Superman's Challenge

November 7, 2001

Rooftop of the CNN Center

Atlanta, Georgia

The cameras and the recorders kick on when I walk out onto the roof. I pace for three minutes. Then I sit. I sit for five minutes. I begin pacing again. I’ve paced for another four minutes when Billy lands.

ME: You’re late.

BILLY: Punctuality is a thing of the past.

ME: What?

BILLY: There was a time when I was punctual. But that time has come and gone.

ME: Glad to see fame hasn’t gone to your head. Glad to see you’re not making unreasonable demands of your fellow man.

BILLY: Fame shmame! I’m a comic book!

Billy pulls a comic book out of his sweatshirt and tosses it to me.

ME: Oh yeah . . .

BILLY: It came out today.

A week after Billy’s first live interview, DC Comics approached him about doing a single issue team-up of him and Superman. Billy was a little disappointed when they said the story wouldn’t be part of the DC canon, but how could he turn them down? In the story, Brainiac attacks Metropolis. While Superman slugs it out with the alien robot, Billy is flying around the city, rescuing people from fires and the like.

BILLY: So cool.

ME: How’s it feel to be fictitious?

BILLY: So cool.

I laugh.

BILLY: But turn to page 24.

I do so. It’s the final interaction between Superman and Billy before they fly off in separate directions. They’re standing on a rooftop. Billy looks a little glum. Superman has his hand on Billy’s shoulder. “You’re stronger than you think you are,” says Superman.

BILLY: What do you think he means by that? “You’re stronger than you think you are.” What does that mean?

ME: I think it’s pretty obvious. He’s saying you’re physically stronger than you think you are and you’re spiritually stronger than you give yourself credit for.

BILLY: “Spiritually?”

ME: Yeah. Who you are on the inside. Your heart. Your will. Your moral fiber.

BILLY: Hrm.

ME: What? You don’t believe it?

BILLY: Obviously not, if I’m stronger than I think I am.

ME: Touché.

BILLY: I’m just wondering why he would say that to me.

ME: I think you’re supposed to be a stand-in for America – or maybe all of humanity.

BILLY: Oh. So not me-me. Metaphor me.

ME: I think you’re reading too much into this. I think that statement, “you’re stronger than you think you are,” is a good, strong message. It’s what you believe and what you stand for – and if I know my Superman mythos like I think I do, it’s that statement that separates him from the other superheroes. He fights for us because he believes in us – even when we don’t.

BILLY: So you don’t think it’s directed to me personally.

ME: You might need to hear that message, and I think you’re welcome to take it to heart, but no, I don’t think . . . Geoff Johns . . . had you in mind when he wrote that bit of dialogue.

BILLY: But it’s said to me.

ME: Billy? It’s a comic book. Let it go.

11/07/01

TC