Dear Mom, Thanks For The Comics!

iFanboy is in trouble. We totally forgot about our moms. The whole week leading up to Mother’s Day was all about Thor. Even I got caught up in the Thormania. (Side note: I still haven’t seen it. I will probably see Bridesmaids first. For reals. Whatever enthusiasm I mustered was washed away by an evening of lobster and beer. Go ahead and take away my geek badge. None of the discounts are valid anymore.) If it wasn’t for my mom I wouldn’t be here. On Earth or writing at iFanboy. My secret origin isn’t really a secret. It all rests squarely on my mom.

I was a peculiar kid but my mom was cool with it.  At age two I started mysteriously walking around with an Igor-style limp. My mom took me to the doctor; they took X-rays, and declared me fit as a fiddle. That night I was back to walking like normal. Several years later I would demand that my mother turn my Superman cape into a sling so that I could pretend that I had a broken arm.  She was fine with that. A few years after that I took a shine to The Babysitters Club line of books. She was happy I was reading so she got them for me. My father was probably confused. I loved reading comics and she would indulge me. Buying things wasn’t the only indulgence. Tommy Katers was a big talker.

I loved to list off the characters I knew. At first it was just talking about the different figures you could get in the Super Powers line of DC figures. I would run around the house yelling that I was The Joker. She probably shouldn’t have been all that cool with that, but she was happy to see me happy. There was no hesitation to buy me the Spider-Man digest when we were at Fleet Farm buying gardening tools. Man did we ever use a lot of rope, lime, and shovels!

My mom is kind of weird as well, which helps. She didn’t like me watching Porky Pig because of his speech impediment. She is also fixated on the fact that Casper the Friendly Ghost must have died as a child, probably in a sledding accident (This was before the movie! Eerie.). Weirdness runs in the family and it is a Katers tradition to simply embrace it.

My love of comic books and my rather unashamed enthusiasm comes from that tradition of embracing your own nature. I can never thank my mom enough for the gift of being patient with me. She was patient even when I was quizzing her, and just making up the answers. I wasn’t offering the quiz as map to enlightenment; it was just a way to be right. They call that the podcasting gene.

I lucked out with my mom. Luckily I am real because fictional moms can be a bit of a mixed bag. Mixed bags are where all the good stories are kept so it isn't a surprise that the world of comics isn’t always kind to the moms of heroes. Not kind as in they are mostly dead. Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, The Flash (I guess) all pop into my mind. Then of course those same characters do end up with Aunt May, Martha Kent, Alfred, Old Wizards (Not Alfred), and Dexter Myles taking the role of mom.  They aren’t exactly moms but they definitely encapsulate all that is story-catalyst fictional MOM.

There is the ever present guilt symbolized by Aunt May. Her hovering visage urging you to get the medicine to her on time always haunting you. Her crippling poverty a drain upon your resources. Then you have Ma Kent with her evasive nature and desire to smother any real conversation with an extra serving of boysenberry pie or homemade ice cream or moon shine. There are the sewing skills of Alfred Pennyworth (also special forces training). Now it is time to mix in the “pass the buck because I am also dead” attitude of the wizard Shazam. Finally, as icing on the cake of fiction mom you have the bluster of an out of work stage actor like Dexter Myles. If you had to live with that type of baggage you would be rocking an alter ego in a heartbeat.

If these heroes had just had a mom who let them act like weirdoes and bought them books they would have ended up funny, devastatingly handsome raconteurs with surprising foot speed. No one wants to read about that (if you do want to read about that, let me know and I can work on something)

To all the moms out there in the real world who are teaching your kids to be themselves and embrace their nature: I salute you. To every mother who had to drive their kid to a comic book store that was a little creepy and hang around while your kid dug through boxes for comics: Well Done. To all the moms who have to listen to their kids talk about how fast the Flash is: He is probably going to talk about it for the rest of his/her life. Awesome moms of the world, thanks for being one thing we don’t need to escape from.

Now thank your mom below. It is late but she deserves it.
 

Tom Katers is always testing your patience.