This was my lunchbox in my early grade school years. According to the copyright info printed on it, it was made in 1976. I don’t remember having it in my possession the entire time since those years, but at some point it showed up in my stuff (I probably snagged it one of the times I moved back home as a young adult), and I have held onto it.
I remember examining all the pictures on it closely as a kid. I wondered at some of the odd mistakes and/or strange interpretations in the drawings of the heroes. Now I assume those are due to the drawings being done by some guy (or lady) in some company somewhere who was just drawing from reference photos and had no real investment in the characters, maybe only had a vague notion of who the characters were. How else can you explain the fact that Spidey is hanging on what looks to be a rope instead of a strand of his signature webbing? (Yet they managed to get his costume pretty much right, which is more than you can say for some of the actual comic book artists over the years.)
And I always thought that the way they did the top of Thor’s hammer made it look like a giant sugar cookie was stuck to it. Anyway…
I just pulled this lunch box out of the closet anew recently, and it got me thinking back to my history with super heroes, which obviously started young. I remember getting some sort of Marvel super heroes card game for Christmas, around the same time I had this lunch box. I don’t remember what the game was–maybe just a matching thing–but each card had a cool drawing of a super hero. Iron Man, Spider-Man, Thor, Daredevil, etc.
Even before that, I remember watching the old live-action Captain Marvel (Shazam) show on TV. Vague memories, but memories. And there were the Super Friends, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, Spider-Man on the Electric Company, Batman and Robin showing up on Scooby Doo, reruns of the 60’s Batman TV show, the short-lived Spider-Man live action show, the Incredible Hulk (a soda and popcorn event at our house every week for a while)…
Wow. I just soaked it all up wherever I could find it.
And the Superman movies! Yes! Classic. And then Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989 was kind of the beginning of what I think of as the modern Golden Age of super hero movies. I mean, I was glad when they finally did a Spidey movie–Tobey Macguire’s facial contortions notwithstanding–but I never dreamed we would see a time when Marvel would confidently release “Guardians of the Galaxy,” a Daredevil TV series, an Ant Man movie…
In any case, those memories got me thinking about my early super hero fandom, and Marvel and DC and Super Hero sectarianism. I gave some vague thoughts to the whole Marvel versus DC thing as a kid, and I remember being aware of a difference in the character of the work from the two companies, but I never felt truly compelled to choose a side until college. That’s where I met one of my best friends, Buzz (his birth name, yes) and others who were, for the most part, complete Marvelites.
I spent some time as a public Marvelite, talking the talk. But inside my head and heart, I never lost that child-like acceptance of all things super hero. I might like some characters or stories better than others, and completely dislike some, but I no longer judge my super heroes based on their company of origin. Marvel, DC, and all the others that have cropped up along the way…
What is that I love about super heroes? I think that’s probably a whole post in itself. And since it’s time my daughter and I started getting ready for our day, I think I’ll go ahead and put that off for next time.
Spider-Man Mashup Cosplay Costume: 