Shoutout to My First Superheros: Zorro, D’Artagnan, and Edmond Dantes

When you grow up as an only child, you get really good at spending time alone. Not to say that you’re lonely or anything; it’s quite the opposite. You can’t know what you don’t know. In my case, a lot of my free time was spent transforming my grandmother’s closet into a one-person clubhouse and reenacting my favorite movie scenes in her living room. I couldn’t tell you how many times I rolled around on the couch pretending I was Tarzan sliding through tree branches. In hindsight, I owe a lot of my imagination to my family who let it flourish, but my grandmother especially. She’s the person who would take me to Target to buy a new movie every Tuesday, like clockwork, and watched more hours of The Land Before Time sequels than I’d like to admit. Out of all of those memories, one struck me recently when I was revisiting my origin story. Before I knew the difference between Marvel and DC, or what anime even was, I was already running down hallways at top speed with a towel tied around my neck as a cape. But I wasn’t trying to be Superman or Batman. Nah, that wouldn’t come until later in life. I was Alejandro Murrieta. I was Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D’Artagnan. I was Edmond Dantés. These swordsman, armed with their charm and wit, were my first superheroes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz0R9XJciO0 In addition to the towel around my neck, I would wear my grandmother’s church hat, my aunt’s work boots, and carry around a fly swatter that would make a cool thwip thwip noise when…