Thread by @GailSimone

Okay, I am about to tell a bit of a story.

You're going to want to be prepared for this, fair warning.

Seriously, this is quite emotional.

It's about a little boy who fell in love with superheroes at a very young age.

His name is Zaadii, he's Navajo, and when he was just three years old, his sister got a FROZEN cape.

At the same time, he discovered the BATMAN syndicated tv show, the Adam West one, and he decided that superheroes were EVERYTHING.

So, he stole the cape every chance he got.

So, picture this little guy, just three, running and jumping all over the house, doing flips and gymnastics, in his sister's Frozen cape, which to him, was a superhero cape. Non-stop.

Endlessly.

To his sister's chagrin.

Now, this causes some trouble with his older sister, and at this point, Zaadii is so obsessed with superheroes that he can recite large chunks of episodes and films featuring them verbatim.

His mom asks if he wants a cape of his own.

So they go shopping.

And they find a Batman costume.

With a cape.

And from then on, baby, it's all over.

He's not Zaadii anymore.

He's BATMAN 24/7.

Three years old, he's decide without QUESTION that he's a superhero.

When anyone calls him Zaadii, he says that's not his name.

"I'm BATMAN."

The kid has superhero fever BAD.

His real name, Zaadii, which was suggested with the help of tribal elders, means roughly, 'the power of still water.'

But at this point, he wants everyone to call him Batman.

From then on, he and his costume are inseparable. He never wants to take it off.

His wonderful mother, Rachel, has to wash it by giving him a bath in it.

A bat-bath.

The other thing he cares about is the environment, about protecting nature and animals.

At this point, everyone knows he's going to grow up to actually BE a superhero, someone who protects nature. It's not a fantasy, it's just accepted by everyone who knows him.

Everyone thinks their child is special, but with Zaadii is, EVERYONE who met him thought that. It was just accepted at home and at school and everywhere they went that this little guy was a little superhero and that cape was never coming off.

Smiles followed him everywhere.

Okay, this part gets hard. You can mute this thread if you have to, but I really feel it's worth reading to the end.

At three years old, Zaadii, his mother and sister were walking across a street when they were hit by a distracted driver. The mother and sister recovered, Zaadii tragically did not.

This is hard to type, but I hope you'll hang on just a bit longer.

I'm a mom. This is every parent's nightmare. It's almost impossible to talk about even as a distant observer.

But this little hero's life was ended way too soon.

The @travelers insurance company has been doing a few short films and other projects in a beautiful series dedicated to telling the 'Unfinished Stories' of people whose lives were ended by distracted driving.

enddd.org/end-distracted….

They approached Zaadii's family, and it was decided to tell a Zaadii story, his Unfinished Story, in the format he loved so much...a superhero story.

They asked me if I would write it.

I was very hesitant.

First, I cry easily when children are hurt. And I could feel a lot of grief just from the small bit I knew already, both for the mother, and for that kid in the cape.

Because I am a mom now, but I had definitely BEEN that kid, and had the same obsession with the very same show.

So, even though the message was so important, I was very reluctant. I just didn't know if I could bring justice to Zaadii's life and family.

So @travelers set up a series of calls with Zaadii's mom, Rachel, and myself. To see what would happen.

And we talked mother to mother.

And she told me about Zaadii, not just through tears, but through laughter, about what a funny, irrepressible kid he was, how he had to take baths IN the bat-suit, how people reacted around him.

She was so emphatic and warm, I finally got it.

I hung up the phone, my hubby knew how much I had been questioning myself on this, and he just waited quietly. I told him I had to do it.

I may not be the best person to do it but I'm doing it.

This is Zaadii.

I got to talk to his grandmother and learn more about his family. Just lovely, extraordinary people who were kind enough to let me in enough to get a sense of this little guy.

Rachel has set up a foundation to create awareness.

zaadii.org

I know it's just my illusion, but I feel I knew Zaadii. I miss him and I never got to meet him. I wanted to hear him tell me he was Batman.

So I agreed to do the book. We asked my dear friend Jim Calafiore to do the art. We've had to keep all this secret for a long time.

I've spoken endlessly with the people at @Travelers. They are trying to get people to stay off their phones while driving. But more than that, at every stage, they have been incredibly respectful of Zaadii's family and memory. If the family had a change, we made it immediately.

Everyone genuinely felt that Zaadii would follow some in his family who had become protectors of the environment. A hero.

And he loved superheroes more than anything.

So we made an Unfinished Story about the superhero he might create in his imagination.

I wanted to channel everything he loved about superheroes; the action, the gymnastics, the cool hideout, the fancy car...

And the result is Z-Hawk.

We are so proud of this book, and we hope it's exactly the kind of hero he would like.

The comic is free, out today right here on Twitter, at the @NY_Comic_Con account, and physical copies are coming. We're doing a video about it, that will be released on Sunday during the virtual @NY_Comic_Con panels.

The great @JeffreyVeregge is doing a variant cover.

You can read the story for free here:

https://twitter.com/NY_Comic_Con/status/1314173723117858820

#TheLegendOfZhawk

We put our whole hearts into this, it was emotional at every stage.

I want to express huge thanks to Jeffrey and Jim, to @travelers, @comixology, and @NY_Comic_Con.

But mostly...

...I want to express my undying appreciation to Zaadii's mother Rachel, and to her family, for letting us in enough to tell this story. They are in all our hearts forever.

And Zaadii, the littlest Batman.

Please check the story out and share it.

Because the idea of Zaadii's memory saving lives, even after he's gone, is pretty wonderful.

Thank you, everyone.

Have the best day, remember to be happy. There's a lot of good in the world still.