The Superman Complex

The cutest black Superman on the Internet

I've been worried for some time.  A few night sweats.  An unexplained cough.  A sore throat once in a while.  Mix that with my hypochondria and active sex life, and I was a little concerned about my next HIV test.  It was unlike me to have waited this long.  It had been over a year.

Was this finally the time when all of my sex would catch up with me?  Did I think I was Superman?  Impervious to disease and knuckleheads on the Internet? 

It was time to know the truth.  So I headed to the one place where I knew I could get an inexpensive (and quick) HIV test...

...the bathhouse.  Bathhouses, especially ones that do public health outreach like Steamworks, are great places to get anonymous or confidential HIV testing.  With today's technology, noone needs to wait a week to get an HIV test result anymore.  I hate waiting.  I like to know ASAP.  It just so happens that the local bathhouse offers 20 minute rapid HIV testing.

Last week, I went to the bathhouse for the sole purpose of getting an HIV test.  I showed up and the social worker doing HIV outreach was already testing someone.  So I stood near the locker room of the bathhouse and just waited.  And waited.  And waited.  I grabbed a few condoms and put them in my pocket.  I started reading some literature on gay sex as a steady stream of people were being buzzed into the bathhouse.

Then someone tapped me on the shoulder.  It was a tanned latino guy with a nice smile and thin moustache.  He had a decent bod and a slight accent.  You are looking good man, he told me.  I blushed.  Thanks, I said.  He got close to me. So you want to come to my room and have some fun? he asked.  I smiled and told him that I was waiting for someone, but if he gave me his room number I would come up when I was finished.

He gave me his room number.  But five minutes later he was back.  Your friend's late.  Why don't you just come visit with me and see him later? he said.  I was tempted.  But I really didn't want to go upstairs and get busy and end up having the social worker leave the bathhouse without me getting a test.  So I brushed off the latino guy and waited another ten minutes.

The latino guy came by again.  And this time I could see his dick rock hard in his towel.  It was nothing to write home about.  But it was decent--like his smile.  I figured it would take the social worker some time to finish, so I decided to go upstairs and have a little fun.  I changed my clothes and followed the latino guy to his room.

Once in the room we laid down on the bed.  And looked at ourselves in the long mirror on the wall.  He kept trying to kiss me in the mouth (a no-no in any bathhouse, you don't know where their mouth has been).  We did a lot of body contact.  And looking in each other's faces.  Slightly touching on one another's eyes with soft brushes of finger tips.  We did this for sometime before he surprised me and said, I want to fuck you.  He didn't strike me as the type that would want to fuck me.  But he was masculine and his dick, while not large was a decent size, with an incredible stiffness.  So we lubbed up, he put on a condom and we went to town.

The sex was enjoyable.  Not because he felt that great.  But because he really seemed to enjoy it.  His words and facial expressions, and the convulsions he went through when he came turned me on to the nth degree.  Hearing him moan stroked my pride.  It was almost better than having an orgasm.  When we got finished, you could kinda say I stuck my chest out like Superman.  Because my superpowers were able to make him have a loud,  hard, and--from looking at the condom-- voluminous orgasm.

Afterwards we cleaned up, and we laid on the little bed on top of another, sharing an intimate moment.  We started talking.  He told me his name was Ezekial Rivera and that he was born in Venezuela and currently living in San Francisco.  He was in Chicago on business--I just flew in from Germany, and before that I was in Miami, he said nonchalantly, before adding, I would love to fly you to San Francisco.  My inner eye rolled.

He told me that he came to US to play professional soccer with the Columbus Crew.  But he only played with them for a year.  It wasn't for him he said.  So he said that he was helping out with his family business and staying at the Renaissance Hotel (a pretty nice hotel in Chicago's Loop).

Time was passing.  I had an HIV test to take.  I really need to go meet my friend, I told him.  He just kept smiling at me.  He was growing on me.  I liked his smile.  His accent.  The look of his body.  I just feel like I know you, he told me, I feel a connection with you.  I won't say that I felt that thing.  But I definitely wanted to get to know him better.  His intensity was captivating.

I would like to get to know you outside of this bathhouse, he told me.  I stood up, wrapping my towel around my waist.  He walked in front of me and gave me a vice grip hug.  So can I see you again? he asked.  Sure, I said, give me your number.  He replied, I'll make it easy for you.  You have my name and the hotel I am staying at.  Just call me at the hotel.  He paused and kissed my chest before continuing, My flight back to San Francisco is tomorrow, but if we have a lot of fun maybe I can delay my flight for another day or two.

