The Big Book of Superheroes Read online

  6. Time Travel

  Advantage: You could go back in time and undo any mistakes you’d made.

  Disadvantage: That would take me, like, forever.

  Superpower Activity

  Time Travel!

  Supplies: Foil, a helmet of some kind (example: batter’s helmet).

  Traveling in time is one of the most excellent superpowers. To convince people you can travel in time, do the following:

  Cover your helmet in foil. Put it on.

  Run into a crowded room of strangers (like a classroom or frozen yogurt shop) and loudly ask, “Please, someone tell me, what year is it?”

  No matter what year they shout out, act utterly amazed. You might cry, “Dang it, I knew something was wrong!” and run back out of the room. Or try this line:

  Long-Range Activity: Do this exact same thing again the next day at the same place. Again, it doesn’t matter what year they yell out. (Then repeat this every year for the rest of your life. What a laugh!)

  7. Mind Control

  Advantage: Wait, how is this a superpower? I mean, I can already control my mind.

  The idea is that you control someone else’s mind!

  Disadvantage: Eventual baldness.

  8. Mind Reading

  Advantages: Reading a criminal’s mind can help you stop crime. Plus, you’ll get to know what people really think of you!

  Disadvantages: Do you have good self-esteem? Because you’re going to know what people really think of you! Also, you know how boring it is to listen to someone else’s cell phone conversation? Now imagine having to listen to stuff that dull every time you got near someone. Oh, the humanity!

  Fun Fact! You probably know twins (or triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, etc.). Maybe you are one! People sometimes think that twins—especially identical twins—can read each other’s minds.

  Not quite. Instead, science shows that twins may have something called “thought concordance.” That means they tend to think the same way!

  9. Superhealing

  Advantage: No scars!

  Disadvantages: Sticks and stones won’t break your bones, but names can still hurt you. Also, this is going to happen:

  10. Superhearing

  Advantage: You used to hate it when people whispered secrets. Not anymore!

  Disadvantage: Being able to hear grass grow makes it hard to take naps. (“Could someone tell the lawn to keep it down?”)

  Superpower Activity

  My Ears Are Burning!

  Supplies: Two walkie-talkies, duct tape.

  Do you like to eavesdrop on other people? Me too! That’s why I like to scout out spots where my archenemies (and archfriends!) hang out.

  First, I make sure my walkie-talkies’ batteries are fresh, and that they’re both on the same channel.

  Then I find a suitable hiding place for the first walkie-talkie. This might be behind, inside of, or next to something. Can’t find a good spot? Try slipping it in the open pocket of a coat.

  Next, I duct-tape the walkie-talkie’s “transmit” button down. That means this walkie-talkie is now sending out a signal.

  Finally, I go to a nearby, hidden location. If I have an earbud, I connect it to the other walkie-talkie. If not, I just turn my walkie-talkie’s volume down low. Then I turn it on, go to the proper channel, and start listening!

  After learning fabulous secrets (“Timmy likes chocolate? No way!”), I wait for the coast to be clear. When it is, I go back, retrieve the first walkie-talkie, turn it off, and celebrate my awesomeness.

  11. Telekinesis

  (moving things with your mind)

  Advantages: Just think about cleaning your room and it’s done. (Plus, you can make tacos while doing Sudoku!)

  Disadvantages: You have to be really, really careful what you think about.

  For example, let’s say your friend sneaks up behind you and yells “Boo!” And before you know what you’re doing, you fire a sharp pencil right through his appendix!

  Also, did you know that superheroes with telekinesis get chubby? Guess why![2]

  12. Invisibility

  Spot the invisible woman!

  Advantage: Although not as exciting as superstrength, the power of invisibility would be cool...but only if your clothes turned invisible along with the rest of you.

  Disadvantage: Blindness. You “see” things as light goes into your eyeballs and reflects onto things called “receptors.” But if you are invisible, the light will go straight through your receptors. That means you won’t be able to see anything!

  13. Electricity

  Advantage: You’ll be cool, because this is the most current superpower there is. (Get it?)

  Disadvantage: I hope you like having curly hair. (Really curly hair.)

  Superpower Activity

  The Lightning Touch!

  Supplies: Shag carpet, a supervillain.

  Electro was a supervillain who could store massive amounts of electricity in his body. He could then release this energy in the form of lightning bolts. Nice!

  To imitate Electro, do the following:

  Find some shag carpet.

  Shuffle your feet on it without picking them up from the carpet.

  Find a supervillain. Can’t find one? Your brother will work.

  Touch him. I know, you’d rather not. But the spark of electricity and the sound of your brother’s screeches will reward you!

  14. Immortality

  Advantage: Not dying. (Sweet!)

