Superheroes

So, I went to the Ontario Science Centre this weekend. I hadn't been there in decades, probably close to 20 years. It was funny because in the back of my mind, I could still recognize some of the exhibits. I could tell that a lot of movies that the OSC were playing were made in the 1980s.

The reason I went, though, was for their Superheroes exhibit - yes, even now I still love superheroes. When I was younger I wanted to be Superman. I think because I was picked on and Superman was the strongest man on Earth and used his power only for good. Like Superman, I would use my powers to defeat the bullies at my school. I'm sure in our post-Columbine world, that sort of talk would be cause for an automatic session with the school psychologist.

Well, enough of the self psychological examination. The exhibit was really cool. They talked about the science of their superpowers and had real-life examples that you could interact with. The hardest one was the Doc Ock display where you had to use those instruments that surgeons use to hold back fat flaps to tie a pair of shoes.

There were a couple superheroes there that I didn't recognize: Iron Man, who came out in the 70's I believe. He was a Vietnam veteran. I'm interested to read some of his comics, as I'm sure there would be some darker moments.

There was another exhibit for Banshee (guess what his superpower was :). The exhibit consisted of a bunch of kids screaming at a video screen...so I just stayed out of that area.

They also had a interview with Stan Lee who talked about his life and inspirations for creating his comic book characters. They also had a great display of comic books over the past 70 years and they did a good job of putting everything into a historical context.

I had a good time, but the exhibit is intented for kids, as evidenced by the Spiderman climbing wall and swing set. No, I didn't try these...I'm sure most of the parents there already thought I was a pedophile :).