Cosplay and Micro-Woman

James Hood has just robbed another bank. Part of me kind of thinks that it's OK because he made a point of robbing one of those big banks that caused the mortgage crisis; then looked to the Government to bail them out of their financial misery and then turned around and gave their executives big bonuses while providing little if any mortgage relief to the general public. I wonder to myself who cares if he steals a hundred or so thousand dollars from this bank? As is his M.O. (method of operation) he's going to give about a quarter of it to a charity of some sort. That's $25,000 more than the bank was ever going to give anyone. Of course I ask the question to myself, "who cares?" because I know exactly who cares, my Dad.

So here I am in the Maybach with my parents, Deca-Man and Dart chasing after the fleeing vehicle of the costumed villain James Hood and my hearts not in it. Hood is weaving his vehicle in and out of traffic and my Dad is following suit in our 12 cylinder land rocket. As Hood's vehicle approaches an intersection there is a school bus pulled over to the side and is letting some kids out. The bus is from James Roberts High School, home of the Vikings, and the high school that I will be attending in a couple of years.  Hood vehicle is slowing down. I can guess what is going to happen now. I only hope my Dad is thinking the same thing.

Money comes flying out of the window of Hood's car and the teenagers react in the same way that any teenager would react in a situation where there is tens of thousands of dollars floating around in the middle of the street...they run into the street to get it. It's not just the kids either. Cars begin to stop in the intersection as the driver's realize that there is free money to be had. Like I thought earlier, I could predict what Hood was going to do as soon as he began to slow down. Unfortunately, my father did not. He has to slam on his brakes to avoid running over the high schoolers and others cavorting about in the intersection. The car comes to a stop after engaging in a partial spin and slid but no one was hurt. On the other end of the intersection we see James Hood's car continue to speed away. Dad is pissed and Hood's car is now to far away for even Mom or myself to catch Hood at super-speed. So after Dad unsuccessfully attempts to get the citizens to return the stolen money to the bank we go home.

All the way home Dad complains about the lawlessness of the people picking up the money in the street.  I have a much less judgmental feeling about them. Times are hard and well...it was a lot of money.

I go upstairs and call my friend Suzie on my cell phone. Suzie is also a teen sidekick. Her mother is a member of the Guild of Heroes with my parents who goes by the assumed identity of Micro-Woman. When Suzie is out fighting crime she uses the code-name of Tiny-Girl. Both Suzie and her mother can shrink to miniature sizes while retaining their full-strength. Although they look silly when they are small (like little action-figures) they can really deliver a wallop when they punch. Essentially the smaller they get the stronger they get. They are easily "pound for pound" the strongest heroes around. When I call Suzie I begin to tell her about my families encounter with James Hood today. As I begin to talk about what a dork my father is Suzie starts to cry. I immediately stop talking about myself and ask her what's wrong and she tells me that her father died this morning.

OMG, what am I supposed to say? What am I supposed to do? I'm a super-hero I don't know anyone that's really died. Super-hero deaths don't count because we are always resurrected somehow but Suzie's dad was a normal guy. He was a postal worker. Mom says that no one in the super-hero community could figure out why Micro-Woman had married such a normal guy then six months later they got the answer when Suzie was born. I'm not assessing a value judgment but I am in the 7th grade. I can do the math. Ultimately the lives that Suzie's parents led were just too different for them to stay together. Every couple of weeks or so Micro-Woman would get called away on Guild business to fight zombies or be whisked away to the corner of the galaxy to fight alien civilizations and be gone for weeks while she left her letter carrier husband to deal with an infant that could not control her ability to shrink. I'm surprised that her parents lasted as long as they did.

After the divorce, Suzie's Mom went in the complete opposite direction by only dating super-heroes. There has been a line of super-heroes outside her door ever since. Suzie just keeps getting new "uncles" all the time. I don't even think she bothers to learn any of their names.  Not that she should bother it would be a waste of energy, most of them are second-string heroes anyway. Heck some of them I don't even think were heroes but cosplayers at local fantasy and comic book conventions that Micro-Woman mistook for real super-heroes.  I know because a lot of them have blogged about it.

Suzie tells me that her father died while working. That he was delivering the mail when he had a heart attack and died. No one even knew that he had a heart condition. Even though she never got to spend much time with her father she loved him. I spend most of the night trying to comfort my friend over the phone.