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| By Victor Alvarez |
“And yet … in their uncontrollable insanity … in their unforgivable blindness … they seek to destroy this shining jewel … this softly spinning gem … this tiny blessed sphere … which men call Earth!”
When she was just learning to talk it was cool to teach my daughter a few catch phrases from my childhood.
She knew The Incredible Hulk said “SMASH!”
She knew The Thing said “It’s clobberin’ time.”
And she knew all the words to the Spider-Man theme song from the 1960s.
“In the chill of night, at the scene of a crime …”
She promptly forgot all of that stuff when she discovered Dora and Belle.
Inside, a little piece of me died.
The boy – Henry – is 16 months old and is only now learning how to chew on a plush Spider-Man toy I got him. He’s a long way off from singing theme songs and realizing that with great power comes great responsibility.
So it was with much joy that I came down the steps Tuesday morning to see my daughter playing with one of my Galactus action figures. (It was also a pleasure to accept a cup of freshly-brewed coffee from my wife. That doesn’t happen every day.)
Who is Galactus, you ask? That’s what Charlotte wanted to know as well.
“No one knows where Galactus came from but he’s a big guy who lives in space.”
“How big?”
“Well, he’s bigger than our house. In fact, he’s like 100 of our houses stacked on top of each other.”
“And what does Galactus do?”
“He is the eater of worlds.”
“What is an eater of worlds?”
“Galactus has to eat planets to live. Just like you have to eat pancakes and the soups Daddy cooks. One day Galactus was about to eat a planet named Zenn-La where a man named Norrin Radd was about to marry his true love.”
“Like you and Mommy?”
“Yes. Only this guy, Norrin Radd, realized Galactus was about to eat his planet and all his family and friends. So he said to Galactus: ‘Dude, spare my planet and I will search the spaceways for uninhabited planets for you to eat.’”
“What is uninhabited?”
“It means no people or animals live there. So Galactus spared his planet but he gave Norrin Radd the Power Cosmic and made him his herald.”
“What is herald?”
“It means that he will fly around ahead of Galactus and find planets for him to eat where nobody lives so Galactus doesn’t hurt anybody. That’s how he became the Silver Surfer.”
“Is the Silver Surfer a good guy?”
“Yes. He sacrificed his life to save everyone he loved, and even some people he didn’t know.”
“Is Galactus a good guy?”
“No. But he’s not a bad guy either. It’s not his fault he has to eat planets to live. He just does.”
That was enough for Charlotte.
Years from now if she’s willing to indulge me I will read comic books with her and hope that she finds the lessons in them that awakened in me when I was a kid.
The Silver Surfer would rather be a slave to an indifferent god than see his people destroyed. Spider-Man uses his accidental powers to help the poor and weak instead of for his own gain. And The Hulk ain’t afraid to smash a few tanks together if it means keeping the government in check.
These are fine stories, well told, that I am rediscovering every day even though my kids are too young to fully understand them.
As I finished my coffee Charlotte, as if she had been programmed to make my morning, asked me to tell her about Conan. He is a character she knows only from the Robert E. Howard novels she’s picked up off our shelves.
“Who is Conan?”
“He’s a barbarian.”
“What’s his story?”
“I’ll tell you all about it when you’re older.”
Conan’s story is one of revenge and freedom.
He has a healthy fear of magic and he is loyal to his god.
If you take away all the violence, thievery and sex he’s actually a fine role model for children.
But that is a story for another time.
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