin along.
“That little twerp?” he sniffed. “I can’t stand him.”
But all things — even very good things — must come to an end, and in the spring, Batman stopped showing up. He was a pretty big name by then and I guess he didn’t want to hang out with a couple of little kids from Brooklyn. Right after that, Mondrol, who was a year ahead of me in school, said he was too old for silly games and he too disappeared from my life.
Twenty years passed before I saw Batman again. It was at a party in the Gotham City apartment of his friend and creator Bob Kane. Batman had fallen on hard times and had all but dropped out of sight. I asked Mr. Kane if he ever heard from the old Bat. He smiled and gestured toward a dark corner of the room where a solitary figure was standing against the wall.
He looked exactly the way I remembered him … granite jaw, steely eyes … but adversity had taken its toll. His powerful shoulders were slouched and his batmask looked down in the mouth. He said he was happy to see me again and we reminisced about those days in Brooklyn … about heroes and heroines … games and glory … and fantasy figures larger than life. I don’t know if our chat was responsible, but a couple of months later, Batman was flying high again. He made his comeback in a blockbuster television series and was the idol of a new generation of kids. When the TV show (Bruce) Wayned, Hollywood revitalized his career.
I ran into Batman again recently when I interviewed him about his upcoming film. I asked if Robin was going to be in this one.
“Maybe,” he said.
“Still can’t stand the little twerp?” I asked with a wink.
“That’s not exactly true anymore,” he said. “A while back, I replaced the old Robin with my little buddy over there.” Batman pointed to a slight youngster in a Bat Boy outfit. The kid smiled and waved and I did the same.
That was a couple of weeks ago, and I can’t stop thinking about the new Robin. He looked so familiar. Matter of fact, he looked exactly like my old friend Mondrol … Naah.
Copyright 2016 Harriet Posnak Lesser
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Harriet Posnak Lesser is an award-winning journalist and social satirist whose articles have appeared in Long Island’s The South Shore Record and Nassau Herald, The New York Times, Cracked Magazine and others.