  Disadvantage: Not dying. (Trust me, after a few thousand years, living gets old!)

  15. Superintelligence

  Advantage: I’d explain it to you, but you really wouldn’t understand.

  Disadvantage: None. Hey, finally I’ll start winning some arguments!

  Superintelligence Test! If you answer this question right, you’re already a supergenius. Ready? Here goes!

  Mean aliens are on their way to attack the Earth. To stop them, you build a force-field machine. Every day your machine is turned on, its force field will double the amount of the Earth it can protect.

  It takes a total of twenty-four days for your machine to cover the entire planet with its force field. So, how long will it take for your machine to cover half of the planet?

  Got an answer?[3] How’d you do? Either way, do the following activity!

  Superpower Activity

  Act Like a Genius!

  Supplies: A brain, preferably your own.

  You can be smarter in five minutes. Ready? Just follow these two simple steps:

  Notice stuff.

  Quick, how many steps are there in your house? I mean, you’ve probably walked on them thousands of times. But have you ever counted them? Probably not!

  Here’s a secret. If you take the time to really notice the things around you, your IQ will start to rise. Seriously! It’s this simple superpower that makes Sherlock Holmes such a genius.

  As you notice stuff, cool things will start to happen. Look, your teacher got new glasses. (Extra credit!) Hey, you spotted an out-of-control tricycle swerving toward the playground. (Toddlers saved!) And wow, you just noticed a huge alien spaceship that’s sucking up litterers with a tractor beam. (Those aliens sure are helpful!)

  Go offline once in a while.

  The best way to notice stuff is when you’re offline. Even if it’s just for a half hour! Trust me, this will give you a huge advantage over everyone else. That’s because most people stare at smart phones, tablets, and computers all the time. That means they’re noticing less and less stuff around them. (And this is making them the opposite of smart.)

  * * *

  [1] Answer: J’onn J’onzz can read minds, become invisible, shape-shift, and create illusions. He also has X-ray vision, telekinesis, superstrength, superhearing, invulnerability, and he can fly. And I’m not even going to mention his vortex breath.

  [2] The more superheroes use telekinesis, they less they exercise. After all, why bother moving when you can do everything
with your mind?

  [3] Twenty-three days. (Do the activity!)

  Acting Like a Superhero!

  Listen up! When you’re in your costume, you stand for superheroes everywhere. That means you need to act like you’ve got superhero style. So for starters, always look alert and ready for action.

  It’s important to make a superhero-ey impression all the time. So let’s try a couple of imaginary situations and see how you do. First, picture yourself walking down the street. Suddenly you see something on the sidewalk—a quarter. Sweet!

  What should you do?

  Ignore it. (It’s just a lousy quarter!)

  Point it out to your archenemy. (“Hey dude, there’s a quarter!”)

  Bend over and pick the quarter up. (Then donate it to charity!)

  None of the above.

  The answer is d. Of course, you should get the quarter and donate it to charity. But you can’t just bend over and pick it up. You have to get that coin with style. That means putting some “oomph” into it—including your own sound effects!

  This is how you pick up a quarter!

  Here’s another situation. Let’s say that your archenemy damaged your toaster. Dang! So instead of good toast, all you get now is burnt bread. (“Looks like your toast has taken a turn to the dark side,” your archenemy chuckles.)

  This makes you very unhappy—and you express your unhappiness by:

  Scowling.

  Calling it a “crumb-ey situation.”

  Yelling “NOOOOOO!”

  All of the above.

  Again, the answer is d. As a superhero, you must overreact to every situation. Also, you should make a bad pun every chance you get. And finally, you need to get physical—like this:

  Now you’re getting the hang of it! But are you gasping from all that exercise? That means you’re out of shape. I’ll talk about training a little later (see the Superhero Training chapter), but for now, there’s one sport that all superheroes should try: parkour (which is derived from the French term for “obstacle course”).

  Parkour is all about climbing on, scampering on, and jumping over everything around you. This includes ledges, walls, buildings, and even furniture. So the teenagers in Paris who invented parkour must’ve really admired Spider-Man!

  Practicing parkour will help your balance, coordination, and stealth. And it’ll give you a whole new way of seeing things. The world will look like a huge playground! So, do you have any trees, fences, buildings, ledges, stairs, and walls near you? I thought so.

  I’m guessing you can already do simple moves, like somersaults and triple axels. So let’s take a look at...

  Vaulting!

  Imagine that you fixed your toaster. So you’re in the kitchen and your toast pops up. Now what? Sure, you could just walk over and butter it. But think about what a super impression you’ll make by vaulting over something instead!

