Batman's His Favorite Name, and Dick Tracy's His Game (at Cosmos)

Enrique Delatora lives a ways from La Mesa, but he likes to hang out at Cosmos Coffee Café in The Village to get away from his parents.

He’s hard to miss—dressed all in black to avoid looking like a Californian, he says, and taking on a similar appearance to Batman, his favorite superhero.

“I used to watch the television show with Adam West,” said Delatora as he sets up to play old-school video games like Dick Tracy on his laptop. “[I]t was very interesting, the way he fights villains. He knows how to make gadgets and weapons.”

Delatora, 31, says he lives off Social Security because he’s got “a learning disability and [is] not smart enough to work on my own.”

He won’t go into detail, but says it’s the graphic novels that keep him company from his overprotective mother and overbearing father. Author Frank Miller heads the list of his favorites, though he’s a fan of all the DC and Marvel comics.

“I loved Captain America; I saw it twice already,” said Delatora, who sports a shaved beard inspired by wrestler Jeff Hardy and spurred cowboy boots. “He’s one of my favorite comic book characters because he’s been made a long time ago and he’s a super soldier from World War II.”