Kids are great...you can teach them to hate the things you hate...

I promised myself I would not be the kind of parent who began indoctrinating my kids in the things I love at the earliest possible opportunity. Specifically, I planned to let Leonardo (and any future children) discover comic books and superheroes on their own just as I did. This is not what happened.

It began with a coffee cup. I have two identical coffee cups with Spider-Man on one side and the Hulk on the other. Leo saw one of the cups nearly every day from the time he was born. In his first year, when he was beginning to talk, I taught him how to say, "Hulk" because I thought it would be cute. It was. He soon naturally learned to identify the Hulk on posters around the house. It wasn't long before I taught him to say approximations of "Spider-Man", "Iron Man", and others.

As of this writing, Leo owns 5 shirts that feature the Hulk and/or other Marvel characters, and when getting dressed in the morning, Leo will often request, "Hulk" or "Iron Man". He can ID various versions of the characters in diverse art styles from the '60's and '70's to modern painted versions. Although he's never seen them on-screen, he can get as excited about seeing them in print as he does with Sesame Street characters.

I never wanted all this to happen and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm concerned he'll grow out of comic book characters before he has a chance to really know them. On the other hand, a thing does not have to be important to my kids just because it is important to me.

Sometimes justice, like the hawk...

I understand why our justice system has to work the way it does. I understand why police can't beat a confession out of a suspect and why they aren't allowed to take a person out of their home in the dead of night and make them disappear. But, sometimes, I believe we need a different kind of justice. Sometimes I think the world should be a little more like a comic book world.

How is it that Terri Horman, who so obviously kidnapped and likely killed her stepson is still a free woman? I understand that the police need the proper evidence to arrest her and convict her in court, but wouldn't it be nice if there were people out there like Daredevil and the Punisher who could pull this horrible woman out of her bed in the middle of the night and beat a full confession out of her? Where is the kid? Why did she do it? Who were her accomplices?

I just think of all the trauma this would save the rest of the family, and all of us really, because we all feel it every time this poor kid is mentioned on the news. Sometimes the justice system isn't enough, sometimes we need someone out there who is outside the law to make things right swiftly.

Where are the Punishers and Daredevils of the world?