Sure, I'd watched my share of Batman: The Animated Series after school and I'd read a couple of free-standing Batman stories, but these were small exceptions to a twenty-year old "Make mine Marvel" perspective. If the topic of Kitty Pryde or Cyclops were to be brought up I'd be in hog heaven, but mention Superman in a positive light and you'd feel my disdain. Even Miller's Batman, possibly the only DC character I was familiar with, was always mad at Superman. For most of my life, I stood staunchly against anything published by DC comics.
In Amy I found a fellow comic book love. Whereas my boxes were full of Uncanny X-Men issues, hers overflowed with Batman books. She had a cat named Bruce, an homage to Bruce Wayne (Batman) and Bruce Campbell (the cult film actor). Batman is a large part of Amy's life and if I was to win her over the Dark Knight would have to be part of mine as well, so I dove in head first.
That fall I met a kindred spirit named Chad, a pretty cool dude that Amy jokingly refers to as my boyfriend, who guided me into a love affair with Green Lantern. I was reading two of DC's heaviest hitters and as a result I accidentally met and learned to love the rest of the DC universe (except for Lobo - he's mockery of the entire DC universe) through the various crisis crossovers.
The twenty years had come to an end. Make mine Marvel, but make it DC too.
