was the tension between her and my grandma—Gran acted exactly like someone would behave around her husband's old sweetheart. Whoa, this was turning out to be way more information about my family legacy than I had bargained for!
“The comic-book thing came about quite by accident,” Electra went on, taking us back to a less personal topic, much to my relief. “It wasn't that I didn't enjoy my superhero job. I did, very much. Saved this planet more times than I can count. Went all over the world … saw everything I'd ever want to see, and plenty of things I'd rather I hadn't seen. On my fiftieth birthday, after a rather amazing bash thrown for me by the Superhero Federation, I sat down and took stock of my life. After deep thought and long deliberation, I came to this profound conclusion: I was tired. Just plain tired.” She paused to sip her cocoa.
I smiled, remembering how I'd felt the day I saved the little boy from the tiger, not to mention just moments ago, after we'd moved the bus. “Yeah,” I said. “I can relate.” Maybe too many days like that would get to you in the end. Not that I was in any hurry to get through my next thirty-eight years of superheroism!
“The funny thing was that while I was sitting there thinking and deliberating, I had picked up a marker and begun doodling. Without even realizing it, I had covered several pages, depicting my superhero beginnings. And that's when I knew what I wanted to do. The next day, I submitted a letter of resignation to the Superhero Federation and submitted my doodle pages to an editor at Fusion Comics.
“Well, the editor loved my concept and bought the series. The Federation, on the other hand, had a less enthusiastic response.They were okay with my retiring, but they absolutely forbade me to publish a comic book about my adventures.”
“Why?” I asked. “No one would ever believe they were based on your real-life experiences. People read about Superman and Spider-Man and no one believes they're real.” I raised an eyebrow. “They're not real, are they?”
Electra laughed. “Pure fiction. Which was what I tried to tell the Federation. But they were afraid someone out there would figure out that the superheroes I was writing about really existed. Well, I'd been a hero long enough to respect their decision, so although LG number one had already been published, I had to pull it from circulation.”
“So that's why no one can find it!” I said, thinking of the hours Connie at Connie's Cosmic Comic Shop had spent searching for that one particular issue. “So what happened? How come you published the rest of the series?”
“I had to promise to be very careful not to give too much away. I could use my own adventures as inspiration, but I could never use real superhero names or descriptions.”
“I have to ask …,” I began, placing my empty cocoa mug on the counter. “The other day when you sent me home—was it because you had snooped through my backpack and used my grandpa's scrapbook for inspiration for all those storyboards?”
Electra didn't seem at all angry at the accusation. Instead, she held up her hand and used her pinky to trace a lightning bolt over her heart—the Lightning Girl pledge sign. “I promise you, Zoe, I did not look in your backpack.”
“But the storyboards were almost identical to the adventures I read about in Grandpa's books.”
“Well, there's a good reason for that. You see, Zoe, you remindme so much of your grandfather that having you around these past two weeks has made me very nostalgic. It really got me thinking more and more about the old days, and I started remembering a whole bunch of adventures I hadn't thought about in years. I didn't have to look at those books to know about those missions, because I was there for most of them.”
I wanted to hug her! She hadn't betrayed me after all. Then another question came to me.
“If you retired all those years ago, why did you use your powers
“The comic-book thing came about quite by accident,” Electra went on, taking us back to a less personal topic, much to my relief. “It wasn't that I didn't enjoy my superhero job. I did, very much. Saved this planet more times than I can count. Went all over the world … saw everything I'd ever want to see, and plenty of things I'd rather I hadn't seen. On my fiftieth birthday, after a rather amazing bash thrown for me by the Superhero Federation, I sat down and took stock of my life. After deep thought and long deliberation, I came to this profound conclusion: I was tired. Just plain tired.” She paused to sip her cocoa.
I smiled, remembering how I'd felt the day I saved the little boy from the tiger, not to mention just moments ago, after we'd moved the bus. “Yeah,” I said. “I can relate.” Maybe too many days like that would get to you in the end. Not that I was in any hurry to get through my next thirty-eight years of superheroism!
“The funny thing was that while I was sitting there thinking and deliberating, I had picked up a marker and begun doodling. Without even realizing it, I had covered several pages, depicting my superhero beginnings. And that's when I knew what I wanted to do. The next day, I submitted a letter of resignation to the Superhero Federation and submitted my doodle pages to an editor at Fusion Comics.
“Well, the editor loved my concept and bought the series. The Federation, on the other hand, had a less enthusiastic response.They were okay with my retiring, but they absolutely forbade me to publish a comic book about my adventures.”
“Why?” I asked. “No one would ever believe they were based on your real-life experiences. People read about Superman and Spider-Man and no one believes they're real.” I raised an eyebrow. “They're not real, are they?”
Electra laughed. “Pure fiction. Which was what I tried to tell the Federation. But they were afraid someone out there would figure out that the superheroes I was writing about really existed. Well, I'd been a hero long enough to respect their decision, so although LG number one had already been published, I had to pull it from circulation.”
“So that's why no one can find it!” I said, thinking of the hours Connie at Connie's Cosmic Comic Shop had spent searching for that one particular issue. “So what happened? How come you published the rest of the series?”
“I had to promise to be very careful not to give too much away. I could use my own adventures as inspiration, but I could never use real superhero names or descriptions.”
“I have to ask …,” I began, placing my empty cocoa mug on the counter. “The other day when you sent me home—was it because you had snooped through my backpack and used my grandpa's scrapbook for inspiration for all those storyboards?”
Electra didn't seem at all angry at the accusation. Instead, she held up her hand and used her pinky to trace a lightning bolt over her heart—the Lightning Girl pledge sign. “I promise you, Zoe, I did not look in your backpack.”
“But the storyboards were almost identical to the adventures I read about in Grandpa's books.”
“Well, there's a good reason for that. You see, Zoe, you remindme so much of your grandfather that having you around these past two weeks has made me very nostalgic. It really got me thinking more and more about the old days, and I started remembering a whole bunch of adventures I hadn't thought about in years. I didn't have to look at those books to know about those missions, because I was there for most of them.”
I wanted to hug her! She hadn't betrayed me after all. Then another question came to me.
“If you retired all those years ago, why did you use your powers
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