A Favorite Scene: Identity Crisis #1

No picture this time, because there really isn't any one panel that I love so much. (Though I've always liked the art in Identity Crisis). Lots of incoherent rambling to make up for that though.

Anyway, in honor of yesterday being Valentine's Day, I decided to talk a little about a favorite "romantic" moment in comics.

See, I really really liked the beginnng of Identity Crisis. When Ralph is talking to Lorraine about his and Sue's relationship.

Over the course of the night, Ralph reveals that he always figures out ahead of time what she had planned for his birthday but he plays along because he knows how hard she worked at it. He even knows the present she's going to get him, which bemuses Lorraine immensely. That's not the part that gets to me, even though I do think it's cute that he plays along just to make her happy.

The part that always gets to me and always makes me sniffle (well, that and Butter Pecan...I might secretly be a sap. Shut up. :-P) though is when she's wrapping up the present. When she says, "My honey thinks he's so clever. And he is. Which is exactly why he'll guess the magnifying glass..."

I don't know why but that moment epitomizes true love to me. I've never bought into the "Love is Blind" idea. Infatuation makes you ignore the flaws of the object of your affections, but that's not the same as love.

To me, love is the exact opposite. Love isn't blind. Love is about knowledge Love is being able to look at someone and know exactly what an irritating, obnoxious person he/she can be. It's knowing exactly what about a particular person really sets you off and makes you twitch. It's about seeing, if not all, than at least a good portion of that person's flaws. And not caring one whit.

Because people are flawed. No one's perfect. But what makes love *love* is that when you're with this person, all of those things don't really matter so much. They're *there* of course, but in the end, it's the whole person that's important, and those irritating qualities are part and parcel.

In fact, those irritating qualities are what makes a person real. Anyone can become infatuated by a fantasy, by someone who seems utterly without flaw, but they're only setting themself up for disappointment. No one can live up to that idea. No one should have to try. Eventually that perfection will crack...and that's where the real test of the relationship comes in.

It's part of why I've always loved the Ice/Guy pairing so much. There was no way she could have ignored the...multitude of personal flaws and quirks of Guy Gardner. No human being could. It's pretty much impossible to have any sort of romantic delusion/infatuation with Guy Gardner that wouldn't be cured in a grand total of thirty-two point six seconds.

But Ice knows that this isn't all that Guy is. And these flaws just make her appreciate the rest more. I've mentioned before that one of the scenes I consider incredibly romantic is in that silly story where Guy ends up taking her to the Ice Capades. Because this is Guy Gardner. And thus, there is no man *less* suited to enjoying the Ice Capades in existance. But he goes there for her. Macho, overly-testosterone-filled Guy Gardner is actually sitting through the freakin' Ice Capades because he wants to make her happy.

There's nothing more romantic than that, to me. And what's more important, she appreciates the gesture for what it is and is touched. Because she knows he's a testosterone-filled jackass. But that just makes it sweeter, that he's willing to try to tone it down for her.

But back to this scene, that moment when she's putting the glass into the package, knowing full well that he knows what it'll be. And she probably knows that he knows about the entire mystery ahead of time too. But that's okay because she loves *him*. And that's all that's really important.

It's not "I love you in spite of your flaws." It's just plain and simple "I love you."

And so, yes, I sniffle. Hmph.