I thought that was pretty presumptuous, but whatever, it was his dime.  I gave him a hug, told him good bye and promised to call him the next morning.  And then I went downstairs and took my HIV test.

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The next day I got up and called the Renaissance Hotel. I don't have the room number, but can you put me through to one of your guests, his name is Ezekial Rivera, I said to the front deskman.  After a long pause, I was informed that there was no guest with that name and was I sure that I had the correct hotel.

I hung up the phone.  For no apparent reason, Ezekial had lied.  I could see him lieing if I had been pressing him to meet and he wasn't interested.  But he was the one who brought it up.  I didn't ask him to tell me details about his life, he decided to share them with me.  Personal details.  That's right, he played for the Columbus Crew supposedly.  Maybe I mispelled his name wrong.  So I went to the Crew's website and examined their all-time roster.  There was no one on the team at anytime in the history of the Crew with a name that remotely resembled Ezekial Rivera. 

I kept wondering to myself--why would someone go through the trouble of initiating to pretend to like someone?  I could see if I had cruised him in the bathhouse, or asked to get together after we had sex.  But this guy not only approached me, but then feigned that he "felt like he already knew me."  How psycopathic are people becoming today?  Who in their right mind would lie the way this man did?

After a lot of thought, I came to the conclusion that mister Ezekial Rivera suffers from The Superman Complex.  I came across The Superman Complex after multiple viewings of Kill Bill Volume 2.  In the movie, Bill (played by David Carradine) is talking to deadly assassin Beatrix Kiddo aka Black Mamba (played by Uma Thurman) about her attempt to relocate, hide, and become a normal housewife named Mrs. Tommy Plumpton.  Bill tells Beatrix:

Superman stands alone. Superman did not become Superman, Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he is Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red S is the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears, the glasses the business suit, that's the costume. That's the costume Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent? He's weak, unsure of himself... he's a coward. Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race, sort of like Beatrix Kiddo and Mrs. Tommy Plumpton.

While I love Quentin Tarrantino's social critique of Superman, I prefer not to be so cynical as to think that Superman looks down all of humanity.  Instead, I think he has a complex and wishes he could be one of us.  Clark Kent, in a way, is who Superman aspires to be--a regular, normal, everyday person who doesn't have the weight of the world on his shoulders.  But like all people pretending to be someone he's not, what does he do?  He overcompensates.  In his attempt to be an average joe, he goes to the extreme and doesn't blend in at all.  He becomes mild mannered, awkward Clark Kent.  In essence, Superman has a complex because he wants to be someone that he's not.

Ezekial Rivera suffers from the Superman Complex.  He, like so many men who lie for no reason other than to just be deceptive, wants to be someone who he isn't: a successful, world traveling professional soccer player, who, even though he goes to a bathhouse, isn't a whore.  Why?  Because in his mind he's convinced himself that he can pretend to "connect" with the men he meets in the bathhouse.  He doesn't just want to be himself, because to be himself is either too stressful (as is the case for Superman) or too boring and mundane.

I hope men begin to deal with their issues.  Because I am sick of dealing with men who approach me with their silly Superman complexes.  Why can't they just fuck and stick to the old mantra of "looking for no strings"?  At least that's less exhausting.  Sigh.

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By the way,  my test result came back negative. 

Comments

[nat]

if u cant trust a gay in a bath house looking for sex, who can u trust ?

[Reggie]

glad u're HIV test came back negative. did you get tested for other STDs, maybe get a tuberculosis test? (i'm not a doctor but night sweats can also be a symptom of something else like TB) not trying to scare you. just thought you might want to check for further peace of mind.

one.

[jr]

cute picture

[tai]

i would never think to go to a bathhouse for an hiv test... or even to have sex there prior to getting tested! lol

it's great to know that the Sex has returned. you've been missed!

[Darius]

"damn only you would go to a bathouse for an HIV test and have sex before having the test taken!"

LOL, I thought I was the only one who found that funny. WB though

[E]

Welcome back...I'm so boring...I went to Steamworks and got tested..and that was it. Then again, I didn't see anyone I wanted to get with and nobody bothered me either.

[Quentin Ergane]

I missed you.

Guys like Rivera I used to call "shadow" types -- because they are not real. But I understand it better now, sometimes, you don't want to be yourself, but to create that kind of elaborate life for yourself... borders on pathological.

How are you, Hon?

[channel]

You are off the hook. You had sex before a hiv test. Most people would be sweeting bullets thinking about the possible results.

[kristen]

damn only you would go to a bathouse for an HIV test and have sex before having the test taken!

[Cash S]

Oh wow look who has returned.

Glad everything checked out on the health tip!