Well the latest news has been a bit of a shocker

I was logging onto my YouTube channel on Friday and to my utter shock, Kevin Conroy who was the voice of Batman for many of us growing up had died. To say that I was actually taken aback is an understatement; for many of us he was the definitive Batman, the Dark Knight Detective, the Caped Crusader, the Guardian of Gotham and there was no one else who epitomised his role. There were number of YouTube videos paying tribute to his thirty years as Batman, and let’s face it I don’t think anyone else will ever be able to fill those shoes. As one of the you tube has said, ‘Perhaps they shouldn’t try to fill his shoes, but seek to shape the role of Batman themselves; while realising the legacy that Kevin Conroy himself has left. For those of us who grew up with the The New Adventures of Batman and who came to find a friend in the persona of Bruce Wayne/Batman (even if, like me, we never met him in person) this has been a hit it will take some time to recover from. The best we can do to honour his memory and his legacy is to watch everything he starred in (especially Batman because he owned that persona,) and when I wrote/write my Fanfiction it is that actor/voice that I think of when I’m writing. Now that I think is a legacy he would be proud of.

On a slightly darker note, it would appear, although I have no evidence of this that both Kevin Conroy and Chadwick Boseman died from similar causes – that of Bowel Cancer. There is no point, now in going to reasons as to why neither of these men sought treatment before it came to this, but perhaps their untimely deaths – and let’s face it both could have lived longer had they sought treatment earlier will be a salutary lesson to other men. I do not know, all we can do is the best we can do – and yes I know it turns us women into shrews because when men say that their bowel habits have changed significantly, and when women say ‘You need to go see the quack,’ and they brush us off, perhaps now is the time to be a little more forceful and tell them that we booked them in at a certain time and they will attend the appointment and find out exactly what’s wrong. We all know that the sooner a malady – even one as serious as Cancer can be treated relatively successfully if caught early.

I made a small tribute to Kevin Conroy which I put up on Facebook, although I shall put a copy up here simply for my own records. I don’t have the skill that some of my other Facebook users have so I don’t think it’s particularly good, but I did my best.

There have been so many tributes from his friends and his colleagues saying how much they respected him and loved him and how much he gave back to his community. He was always appreciative of his fans and the impact they made on him. He was one in a million, or as the Ferengi might say he was gold- pressed latinum. One thing is for sure, he will be missed so very much, again for me and for many others, he was the one and only Batman. There are many imitators, but there is only one original.

RIP Kevin Conroy