What's so super about Superheroes?

My girlfriend and I took her niece & nephew to one of their friends 3rd birthday party over the weekend. It was your typical mini-people birthday bash. You had kids playing in the jungle gym, climbing & sliding all over the place. You had kids driving around in toy cars bumping into everything in sight. You had bouncy things to bounce on and delicious treats to snack on. What seemed different to me was the clothing rack that they made available for the kids. They had a bunch of Halloween type dress-up options for the kids: something I never remember having when my friends or myself were turning 3. (its possible we did, but I would've been too busy eyeing the birthday cake to notice). One of the little tykes quickly decked himself out in the lone Spiderman costume and then promptly went over to the face painter to complete his transformation with a freshly painted Spidermask. As he was slinging his way around the party I began to wonder: How is Spiderman still so popular?

Now - this question may seem ridiculous at first. I imagine most people would argue that Spiderman's appearance on the big screen (3 times) has a lot to do with Spiderman's continued success. Others may say that it boils down to product placement, kids developing an interest because, well: Spiderman is everywhere! On lunchboxes, briefs, cups, plates, toy cars, napkins, band-aids, etc. How could you not get at least a little curious about this Spiderguy. But that's not good enough for me. I mean, kids today have an endless amount of options when it comes to the characters they can love and get excited about. How is it that Spiderman, Batman & Superman haven't faded into the background?

Answer: In order to take down the champs you have to challenge them to a battle & frankly: No one is stepping up to the plate.

Seriously speaking, I think that the real reason why these characters remain as successful as they are is because we've basically stopped developing new hero's, perhaps because we're too scared to enter an arena with Superman, Spiderman, Batman & Ironman. Hmmmm notice a trend in those names? Perhaps we need a female superhero to come along and steal some thunder! (Wonderwoman really isn't that cool - lets be honest). Or, perhaps we'll need to talk to the creators of the TV Show Heroes to solve this mystery. Although I've never watched the show myself, Mary Plasterer (Cieo's creative director) is hooked! Now, she's not our target audience for this examination, but the fact remains that everyday superhero's have slowly made their way into the mainstream and for adults anyways, are starting to steal some face time from the Superones. Why isn't this happening as much with kids?


Super Why! is a fantastic educational television program for kids, but I doubt those guys will last a few rounds with Batman when those super-readers turn 7. Hannah Montana is a Superstar, but rocking out a solid tune is hardly as cool as swinging from a building using spiderwebs. Transformers toys have done very well since the film, but it’s hard to find that true soft spot for cars that all sound like James Earl Jones on a bad day.

I guess what makes Superman, Batman & Spiderman so endlessly compelling is that they lead double lives, like James Bond, Indiana Jones or Hannah Montana for that matter. I suppose at the end of the day, we all just want to be everything that we are, everything that we're not and everything that we simply can't be all at the same time, and these superhero's bring kids closer to that imaginary reality. Or it could just be the fact that kids see that little twinkle in their Dad's eyes when they're watching a Batman cartoon together. But ... it could just be the lunchboxes and briefs.


What do you think?