As a parent, I knew this day was coming. I knew it was a conversation I would have to have. And oh, how I dreaded it.

I had hoped against hope to avoid it, that moment when the inadequacies of my ability to explain the workings of the world would be laid bare.

I had prepared for it, of course, practicing in front of the mirror what I would say when the time did arrive. But how can a parent ever truly be ready for that discussion, for The Talk?

And so it was this morning when I had to tell my four-year-old son just why it is that he will never see both Batman and Spiderman, or both Superman and Iron Man, in the same comic.