Hi, all!

So, for this one I decided to try something a bit different. The prompts for this circulation reminded me very much of those journal prompts that English teachers like to give students for busywork, as opposed to actual story prompts. And this inspired me to format my tale as if Jack was responding to a journal prompt himself.

Obviously, this is a bit of an AU, and the time period for this can be whenever you wish. Any spelling or grammar mistakes are left in there intentionally, because this is Jack we're talking about, and I don't think he'd care.

Requirements:

Word Count: 516

Task: Assignment One: Write about a Newsie's favorite superhero. Era in time does not matter, you may go with any superhero at all, from any comic, DC, Marvel, etc., and also explain how this superhero or what this superhero, rather, stands for in this boy's eyes.


Jack Kelly

Ms. Taylor's 6th Period

May 20th

English 12 Journal

Prompt: Write about your favorite superhero. Explain why this superhero is you favorite, and what he/she stands for to you.

For a while when I was younger, my favorite superhero was Batman. Batman had it all, and he was everything I wanted to be, y'know? He had no fancy "super-powers" to help him, but he beat up the bad guys just the same.

And whenever he wanted a break from being the Caped Crusader, he was still Bruce Wayne: genius playboy philanthropist who had enough money to never want for anything.

I'll admit, for little kid me, sometimes the fact that he was a billionaire was more covetable (I get bonus points for vocab words, right?) than any other of his traits. But hey, I was a kid then.

Lately though, I've kinda started liking the character of Robin.

There've been lots of Robins though the years. That's the one problem with comics, they never stick to one story line.

The first Robin I ever heard about was an acrobat who joined Batman after his parents were killed in a staged trapezey (trapeze-y, trapezeee, bar swing thing) accident, but recently one of the gang (no, Ms. Taylor, we're not a real gang) was telling me about a series of Batman comics where Robin was Bruce Wayne's son and was trained as an assassin. Hell, I think Robin's even been a girl.

But, if you wanna get more serious about things, you could say that whatever Robin you're looking at, they all stand for the same thing. Robin has Batman's back in almost every situation.

He's dependable. Regardless of how bad the mission is going, or how stupid the plan is, Robin's there.

He's just as much a superhero as the next guy, and if he were ever to go rogue he could take Batman down in a heartbeat because he knows all his secrets.

But Robin chooses to be Batman's sidekick. He chooses to stick around and help Batman figure things out. And that's what made me start to notice him.

I think with all sidekicks, the thing that makes them special is that they help their superhero/mentor/leader/person figure things out. And not just with the big things, like how to defeat a villain. But with the little everyday things too.

So, maybe sidekick ain't the right word for it. Calling someone a sidekick is demeening (Haha! Vocab word #2 – I spelled that right, right? Right). I mean, the people who have my back, the ones who help me figure things out, they ain't beneath me. They ain't just my sidekicks.

They're all just as good, if not better than me. But they choose to stick around and keep me from doing anything too stupid. And I try to do the same for them. Not that they should ever trust my judgement. But I try.

So yah. That's why Robin's my favorite. Because he's not just a sidekick. And maybe, I guess, 'cause he reminds me of some guys I know, too.