From the moment I discovered the Fantastic Four, I knew I was destined to be on an experimental rocket ship mission that would magically transform me and my family and/or friends into the a group of superheroes that would save the world. I mean it, I wanted to be a Superhero.
Please don’t judge. As a kid I designed costumes and sometimes even occasionally found excuses to wear one. Let me be clear, I’m not talking about plastic Superman or Spider-Man costumes, I am talking about completely original costumes made out of whatever I could find to make my karate uniform look “Super”. Many towels and blankets wore destroyed in the making the perfect cape and my mom seemed to accept the fact that her little boy was obsessed with ski goggles.
I wasn’t alone in this? I had friends who joined me and I was reminded of this at my wedding when my best man decided it was perfect time to come clean to the world about the useless adventures of Maximum and Kid Ninja. He toasted to our adventures through childhood together and our mostly thwarted attempts at becoming little Batmen. He came clean about how we spent all of our superhero careers planning our superhero careers and he toasted to the fact that 20+ years later we are still friends. He said it best “It was an awesome adventure.”
My childhood is littered with memories that were inspired by the heroes I read about. Whether it was the homemade superhero costumes or the first time I watched Christopher Reeve as Superman, Superheroes were a fond childhood memory.
When I was a kid, not every parent could appreciate how imagination could become something great. Today we know that creative childhood games can become so much more. Today we know that the Pixar Movies, iDevices and Marvel Comics of tomorrow will come from the imaginations of some lil geek who is playing superhero in his backyard today. When my Parker puts on her Wonder Woman costume and says “Daddy, it helps me dance.” I think she’s right.
I was originally trying to create another Top 8 list. The Top 8 reasons why Superheroes are awesome but I decided that reading skills and personal character are articles for another time. This article is a plea to the skeptical parent. Comic Books and superheroes can open up a world of possibilities to any young reader. Giving our children permission to imagine is something they will be talking about on their wedding day and if your lucky, they will be thanking you when they one day accept their Pulitzer and/or their Oscar.
If you have any suggestions for future articles or comic questions you might want answered, let me know at [email protected]. You can also follow me on Twitter @mylilgeeks and/or @billystrick
When I was 17 I sit down with my nephews during a power outage and said “Let’s design superheroes” When my nephews, at this point 8 and 9, had so many problems coming up with the concepts I realized that imagination was dead. I worked with them to rekindle imagination and thanks to Ninja Turtles and Magic The Gathering I know they now have imaginations. My first superhero, Were-Bot, a half robot half werewolf hero may have been pushed into the memory banks of past, but the fact kids just play videogames and no longer come up with original concepts is a sad future.I love this article and cannot stress how important I think kids comics are. Thank you for this excellently worded call to arms for parents, and you better believe when I have kids that t shirt domino masks and knotted sheets will litter my world.
I have a nearly 7 year old huge Batman fan at home. Together we watch cartoons and read comic books and books about superheroes. He has such an amazing imagination and writes great stories at school so I have definitely encouraged his interest as it opened up a whole new world to him.
Thanks for the feedback, folks. Keep pushing those kids to read and go crazy with their imaginations. And Brandon, I think we need to find an artist and publish The Were-Bot book. That sounds Perfect.