Part 6 (1/2)
”He flies, like a bat”
”No, he doesn't fly”
”But he is blind”
”No, he only dresses like a bat He has no batlike qualities at all He uses his fists”
”That sounds dull”
”Actually, it's spooky You'd like it”
”Maybe another animal”
”Uh, well, yeah Okay A hawk Hawkman”
”Hawk, yes, okay But that one ht Scratch the bird fa one”
”Maybe a swiuy works in the Chesler shop, he said they're already doing a guy ims For Timely”
”A lion?”
”Lion The Lion Lion He roars very loud”
”He has a super roar”
”It strikes fear”
”It breaks dishes”
”The bad guys go deaf”
They laughed Joe stopped laughing
”I think we have to be serious,” he said
”You're right,” said Samer Tigerers are killers shi+t Let's see”
They began to go through the rolls of the ani naturally on the predators: Catman, Wolfman, the Owl, the Panther, the Black Bear They considered the primates: the Monkey, Gorillaman, the Gibbon, the Ape, the Mandrill with his multicolored wonder ass that he used to bedazzle opponents
”Be serious,” Joe chided again
”I' to be thinking of aniuy hits the stands, there's going to be guys running around dressed like every dauys And I'll bet you anything there's going to be five guys who are really strong, and invulnerable, and can fly”
”If he goes as fast as the light,” Joe suggested
”Yeah, I guess it's good to be fast”
”Or if he canburn up If he can-listen! If he can, you know Shoot the fire, with his eyes!”
”His eyeballs would melt”
”Then with his hands Or, yes, he turns into a fire!”
”Tiuy and the water guy”
”He turns into ice ice He makes the ice everywhere” He makes the ice everywhere”
”Crushed or cubes?”
”Not good?”
Sammy shook his head ”Ice,” he said ”I don't see a lot of stories in ice”
”He turns into electricity?” Joe tried ”He turns into acid?”
”He turns into gravy He turns into an enormous hat Look, stop Stop Just stop”
They stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, between Sixth and Seventh avenues, and that hen Salobal vision, one which he would afterward coainst the diaphanous, dollar-colored heel of New York to be vouchsafed to him in his lifetime
”This is not the question,” he said ”If he's like a cat or a spider or a fucking wolverine, if he's huge, if he's tiny, if he can shoot flames or ice or death rays or Vat 69, if he turns into fire or water or stone or India rubber He could be a Martian, he could be a ghost, he could be a God or a demon or a wizard or ht now, see, at this veryyou Every little skinny guy like me in New York who believes there's life on Alpha Centauri and got the shi+t kicked out of hiht thisaround with a pencil in his shi+rt pocket, saying, 'He's like a falcon, no, he's like a tornado, no, he's like a Goddaht now, see, at this veryyou Every little skinny guy like me in New York who believes there's life on Alpha Centauri and got the shi+t kicked out of hiht thisaround with a pencil in his shi+rt pocket, saying, 'He's like a falcon, no, he's like a tornado, no, he's like a Godda' Okay?”
”Okay”
”And no matter e come up with, and hoe dress him, some other character with the same shtick, with the same style of boots and the same little doodad on his chest, is already out there, or is couy inside a week and a half”
Joe listened patiently, awaiting the point of this peroration, but Samaze along the sidewalk but saw only a pair of what looked to be British sailors lighting their cigarettes off a single shi+elded match
”So ” Sammy said ”So ”
”So that is not the question,” Joe pro”
”Continue”
They kept walking
”How? is not the question What? is not the question,” Sammy said
”The question is why”