My four-year-old has spent the better part of the past week dressed as Supergirl.  When not donning the full costume regalia, she would simply put on a pair of swim goggles and insist that she’s a superhero.  When asked what her superhero name would be, she responded “Boss-O”, which is quite appropriate for her, ah, let’s say ‘assertive’ nature.  She speculated that her superhero power would be spinning in circles so fast that she “knocks all the bad guys away.”

Who didn’t play superheroes as a kid?  The truth is, I still constantly fantasize about having super powers.  A few of my favorite superheroes, in no particular order, include:

1. Superman and Supergirl:  I’d love to be able to fly and shoot fiery beams from my eyes.  Then, there’s the super strength and x-ray vision.  Superman and Supergirl have the advantage of multiple super powers.
2. The Flash is one of my daughter’s favorites.  She runs around the house as fast as she can asking, “Can you see me? Can you still see me?”
3. Isis was the superhero I pretended to be most often as a child.  I would earnestly chant, “Oh mighty winds that blow on high, lift me now so I can fly!”  Harnessing the abilities of the Egyptian goddess Isis, her powers are nearly limitless.
4. Invisible Girl (later Invisible Woman) from Fantastic Four:  She can sneak around and spy on people undetected and make others near her invisible too.  The invisi-force field would no doubt come in handy.  Violet from the movie The Incredibles had almost identical powers.
5. Storm of the X-Men from Marvel Comics:  As it’s practically a white-out right now, I’d love to be able to control the weather.  Storm also happens to be Queen of Wakanda, and being reigning royalty would no doubt have its perks, even without super powers.
6. Emma Grace Frost, created by Marvel Comics, is a powerful telepath who has served as both a villain (White Queen of the Hellfire Club) and a heroine (mentor of the X-Men junior team, Generation X).
7. Firestar is another example of someone who started out as a villain and then switched sides.  Like the Human Torch from Fantastic Four, Firestar’s fire powers are intense.  Liz Sherman from Hellboy has similar powers as well.
8. Peter Petrelli from the NBC show Heroes started out slow, but now that he has honed his ability to absorb and utilize the powers of any other superhero with whom he comes into contact, he has turned out to be one heck of a powerful being.  There are several amazing heroes from this TV show.  Hiro Nakamura is perhaps the one I get the biggest kick out of watching on each episode, but if I had to choose one power from this cast of characters, Peter Petrelli’s pretty much trumps all others.
9. Aquaman:  It’s not his abilities so much as my love of the ocean that adds him to the list.
10. The Silver Surfer has a multitude of super powers, including immortality, time travel, and cross-dimensional awareness.

…Then there are the equally fascinating super villains, but that would be a whole separate post topic.