To follow the Tao is to empty your mind. Each day, know a little less Until in the end, you are one with the way. As you were all along! Shao-La
Shao-La was an eccentric old Woman who lived in a temple atop a mountain (what is it with these people and mountains!?). She taught Taoism to Bruce Wayne, albeit a peculiar brand of Taoism that involved attaching Bruce to a rickety kite-type thing and pushing him off the edge of a cliff! She then steered the kite (which was reminiscent of Batmans cape-glider apparatus) as he soared above the mountain range and contemplated his future. Later, eager to learn what his future actually held, Bruce joined the adjoining temple of the dark Hsien-Tan, Shao-Las opposite number. Tan foretold that Bruce would kill his student, Little Dragon and then read a fortune for him that basically said YOU WILL BECOME BATMAN in not so many words. He then went outside for a bit of a deranged laugh and was promptly struck by lightening. Of course, many years later, in Gotham Citys Chinatown district, Dragon and Batman did indeed square off and, without even a single punch being thrown (but a remarkable splash page nonetheless), Dragon knew that he was beaten and thus committed suicide. Both mentors appeared in the two-part Legends of The Dark Knight story Tao, by Alan Grant and Arthur Ranson (October 1993). This story is well worth tracking down if you havent yet read it.
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
I don't generally read or reply to comments here on What Culture (too many trolls!), but if you follow my Twitter (@heyquicksilver), I'll talk to you all day long!
If you are interested in reading more of my stuff, you can find it on http://quicksilverstories.weebly.com/ (my personal site, which has other wrestling/comics/pop culture stuff on it).
I also write for FLiCK http://www.flickonline.co.uk/flicktion, which is the best place to read my fiction work.
Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
Finally, I sincerely appreciate every single read I get. So if you're reading this, thank you, you've made me feel like Shakespeare for a day! (see what I mean?)
Latcho Drom,
- CQ
