The Day I Met Batman(Ollie Henning) Believe it or not, but I had the honour of meeting Batman, yes, the Batman, when I was very young.

This happened in the 1990s when Batman’s popularity was at its peak in Poland. The live-action movies were released in cinemas every two years, and there was an animated TV show available on video. Of course, like every other kid back then, I loved Batman. I collected the video tapes as well as action figures.

I must have been either 6 or 7 years old. I can’t remember correctly, but it was around the year 1999 more or less. I was on vacation by the seaside with my parents. When we left Mielno, there was a large hotel outside the city, surrounded by a forest. My parents drove through that road and my father suddenly asked me:

“Hey, would you like to meet Batman?”

I was like, “I can’t meet Batman. He doesn’t exist.”

“Well, he is right there! Look!”

My father pointed at a parking lot outside the hotel. When I turned my head, my heart stopped for a second.

***

There he was. As if literally he was taken from a movie. Standing next to his Batmobile and waving at passing cars. My mind went completely berserk at this point.

I thought to myself this sequence of thoughts:

Thought no. 1: “OMG! Batman is REAL!”

Thought no. 2: “Wait a minute. Batman is very violent. He kills a lot of people.”

Thought no. 3: “Uhm, if Batman is real… and if he is violent… then he is going to KILL ME!”

I lost my sanity and began crying desperately. My dad already pulled over at the parking lot, but I begged him not to. My mom tried to calm me down, but all I could do was cry in fear. I was crying for so long that she lost her patience.

“Goddamit, I've had enough of this! Will you calm him down?”

My mom actually asked a random woman in the parking lot to call me down instead of her. I was in such a state of shock that I thought she was some distant family member who just happened to be there. The woman grabbed my hand and took me to see Batman face to face. The dark superhero leaned over me.

“Don’t worry, kid. My job is to protect children. I create fear in the hearts of criminals. I am fear. I am the night. I am BATMAN!”

He said it so seriously and so loudly that it made me cry even harder.

Eventually, Batman sat on the pavement next to me and began showing me gadgets from his utility belt.

“You see, I’m not going to hurt you,” he said.

“I was sure you would kill me!” I responded.

“Haha, I only kill Joker, Penguin, or Two-Face.”

Thankfully, I stopped crying and accepted the fact that Batman was real. He showed me his Batmobile and we took a picture together. At the end, we shook hands.

“I will always be here when you need me,” he said.

“I will remember that.”

Then he pointed at some strange figure at the opposite side of the parking lot.

“Please do me a favour and visit Spider-man.”

“Oh, hell no! He shoots webs out of his hands!” I remarked and jumped into my car.

***

When I came back on vacation there a year later, Batman was still outside the hotel. Like a true superhero, he was waving at every car that was passing him by, and he also waved at me. I waved him back.

10 years later, I did some research on the internet and it turned out the man I met was one hell of a professional (first-generation you might say) cosplayer in my country. He didn’t just create the costume, he built his own Batmobile out of a tractor and a motorcycle! I read an interview with him and he said he wasn’t a huge fan of Batman. He just wanted to show off his mechanical skills to the public without boring them. He stopped cosplaying around 2009 when people were not willing to pay anything for photos with him.

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