I was at work, standing in front of the copier, watching the technology do its thing when it suddenly stopped. Out of paper. I looked around and there was no paper anywhere to be found. So I started walking up the hallway in an effort to notify someone that the machine needed care.
I stopped at the first occupied desk, told the person there that the machine needed paper and he took off to go get it. Before I went back to the copier, I looked at his computer screen and smiled. There was a picture of Big Barda, Huntress and Wonder Woman on the page he was reading.
I walked back to the copier and he appeared a few moments later with paper.
While he loaded the machine, I struck up a conversation that kind of went like this:
Me: “I saw Big Barda on your computer. Do you read a lot of comics?”
Him: “No, sir. Not anymore” (he laughs).
Me: (laughing) “It’s okay. It was just that I saw Big Barda on your machine and I was wondering.”
Him: (laughs) “Now, my uncle has comic books. He has the original Superman and Batman ones. I love reading his books.”
Me: “Did you ever watch the cartoon, Justice League?”
Him: “Sure.” (He grins again)
Me: “So what’d you think about Green Lantern staying with Vixen?”
Him: (looking at me really hard – respectful, but hard) “It was the best move for him.”
Me: (Floored) “Really? I was kind of sad that he didn’t end up with Hawkgirl.”
Him: (shaking his head) “He couldn’t trust her. I mean he was in the military and you know how important trust is. She lied to him and almost got him killed. She should have told him that she was married, but instead she lied. Who’d want to live with someone they couldn’t trust. I know I wouldn’t.”
I nodded and thanked him for putting the paper in the machine. Then as he walked away he told me that 26 episodes of JLU are now on Boomerang. I nodded again, but my smile was a little tighter as I reflected that maybe I’d been wrong all this time about the outcome of the HG/GL ship. Maybe the writers did understand the characters better that I (who professed to be so deep into characterization). Maybe, the writers didn’t miss their target audience at all. Perhaps their intended audience was someone like this man who understood there can be no permanent relationship without complete trust. And sadly, John didn’t have it for Shayera at the end of the show.
Oh, well, live and learn. Glad I didn’t ask him what he thought of Dr.
Melfi’s very hostile and aggressive session with Tony Soprano or whether Tony survives the end of the show next week. I might have been surprised by that answer, too.