On Superheroes and Creativity
Posted by Peat
Picked up Cassie from kindergarten yesterday. We live a little over a mile from her school, and on nice days we walk home. If she does the whole walk with her backpack on, she earns a froyo. It’s a nice daddy daughter time where we talk about her day.
She told me they were playing DC superheroes at recess. This is a topic I am always happy to discus.
“Who did you play?” I asked. Usually Cassie is Wonder Woman, but sometimes she is Batgirl or Power Girl. Lately she’s been Hawkwoman, too.
“I made up my own superhero,” Cassie said, “Superwoman!”
“Oh?” I asked. She and I recently discussed Rule 63, and I wondered if this was just a female version of Superman, or perhaps a grown up version of Supergirl. Cassie gets annoyed when “grownup” heroines are referred to as “girl”. It’s why we decided to refer to Hawkgirl as Hawkwoman. “Is that Supergirl all grown up?”
“No,” Cassie said. “She’s different, like Batwoman is different from Batgirl. But she is friends with Wonder Woman and Superman.”
“Got it,” I said, still wondering if this was a Superman-based character. “What does her costume look like?”
Cassie paused. It was clear this was too complex a question. Running around on the playground, you don’t need a lot of detail. It’s sufficient to simply announce ‘I’m Superwoman!’ and proceed directly to pretend-punching bad people. But I was still curious, so I asked more general questions. “What colors are in her costume?”
“Like Wonder Woman’s,” Cassie said, “but with white instead of gold.”
“So red, white and blue,” I said, and she nodded. “Does she have a logo?” Cassie is big into superhero logos. I think it’s one of the reasons why she prefers DC to Marvel.
Cass nodded. “An S. What color is Supergirl’s logo?”
“Red and yellow,” I said.
“Hers is red and white,” Cassie noted.
“Does she wear pants or a skirt?” I asked.
“Pants in the winter time,” Cassie said, “but in summer she goes home and changes into shorts.”
“Boots or sneakers?” I asked.
“Boots in winter,” Cassie noted, “but in summer, sometimes sneakers and sometimes sandals. Unless it’s raining. Then she wears her boots.”
“Very practical,” I said, warming to the topic. I knew she was ad libbing at this point, making up the answers to my questions as she went along, but I always loved creating superheroes when I was a kid, and decided to make it a creative exercise and see where she took it. Creativity is like a muscle. It needs exercise.
“What are Superwoman’s powers?” I asked. “Can she fly?”
“Oh, yes,” Cassie said. “And she’s strong, like Wonder Woman.”
“Is she invulnerable?” I asked.
“Yes,” Cassie said. “She could be punched through TWO buildings without being hurt!”
I laughed. I had used ‘being punched through a building’ as an example a few weeks earlier, when she had asked me what ‘invulnerable’ meant. It was from an episode of Justice League: Unlimited where Supergirl fights Galatea. Apparently it was now a unit of measure to determine the extent of a hero’s invulnerability.
“Does she have heat vision?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Freeze breath?”
“No, wind breath,” Cassie said.
“What about gear?” I asked. “Wonder woman has her lasso, and Hawkwoman has her mace. Batgirl has her batrope and utility belt. Does Superwoman have anything like that?”
“She has a bracelet,” Cassie said, thinking. “It looks like Wonder Woman’s, but it shoots.”
“What does it shoot?”
“Heat vision,” Cassie said. “For when she’s too tired to use her eyes.”
“Handy,” I said. “Does she wear a cape?”
“Sometimes,” Cassie said. “But she doesn’t have to. But if she does, the cape is magic and makes her so strong she can’t be beat.”
“Wow,” I said. “If I had a cape like that, I would wear it all the time.”
“She doesn’t like to wear it when it’s warm,” Cassie said. She hates wearing jackets and sweaters if the temperature is over 60.
Needless to say, this was pretty much the best conversation ever. Sure, her answers were all based on her experience, but she was eager for the creative exercise, and knows the sorts of questions to ask now. As her world expands, the answers will get better and better. I can’t wait.
We got our froyo, and went home. I asked Cass to draw Superwoman on the blackboard. You can see the pic above. Click to embiggen. You’ll note she is in shorts, and has a bracelet.
Note: Before anyone brings it up, I am aware of the various Superwoman disambiguation. Cassie, however, is not. Her experience is mostly from watching Justice League cartoons and playing Injustice.
