Whenever a small child bravely imagines himself a hero to the world, his future in the workaday world of dull adulthood becomes ever more tightly constrained. Have fun, little guy!
Do kids even have favorite superheroes anymore? Although the li'l ones of my acquaintance seem happy enough to pass an idle summer afternoon at the latest superhero flick, the exploits of costumed crime-fighters just don't fill them with the kind of manic fervor that long ago seized an 8-year-old me. (And never fully let go.)
If, as I suspect, kids no longer tear across each other's backyards with beach towels around their necks, the world is an emptier place for it. I once asked my nephew, then 8 years old himself, to name his favorite superhero. I still remember the way he looked up slowly from his game of Madden, his small round face a mask of confusion and — I really don't think I imagined this — pity.
Might as well have asked him to tell me which Katzenjammer Kid he preferred.
But back when I was a lad, a kid's favorite superhero told you a lot about him. It was a kind of playground shorthand that conveyed to other kids exactly what you thought you were about — and helped you size them up at the same time. It's what we used before adolescence set in, when taste in music took over the job.
The seven most popular playground choices, and what they really said about the chooser, after the jump ...
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