Superheros!

Now here's a topic I'd love to write coherently about: superheros. And since it's this week's Theme Thursday topic, I will write, but due to some mental/physical health drama over the past week I may or may not be coherent. You've been warned.

Princess or superhero? Why not both! Meet Princess Robin.

I was never a big comic book person, as a kid the only comics I read at all were Archie (I know, I should hand in my geek card right now), then in high school I started reading manga, but none of that had anything to do with superheros. That isn't to say my life was without them though. As a child I was a huuuuuuuge fan of Batman, specifically the 1960s Batman with Adam West (na-na na-na na-na na-na Batman!).

But other than that one TV series, superheros were just not on my radar. Sure, I went out and saw the latest X-Men and Spiderman movies, but I wouldn't say that the genre held any particular draw for me. Until I had kids. After having my daughters I found out about the intensely genderized toy/tv/game market for little kids, where everything boils down to a choice between princesses ("for girls") and superheroes ("for boys"). But there's a loop-hole. As it turns out, if you're a girl who likes superheros, you're extra cool. At least in the circles we run in.

So we've jumped in with both feet, the whole family. We've seen all latest Marvel movies (Captain America! *swoon*) and have that old school Batman movie all but memorized ("Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!"). The girls run around the house with capes playing Supergirl vs The Bad Guys (sometimes I think Dani thinks she really is a superhero). The Power Puff Girls are the superheros of the moment and when Kaylee got sick this week we watched through a whole season in one day. We even had a superhero themed bounce-house birthday party for Kaylee last year. And although opening the door to the superhero craze felt a little forced at first for me, the kids have taken to it like fish to water and it's been really fun.

Not to say the superhero genre is perfect, far from it. I wish there were more female superheros, real one that didn't need to have their boobs hanging out to be cool, hell, I'd settle for seeing them fight in flats rather than stilettos.  I wish my daughters would never again have somebody tell them that superheros were "for boys". I wish that dressing up as a superhero at a con didn't usually mean choosing between a men's costume and a sexy one (although I'm thinking about Power Puff Girls costumes for our next con). That would all be wonderful. In the mean time my daughters and I will be playing with both, sometimes at the same time, and often with a little Star Wars, Harry Potter, My Little Pony magic thrown in for good measure (wow that makes us sound like mass media junkies, we play house and cars and camping too, but we do love our movies...).