Superheroes

Superheroes have become a regular thing in my life in recent years; the result of both their increasing presence in movies and my daughter's love for them. While I collected comic books during childhood and teen years, my collecting slowed to a trickle and completely stopped in my twenties. I only saw the old familiar faces of characters such as Nightcrawler, Magneto, Spiderman, Hulk, etc. in the occasional movie and in the form of little plastic figurines from the Heroclix game that was one of our most popular products when I still co-owned a game store in Utica, NY (I admit, I wound up collecting Heroclix figures too).

Then Kyra discovered those characters for herself thanks to shows such as Teen Titans and Superhero Squad (her favorite) as well as movies and video games (Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1&2 get a lot of play in this house). Kyra dressed up as Supergirl for both the Hilton Kid's Parade last summer and for the opening of the Superhero exhibit at the Strong National Museum of Play this past fall. My wife and I have taken turns using stuff lying about around the house to transform ourselves into imaginary supervillains for our little Supergirl to vanquish (I've also had to dress up as a bad guy for her to lightsaber duel with when Kyra wears her Yoda costume).

Come to kick Sith butt she has.

Kyra started taking Marvel Superhero vitamins this week. Last weekend she took part in Free Comic Book Day and wound up with 18 (!) free comic books after visiting two different comic shops. Kyra wants to go see Iron Man 2 this weekend... though she mainly wants to see it because Black Widow is in it and not because of Iron Man or War Machine's presence (Her daddy wants to see it because of all of them). It's a big-time superhero week here.

Then, a friend called my attention to this article about the Make-a-Wish Foundation working their magic to bring to life the superhero dreams of a young cancer patient. The foundation, along with a large number of big-hearted volunteers played an elaborate and very sizable version of the superhero make-believe game Kristy and I play with our daughter. Police shutdown traffic and provided a motorcade to guide the young superhero, Electron Boy, to Seattle where he saved a football team and a number of others from a pair of make-believe supervillains. I'm always impressed when I read or hear of the efforts of the Make-a-Wish Foundation and those who assist their efforts. Granting wishes is a super power and according to their Web site they do it on an average of once every forty minutes. There are superheroes after all.