2.
"All Along the Watchtower"- Jimmi Hendrix. "Outside in the cold distance a wild cat did growl, two riders were approaching and the wind began to howl."
"I fought only the symptoms leaving the disease itself unchecked," an adolescent Billy read aloud. Downstairs his parents were fighting—again—so he boarded himself up in his bedroom and buried his nose in his comic book collection. In those flashy, grainy pages Billy could easily lose himself in the elaborate plots of heroic heroes and hapless villains.
"I want a divorce!" his mother shouted.
Billy gets along better with these comic characters than real people anyway. He was, how to put this delicately, too smart for them. Too smart to play with all the other idiot children, and was therefore rejected. Ostracized.
Billy smirked. Maybe he was the smartest man in the world.
The blond boy stared down at the purple and gold character with who he suddenly noticed a resemblance. Maybe Billy could be the smartest man in the world.
"Leave and never come back, you bastard!" breaking glass.
Naturally he could solve all his problems with such a superior intellect. He could solve the whole world's problems. Warmth spread through Billy's chest and he felt a kinship like never before with this fictional Hero and his sincere desire to save the world from its scummy sickness.
This world could be saved, Billy thought, with the right leadership.
*If you aren't aware the comic book young Billy is meant to be reading is Watchmen. "All Along the Watchtower" is kind of that novel's theme song—and for those of you who are familiar with Watchmen I'd say Dr. Horrible and Ozymandias have quite a few things in common, don't you? If you don't, then read it, it's excellent. Also what Billy is reading is a direct quote form the novel that after I read went "hmmm... Joss Whedon, what have you been reading lately?"