  Run at the item you want to vault. Then jump and plant a hand on the top of the object.

  Swing your legs around as you keep moving.

  Make a graceful landing...and butter your toast!

  Pro Tip: With all of your vaulting, you’re going to have a huge appetite. But after eating, remember to wait at least a half hour before saving the world.

  Make Spidey Proud

  Climbing is important for any superhero. That’s why I’m climbing right now, even as I type this. Sure it’s dangerous! And if you’re that worried about me, I’ll stop.

  *sits down on stairway*

  Happy? Anyway, in parkour, there’s a style of climbing walls called “tic tac.” The idea is to run at a wall and then bounce up and off of it.

  And if you’d rather not bounce off of walls, here’s another way to scale the heights:

  Find two walls that are close enough for you to stretch across.

  Lean against one side and prop yourself with your hands.

  Start bringing your feet up on the opposite side.

  Keep climbing!

  When you’re done climbing, just stop. (And please, do this before you get scared!)

  Now, how do you get down? Oh, I’m sure you’ll figure out something.

  Flipping Off a Wall

  Let’s say you were being chased by a gang of evildoers. So you sprint right at a wall. At the last second you jump up, do a backflip off the wall, and land behind the bad guys.

  Meanwhile, they all smash into the bricks. That’d be awesome!

  But could you ever do this? Maybe! To get started, practice jumping on a trampoline until you can do a flip. Just bounce on the trampoline to build up momentum. Then...

  Try to get a good jump, straight up. Use your calf muscles and thighs and swing your arms up to get good air.

  As you reach maximum height, tuck your legs up in front of you and grab them with both arms around your knees. Remember, you want backward momentum.

  Arch your neck and start to throw your head back. This will help you face the direction of your backflip.

  A helpful “spotter” can aid you in performing the backflip properly.

  You’ll start to go into a somersault. That’s good! For a moment, your head will face the ground. Don’t freak out! Keep your eyes open so that you know when you’re going to land.

  As you flip over, start to untuck your legs.

  As you land—hopefully on your feet—be sure to bend your knees. (If you land on your head, having bent knees is less important.)

  If you can’t do this right away, keep trying. Because if you can’t backflip on a trampoline, don’t try flipping off a wall.

  But once you can do a trampoline flip, find a wall that has soft grass in front of it, or at least some soft concrete. If you can only find hard concrete, then drag a mattress or something supersoft up against the wall.

  When you’re ready:

  Run at the wall. Caution: Do not run into the wall!

  Jump into the wall at an angle, and plant a foot on it.

  Turn in the air and jump back to the ground.

  Of course, you didn’t actually backflip over and land on your feet. What, are you out of your mind? You could kill yourself trying that!

  The more you know, the less you don’t! One of the greatest superheroes is the mighty Frog-Man. He’s a high school kid with a frog mask and electric springs attached to his feet. This gives him the power to jump sixty feet high! But it also makes him queasy. In one adventure, Frog-Man says, “Ooooo...I feel awful! Hope I don’t throw up.” (Us too!)

  Rescues!

  You’re walking down the street when you hear a scream from inside a building: “Won’t someone help me?!”

  This is cool for two reasons. First, someone needs your help. Second, you get to punch through a wall to save them! Just follow these steps:

  Make sure you’re wearing gloves and a helmet (for knuckle/head protection).

  Warn people on the sidewalk to stand back. After all, if you knock out a load-bearing wall, everything might collapse!

  Face the wall. Is it made of wood? Brick? Steel? It doesn’t matter! Just picture a point three feet on the other side of it. Now as you punch, aim your fist at that point!

  Go through the gaping hole you just made and save the person inside.

  Optional Method: Or you could just knock on the door and see if anyone answers. (Now scroll down to see what the big emergency was!)

  Flying!

  Few people realize it, but almost anyone can fly if they have the right attitude. Don’t believe it? Try this!

  Stand with self-confidence. Make sure your feet are about under your shoulders and that your knees are slightly bent.

  Turn slightly to the side.

  Raise your fists to the sky and make a determined face.

  Fly!

  What’s that? It’s not working? No worries. A superhero named Douglas Adams said a surefire way to fly was to just throw yourself at the ground.

  Then miss.

  So now I can assume you’re flying. Good job! But hey—put this book dow
n. Reading is just one of the many things you shouldn’t do while flying. Sure, you could text your friends (“Guess where I am now?”) or pick scratch your nose. But remember, you’re a superhero. That means that when you’re flying, you need to look heroic!

  Fun Thing to Do on a Hot Day

  Pop Quiz

  Up, Up, and A—Whew!

  In his early days, Superman was described as someone who could “leap tall buildings in a single bound.” How high was that, exactly?