I was reading Gotham Comics: Batman: Special 05 Singapore Issue today.

And the last story touched me one whole bunch. It was about a mugging. Batman intervened, but the dad of the victimized family got shot. Batman sent the mom and the son to call the cops. In the meantime, he covered the man with his cape, and started talking to him, to keep him conscious...to keep him from going into shock.

This whole story doesn't need pictures to tell you its impact. I'll just type out the words.

#####

"You're not going to die. I won't *let* you.
This time.
Let me explain something to you...
As far as your son is concerned, you're immortal.
Your voice is the first thing he hears in the morning. Your hand on his forehead the last thing he feels at night. You have indicated and introduced and named the entire world.
You absolutely...positively...cannot die.
When it happened to my parents...I was shattered.
All sense had left my life.
I had hardly knew my parents as people. But suddenly I knew the world.
It was hard and cold and dark and lawless.
Its face was fierce and bestial.
The only face with which I had to glare back at it...was utterly inadequet.
You think you know fear.
You think you know fear now, tonight, with just me and the time it takes the paramedics to get here between you and certain death.
But you don't know fear half as well--as it knows you.
It's part chemical fear, and part psychogenic.
It's instinctive, and also something you learn.
Something you cultivate...and practice hiding beneath other feelings...like anger.
You can conquer fear psychologically.
If you're willing to look at it for what it is.
Few are.
Few ever truly gaze into their fear, their pain.
Fewer still embrace it.
I don't enjoy fear.
But I've learnt to respect it.
When I'd finally mastered my fear, I went to take another look at the world.
No, that's inaccurate.
I went out to learn how to be strong enough to face it. To defend it.
To gaze into it and accept it for what it was...without flinching.
I returned to a home maintained in timeless perfection by our family butler, Alfred. It was I who had changed--becoming stronger, more mentally alert, better prepared.
But I still didn't have a face as feral as the one life had shown me.
I was still hiding...still hoping for courage...and counting on luck.
I know what's it like to be near death.
I've counted and analyzed a lot of near misses.
Mine...and other people's.
I decided early that I would never take a life.
Right around the time I decided that I wanted to live.
It wasn't an arbitrary decision. And it was more than moral.
It's about *identity*.
As long as you can choose that, choose who you are in the world...you can choose to call yourself sane.
The world is not particularly sane.
Predictability, here, is a complex calculation between logical occurances and duboius motives.
While destiny is the elusively simple matter of becoming who you are.
It takes committed effort to choose a path of order in a chaotic world.
In that sense, criminals are a cowardly, superstitious lot. I wanted to make their path as difficult and illogical as mine. I wanted to strike terror into their hearts. I chose the face I'd wear outside.
I met life's gaze."

Man: Spacibo (I assume that meant "thank you")
Batman: Pozhalusta. You're welcome. Thank you...
Batman: ...for pulling through.
Batman: This time.

#####

Touched me a whole lot, especially the part about fear...about conquering fear...about respecting fear.

Darn. The Gotham comics costs $10 per book. I've bought more than 10. Going bankrupt. But it's worth it. For DC...and especially Batman...anything's worth it.

&&&&&

Yeah! SJ finally got back to MSN! I managed to talk to him in the late noon. I'm glad I did that, even though my parents nagged. I've missed him a bunch. He broke up with his gf (finally!) but still meet up for sex (cue: major rolls eyes here). No comments to that. Heh.

Then, he and I debated about war, politics and history. Heh. I guess he needed it, cuz he came back from a war in Saudi...staying there for about a year...fighting Saddam, and he's pissed that the guy bought his way outta it. He was very bitter...could sense it when we talked. So, yeah. I obliged and debated. He loved it. Didn't realize he had a philosophical side underneath all that sex thoughts or something. Lol. I was wrong. He IS an interesting guy.

Miss him. Really did. Welcome back, SJ. And yes, you still owe me a pic for the one I lost. Haha.