I’m a goob, and proud of it

My name is Scott, and I’m a 58-year-old goob.

And I’m absolutely fine with that.

Now, I’m sure there are some people (especially those of you who have me in your Death Pool) who think that because I’m a 58-year-old I’m supposed to do “age appropriate” things.

Perhaps I should be hardened by life and spend much of my time being angry as I pull my pants up to my teats and/or wear shorts with dress shoes.

Yeah, I don’t do that.

I mean, sure, I’m disgusted by all the stupid in the world and there are a number of people I’d like to hit upside the head with a shovel.

But I don’t do it because we goobs – regardless of age – are not violent.

When did my goobiness start?

Good question.

I remember watching the “Batman” TV series before I ever bought a comic book, and the colorful, campy world of the Caped Crusader was a world I very much wanted to be a part of.

And my parents let me do it, even when I insisted on sitting cross-legged on the floor, bathed in the light of the bat signal while wearing a towel I fashioned into a cape.

They knew I was a kid, and I’m sure they both figured at some point I’d put away childish things.

They figured wrong, for – to date – I have not.

As I grew slightly older I graduated from campy TV to more “serious” comics, and by the age of 12 I learned that the TV Batman was not the “original” Batman at all.

Proto Batman was a master detective and grim vigilante, and nothing like the “Bright Knight” portrayed by Adam West.

But while I continued to support the work and legacy of Gotham’s greatest hero, I also developed a deep appreciation for the likes of Spider-Man, Superman, the Fantastic Four and Wonder Woman.

The world might’ve known me as a mild-mannered honor student and soccer player, but in reality I was an Uber Goober.

When “Superman: The Movie” came out in 1978, I was a junior in high school.

I saw the film with a date on the Friday it opened, with a friend on the following Saturday, by myself on Sunday, convinced my girlfriend to watch it again with me the next Friday, and screened it for a fifth time on Saturday.

“Good grief, son,” I remember my dad saying, “How many times are you going to see that movie?”

I don’t remember my answer, but I planned on seeing it as many times as it took to grasp the magnificence of Superman plucking both a free-falling Lois Lane and a plunging helicopter out of the air.

But the real game-changer came with 1989’s “Batman.”

Yes, I was a grown-ass man long out of college and working as a sportsball writer, but real life paled in comparison to Batman’s reel life. Tim Burton, Michael Keaton, and Jack Nicholson delivered a masterpiece, and I don’t even want to think about how much money I spent seeing that one over and over again. After the movie came out on video (remember when that was a thing?), I rented a VCR (remember when those things were a thing?) and took it to Mom and Pop’s house so that they, too, could experience the thrill.

Mom spent the movie doing needlework and trying to figure out where she’d seen Nicholson before, and Pop fell asleep – dozing off before Batman had a chance to save Vicki Vale at the museum.

It took me a while, but I eventually forgave my father for that incredible display of disrespect.

Anyway, Hollywood has churned out a buttload of superhero flicks over the years, most that I’ve seen and many that I have completely swooned over.

There were 21 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe leading up to “Avengers: Endgame,” and I saw each one multiple times.

There were some that made me emotional because I became so invested in the story and characters.

If you’re uncomfortable with the fact that there were three scenes in “Endgame” that made me cry, you can smooch my patooty.

Of course “Batman Begins,” The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises” are beyond compare, although it should be noted that I’ll see any movie with Batman in it because I feel I have a moral obligation to do so.

He is, after all, Batman.

And by the time Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” comes out, I might be 60 years old.

But you know what?

I’ll still go to the theater to see it multiple times, and I’ll still wear a Batman T-shirt to show my devotion.

Shoot, I’ll even pretend from time to time that I am Batman.

Years from now when I’m in the assisted living facility, I might even believe it.

Yet whether I’m 58, 68, 78, 88 or the age when I falsely accuse nurses of stealing my Pop-Tarts while they parade around my room wearing hamster costumes, I have no intention of being anyone other than myself.

An Uber Goober’s gotta goob out – even when his time is running out.