TwinHacking

Can introduction to capes and cowls at an early age help your child grow up to be a Super Hero?

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MOTIVES

A lot of kids’ programming really sucks. (Well, it’s awful for an adult to sit through.) For every new show that gets it right, there are loads that are aimed only at selling toys and breakfast cereal or manufacturing geniuses. Every parent wants to help their kids develop cognitively, morally, and socially. Following are my recommendations for breeding smart, fair, kind Super Geeks using a little bit of old school geek gold.

1. Shared Common Interest

Some of the best Geek Pride moments you can experience come from sharing and enjoying iconic, favourite movies or TV shows with your kids. TV shows or movies you loved when you were young are usually available on home video (or downloading or streaming online). Pick your own old favourites to watch together, but be wary that some of the nostalgia value may not hold up to the test of time. Most importantly, you’re interested in sharing it with them and not begrudgingly watching kids’ programming.

2. Symbology

The association of iconic symbols like Superman’s shield and the Bat symbol can help reinforce the ideas of letters and numbers before kids start learning to read and write. Once the Justice League was introduced, the Monsters loved to play ‘SuperHero Pictionary’ (TM) on the Magna-Doodle. I would draw the symbol of a hero, and they would guess who it was. Slipping in some letters and numbers on the sly from time to time keeps learning fun.

3. Good Guys/Bad Guys: Role Models

Life is simpler when the good guys wear white hats and the bad guys twirl their mustaches from behind bars. There is an idealistic morality to thecomic book world that appeals to us on a fundamental level. The binary teaches new minds the concepts of right vs. wrong and good vs. evil. It means something to kids that the good guys always win in the end.

What about violence and guns?

METHOD

• Stage 1: Identification: Hero Names (and costumes)
• Stage 2: Associating and Repeating: Catchphrases
• Stage 3: Labelling: Good Guy or Bad Guy
• Stage 4: Multiple-Association: Secret Identities and Aliases

• Phase 1: Spider-Man – Stick with red & blue spidey, until you’re ready to introduce Venom.
• Phase 2: Superman – The Big Blue Boy Scout is always a fan fave.
• Phase 3: Batman – There’s something compelling about the Dark knight.
• Phase 4: Justice League – By this stage the official unveil of an entire team of heroes should blow their mind.
• Phase 5: Avengers – I saved the Avengers for after Justice League, as their roster is traditionally more diverse.
• Phase 6: X-Men – Speaking of diverse rosters, they just *reduced* the number of mutants to below 200.

MEDIA

1. TV & Movies

Geekdom is generational. There are shows for you and shows for them. Find the ones you both can enjoy. Be persistent about the ones you *really* want to watch, as it may take a couple of tries to keep them interested. At the same time, try to discourage watching the same ‘current fave’ repeatedly. In my experience, Super Friends is the most kid-friendly, though the plots are nonsensical. Justice League is much better and still relatively tame, while Justice League: New Frontier is best saved for you on your own.

Some Recommendations

• For you: The latest DCU Animated flicks Superman/Batman:Public Enemies, Green Lantern First Flight, and Superman:Doomsday as well as Marvel’s Hulk Vs Double Feature (vs Wolverine and Thor, respectively)
• For Them: Marvel’s new Superhero Squad is the new Superfriends
• For Both: Batman Brave & The Bold, Justice League Unlimited, Spectacluar Spider-Man

2. Books

Wait until ‘ripping’ a book isn’t as much fun as ‘reading’ a book before you hand over your comics. That being said, introduce old ‘worthless’ comics or those trade publications like old copies of Marvel Age or DC currents as soon as possible. It will help your kids get used to the combination of words and pictures, and also the concept of the ‘book’ without resorting to horribly written children’s books (of course, not all clidren’s books are bad, there are plenty that are wonderful… it just seems to be the genre where bad authors go to get published). Start by pointing out characters and specific things in the panels, then gradually build on the idea of the developing story. “Who’s this?” and “What colour is that?” quickly become “What’s Spidey doing?”

3. Toys

Promo movie merchandise is always readily available. If you wait until after the movie hype dies down and stores start to unload their overstock, you can get the widest variety for the cheapest price. Check out any toy’s durability first—alas, our heroes are usually easy to behead. This is, of course, your blatant excuse to play with cool new toys. Always make sure you wash them in soap and water before handing them over. Be careful. Batman is pointy.

4. Clothes

Let’s face it, as a kid I was Superman with only a towel and something high to jump from. Don’t spend money unnecessarily on official licensed merchandise when you can let your little ones fingerpaint a Superman symbol on an old T-shirt. They’ll get twice as much fun out of it if they’ve done it themselves. You can convince your child you’re a superhero just by wearing the right T-shirt, so let that geek flag fly with the right apparel for you as well.

Sock Puppets

“You don’t raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they’ll turn out to be heroes, even if it’s just in your own eyes.” Walter M. Schirra Sr.