Just a quick note to the folks who asked if I could post a reminder message
when the issue I wrote for The Amazing Spider-Man dealing with the World Trade
Center attack hit the stands. It comes out next Wednesday, the 14th. The
issue has gotten a rather startling amount of coverage, from NPR to CNN, the
New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today...it really seems to have struck
a chord, and helped put things in perspective a bit, which was my hope with the
issue.

I commend this to all fans of Babylon 5. I'm donating my fees for this book to
various New York funds to help those affected by this, and Marvel will match me
on that donation. I think, maybe, it will do some good. I hope so.

Here are two representative sections from the book, which is almost entirely in
captions, as Peter Parker surveys the situation and assesses the situation. It
is, in many ways, a meditation on the events of 9/11, almost a prose poem at
times...the first as he considers the true heroes, the second as he deals with
the question, what do we tell the children; the third, later in the book.

*******

But with our costumes and our powers we are writ small by the true heroes.
Those who face fire without fear or armor.
Those who step into the darkness without assurances of ever walking out again,
because they know there are others waiting in the dark.
Awaiting salvation.
Awaiting word.
Awaiting justice.



What DO we tell the children?
Do we tell them evil is a foreign face?
No. The evil is the thought behind the face, and it can look just like yours.
Do we tell them evil is tangible, with defined borders and names and geometries
and destinies?
No. They will have nightmares enough.

Perhaps we tell them that we are sorry.
Sorry that we were not able to deliver unto them the world we wished them to
have.
That our eagerness to shout is not the equal of our willingness to listen.
That the burdens of distant people are the responsibility of all men and women
of conscience, or their burdens will one day become our tragedy.

Or perhaps we simply tell them that we love them, and that we will protect
them. That we would give our lives for theirs and do it gladly, so great is
the burden of our love.
In a universe of Gameboys and VCRs, it is, perhaps, an insubstantial gift. But
it is the only one that will wash away the tears and knit the wounds and make
the world a sane place to live in.



In recent years we as a people have been tribalized and factionalized by a
thousand casual unkindnesses.
But in this we are one.
Flags sprout in uncommon places, the ground made fertile by tears and shared
resolve.
We have become one in our grief.
We are now one in our determination.
One as we recover.
One as we rebuild.

You wanted to send a message, and in so doing you awakened us from our self
involvement.
Message received.
Look for your reply in the thunder.



jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2001 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)