Paloma Peace and Barry Battle were high school sweethearts. Everyone always said that they were made for each other. After graduation they got married and went into the superheroing business. But then things started to change. Barry drifted over to the villain path.

They dealt with it the way many couples in love deal with those sorts of things: they just didn't talk about it. It was like their neighbors Bob and Sandy who were both on the city council, but Bob was a Republican and Sandy was a Democrat. They never discussed work, or politics, or anything like that once they were home. They didn't interfere with each other's plans. They just didn't talk about it.

After a few years they had a son, Warren, who was the darling of them both. But then, when Warren was still very small, Barry was arrested and sentenced to jail. He was given solitary, and Paloma was only allowed to see him every six months, Warren only once a year. The authorities were afraid that he would hurt them, but Paloma knew he never would.

She did her best to raise her son on her own. She wanted him to respect both of his parents. And so, like the families who celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah, she exposed her son to both the hero and the villain ways, gave him role models of each to look up to as she read him bedtime stories and chose posters for his walls. She figured that when he was old enough, he could make his own choice.

That was, she thought, the right and honorable way to do it.