X-man = Iron Man

As promised the new Iron Man Big Boy Bike... 

The Cuteness of Almost 4

X-man is having a string of friends at school turn 4 this month. I know that his 4th birthday is approaching, but I'm also noticing how much "3" behavior is finally waning. He can play with his friends without bossing them around ALL the time. He can interact. He can go it alone. He's being more polite to most other people (who aren't his mother or father). He's using his words to describe how he feels. His most frequent feeling is frustration, however. But hey, I don't care how frustrated he is -- he still can't stay in the car by himself while I go into the store, he still has to wear a coat and hat when it's -3 in the a.m. and 8:30 p.m. is still bedtime.

He's completely obsessed with reading books, which is awesome. They've been talking about the author and illustrator at school, which we started covering at home in November. But now we've moved on to wanting to know about the publishing company and how a table of contents works. It's kind of fun to see his brain process.

We got some credit at Barnes and Noble and spent it on 5 books of X-man's choice. Shocker that 2 of them were DC Comics books. One of them was the Superfriends and it didn't have Wonder Woman in it. X-man got very upset. He did not think it was fair that Wonder Woman was left out and Aquaman was inserted -- when he wasn't one of the original six who started the Justice League. (Can you tell we're a geek family?) So I took him next door to Toys R Us. And after tons of searching we finally, finally,  found a set of Justice League Unlimited figures with Wonder Woman in it.

So now Wonder Woman can fight the criminals, too. He's my little feminist kid, and I love him for it.

Superman v. Batman

When I was a little girl, I loved Superman. I'd watch the old black and white TV version in reruns before naptime; I adored Christopher Reeve, and when I grew up I wanted to be just like Lois Lane (except without the pink underwear or the dorky poem). The movie came out in 1978, when I was 2 years old. I'm sure I watched it sometime between 3 and 5.

Superman was my clean cut, midwestern, heart of gold superhero. He had a clear view of right and wrong. And besides the fact that I always thought his get up was way too over the top, I appreciated the kind of comfort he had to have in his femininity to wear it. It also broke my heart in a thousand pieces when in the miserable third movie Superman went "bad." And like any real fan, I even dragged my butt to Superman Returns, where although I thought the overall movie was lacking, I could see what Bryan Singer was doing to pay a little homage to the films that came before it.

When the first Batman movie with Michael Keaton came out, I was in my early teens. Suddenly a superhero that didn't have any magical powers, but used his brain to create technology seemed brilliant. Unlike ordinary people, he was stepping in to help out folks in his community. But like regular folks, he was broken and tormented in too many ways to ever be repaired. He wasn't straight laced. There is nothing wholesome about Batman.

Batman was a more complex superhero to me. And although I had watched the old Batman episodes with the "Pow" and the "Bam" (also questionable fashion sense), the Tim Burton Batman always appealed to me. But more to the point, Bruce Wayne rang my bell. Here was a superhero that was human and became super because of tragic loss as a kid. 

Thus, a long line of broken superhero lust was born: Spike, Angel, Michael (from La Femme Nikita), Veronica Mars, etc.  I also was able to look back at past favorites and understand why I loved them (Han Solo, Indiana Jones, etc.).

The other day I was in a store with X-man. He looked up and saw a picture of a superhero. Normally he'd ignore it.  But yesterday I was faced with the fact that X-man now knows who superheroes are, even though he's never seen any one other than Superwhy from PBS at our house. "Look Mommy! Superman is flying!" 

Followed by "Watch Superman, please?"

And so it begins... "They could be a great people Kal-El, if they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. This reason, above all, is why I send them you, my only son."