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The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis is pairing superpowered heroes from pop culture, literature, myths, and legends and creating an ultimate superpower showdown. Your vote decides whose superpower should make it to the final round. Batman®, Spider-Man®, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles®, Hercules, Ravana and Eagle Kachina are just a few of the options.
Unique powers have transformed ordinary mortals into extraordinary heroes and villains for centuries. Arguments over which power is the best - have circulated just as long. Now you get to help determine which power will prevail as the top power in the land through this unique experience and online voting opportunity. Member preview and online voting begin March 15. It opens to the public March 16 with continued online and onsite voting through May 5, 2013.
“The premise is to connect objects from our interesting 120,000 artifact collection that range from mythological heroes and literature to pop cultural icons on loan from movie studios and private collectors to superpowers,” said Dr. Jeffrey H. Patchen, president and CEO, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. “Superpowers can turn an ordinary person into the hero (or villain) of extraordinary stories. They excite and inspire us by doing things no one else can. We want children to understand they are special with their own unique power to change the world however they choose.”
Unique artifacts The Children’s Museum chose to represent amazing pop culture characters and their superpowers include:
- G.I. Joe® accelerator suit used in the filming of G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra (Channing Tatum’s suit on loan from Paramount)
- Cape from the Batman TV series featuring Adam West (The Children’s Museum’s super collection)
- Superman® cape worn by Christopher Reeve in Superman I & II movies (The Children’s Museum’s super collection)
- Bumblebee Camaro used in the first Transformer movie (loan from Randy Rousseau)
- The Riddler costume worn by Jim Carey in Batman Forever (loan from Profiles in History)
- “Raphael” Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle® costume from the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (The Children’s Museum’s super collection)
- Batman® costume worn by Christian Bale in The Dark Knight Rises (loan from Warner Brothers)
Some of the unique artifacts from literature, mythology and legend we chose to represent these amazing characters and their superpowers include:
- Monkey King shadow puppet, late 20th century, from Xi’an China (The Children’s Museum’s super collection)
- Samurai Ca. 1800 suit of Japanese Samurai armor and sword (The Children’s Museum’s super collection)
- Ruler of the sky Eagle Kachina, figure made in the late 20th century by a member of the Hopi Tribe in Arizona (The Children’s Museum’s super collection)
- Fire breathing Goddess Sekhmet Faience, glazed ceramic figure made in Ancient Egypt between 712 BC and 395 AD (The Children’s Museum’s super collection)
- Hercules of Greek mythology, The Legendary Journeys action figure, 1995, based on the divine hero of classical mythology (The Children’s Museum’s super collection)
- Magical Ravana festival figure, made for a festival procession in India, mid-20th century
Families are invited to vote onsite or online to determine which superpowers should hold super status in the museum’s hero-to-hero and villain match ups. Families are also encouraged to create their own superheroes along with stories about them. Member preview and online voting begins March 15. The experience opens to the public March 16 with continued online and onsite voting through May 5, 2013.
The Children’s Museum will also team up with Peyton Manning Children's Hospital at St.Vincent and The Hero Project to help them build heroes... one cape at a time. A trio of community service, volunteer efforts and fundraising opportunities work together to provide "something special" for each child who spends the night at Peyton Manning Children's Hospital - a super cape! In support of this, the museum will have fleece drives on March 16 & 23 to help gather fleece to make the capes (fleece preference: blizzard style, patterned i.e. polka dots, stars, animals, princess or superhero, minimum size: 1 yard).
Downtown Comics will be giving away free comic books here on March 23 starting at 10am, while supplies last. The first 2,000 kids will receive the comic books.
One America is the presenting sponsor of Super Heroes, supported by Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at St.Vincent and AAA Insurance. Monitors provided by Sharp Business Systems.
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis is a nonprofit institution committed to creating extraordinary learning experiences across the arts, sciences, and humanities that have the power to transform the lives of children and families. For more information about The Children's Museum, visit www.childrensmuseum.org, follow us on Twitter @TCMIndy, Facebook.com/childrensmuseum and YouTube.
