An actual conversation with one of my sons a couple of weeks ago whilst studying for his school spelling bee.
ME: "Spell siege."
J: "S-I-E-G-E."
ME: "Good job. That's a pretty hard one."
J: "Siege of Starro? I've seen it like a hundred times."
Three years ago today,
I wrote an article on this very site encouraging everyone to watch
Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Based on the traffic that article generated I like to think more than a few of you took my advice.
I have two sons. We watched all but one episode of
Batman: The Brave and the Bold together. When the show debuted in 2008 they were five. I had to read the episode titles to them. By the time it ended last November, they were reading them to me.
Despite its Cartoon Network's erractic scheduling, BTBATB became appointment viewing for me and the boys.
Its whimsical Silver Age approach to the Batman and, by extension, the rest of the DC Universe was the perfect jumping in point for us. By the time the show ended last November, the boys were fluent in such Silver Age oddities as Kamandi, OMAC and the Metal Men.
They refer to Golden Age Flash as Geezer Flash.
In that sense, BTBATB became the first thing that was truly ours. For that reason alone the show will always hold a special place in my heart.
I got to be a superhero while we watched. I was able to answer most of their questions without ever leaving their side. All those hours spent reading comics as a kid/teen/adult finally paid off.
If I didn't know the answer, we'd look it up together. I got to see them light up at the idea of learning something new.
Sure we bought the action figures.
We bought the video games.
We listened to the soundtrack to the
"Mayhem of the Music Meister" episode so much I'm sure my wife wanted to suffocate me with a pillow in my sleep.
C and I even sport matching orange t-shirts featuring the greatest ever incarnation of Aquaman and his catchphrase...OUTRAGEOUS!
But at the end of the day, it wasn't about the stuff. It was about the three of us spending time together doing something we enjoyed. Its what the experts like to call quality time. We just called it fun.
The show's final episode was one of many "meta" episodes courtesy of Bat-Mite. In it Bat-Mite says that BTBATB has gotten stale and he does everything, throws down every cliche, in an effort to get the show cancelled. This was intercut with scenes of a father and son watching and wondering what had happened to their favorite show.
I'm not gonna lie. I got a little misty-eyed.
"Mitefall!" ended with the sets being struck and all the heroes at a giant after party. It was a fitting sendoff to this execellent show.
Since the demise of BTBATB, the boys have moved on to Young Justice. I'm not sure they miss BTBATB as much as I do. I don't think they realize what we've lost. I hope that someday they will remember as fondly as I do the times we spent sitting on my bed, one boy under each arm, watching.
Of course, truth be told, a lot of the time I was watching them as much as I was the show.
Newsarama ran a list of their favorite The Brave and the Bold episodes.
You can check it out here.
I hope you've enjoyed
Adventures of a Geek Dad. There are more to come.