I really know nothing about superheroes - except the songs my dad used to sing to us when we were kids .... Spiderman, Batman, etc. But, I know that our son Adam LOVES the superhero concept - the battles, the powers, the unexplainable strengths, the fancy words ... he loves it all. But, when he picks up his superhero books, I have often thought that my lack of enthusiasm to read them, in combo with my efforts to sway him to read anything else, would be worthy of a thesis project (if I were an English or Psych student) .... "Does a mom's unwillingness to excitedly read about superheroes (she doesn't like or understand) stunt the literary skills of her son"? My leap in logic here is that all moms share my distaste for superhero books in lieu of the more stereotypical classics. Anyway .... Adam brought me the book Greatest Battles yesterday; he was eager to read. With Mike in mind, I dug deep and decided to smile & read it (vs. my usual approach of just reading the words while multitasking in my mind !!!). I could almost hear Mike gasping (or giggling) at the thought - that I thought I would need to look so hard for quality in a superhero book!
Needless to say, yesterday was an eye opener for me - and really made me think about the influence superheroes must have had on Mike? Everywhere in this book are allusions to scientific discoveries, scientific disasters, scientific accidents .... and, almost every superhero is a product of some scientific process. Countless superheroes are/were doctors & scientists. In our reading time, Adam and I talked about radiation - radioactive spiders, gamma radiation's effects on the Hulk and the Abomination, Daredevil's sensory enhancement when blinded by a radioactive spill. Seriously ... I was getting into it. I couldn't believe we were even talking about biological concepts like symbiosis - Maximum Carnage's powers of course came from an alien symbiote. And the concepts about the cosmos were endless. I was even shocked at how there was an introduction to government influence & policy making - i.e. the Superhuman Registration Act.
I couldn't believe my own intrigue.
We think about Mike, Sarah, Lucas & Emily all of the time. It was so nice to think about Mike yesterday and think about how excited he would have been that superhero interest had been sparked in new blood. It was nice to think of him without tears.
Adam & Lucas (aka Superbabies)
July 2006
Ok - I better take a closer look as well. I thought I was the only one who read with my mouth, but had many other things floating in my head.
ReplyDeleteCatherine