I'm Weak When You Miss Me, When You Roll Me On Your Tongue

So it's comfortably post-Valentine's Day, and I'm proud to say that last year's Godiva-and-roses extravaganza has been topped, big time. This year, I received probably the second-best present of my life: (second to a signed copy of Science Verse)

R bought me a comic book.

Last year he was all about "winning" Valentine's Day. He thinks it's a competition between men to see whose girl can tell the best story. He won, last year. Chocolates and roses and treasure hunts and fancy dinners translate well, girl-to-girl. Comic books don't translate so well, but he still won this year.

He won because he bought me something I really, truly wanted, something that meant more to me than overpriced candies. It takes a very special guy to buy a comic book off eBay for Valentine's Day, because he knows that every time someone asks me, I'll tell them the truth: He bought me a comic book. The one comic book I've always wanted to read and couldn't, because it's still under copyright and copies are scarce.

He bought me Amazing Spider-man #121: The Night Gwen Stacy Died.

Just so I can geek-wank here a second, this is #6 on the all-time great Marvel comics list. It's revolutionary. It's got great art, and a great story. And it's historic--Gwen Stacy was who Peter Parker dated before Mary Jane Watson, his college girlfriend who was smart and hot and into science and into Peter Parker. It was a relationship free of hero-worship. And they killed her off.

Well, actually, Peter killed her.

That's why this comic is so hard to get. Not only did the writers kill off a popular character, the hero's girlfriend, but she died, accidentally, by the hero's hand. No mistaken identities, no sterotypical comic book plot devices. Just a toss off a bridge by a villian, and a too-quick stop by Spider-man. Broke her neck.

And now I have it. It's in decent condition, really. And it means so much more than the chocolate and roses and tricks. Those were nice, yeah, but this--this is me. This is a gift for me, not for people who ask. It's a gift that says "I see your geekiness and I enable it."

I bought myself some tulips at the grocery yesterday. I bought myself some good dark chocolate last week. I'm rapidly turning into the kind of woman who doesn't need Valentine's Day. But damn, it's nice when it turns out well.