Being a Nerd Dad: How to Throw a Superhero Party

If my son made a list of his top three favorite things in the whole world, I imagine it would go something like this:

Superheroes.
Momma.
No, really. Superheroes

He’s got Batman socks. Captain America shirts. Flash underwear. Spiderman pajamas. A Superman cape. The kid LOVES superheroes.

When he turned four, it wasn’t hard to decide on a theme for his party. But rather than focus on cake toppers and other decorations, we decided to give him what every four year old really wants: a chance to save the world from the bad guys.

We threw him a superhero party.

Setting Up the Superhero Party

While he and his mom were running an errand, his sisters and I sprang into action. We placed print outs of Frost Giants all over the house in a path from the back door to his bedroom. In his bedroom, we put Loki standing guard over the treasure he had stolen: my son’s birthday presents.

When he and his mom returned home, we met him in the driveway with our favorite superhero t-shirts on and a frantic look on our faces. While he was out, we told him, Loki and the frost giants of Jotunheim attacked and stole his birthday present.

To save his birthday, we needed to assemble the Avengers!

We presented him with several paper masks of superheroes and let him choose his not-so-secret identity. He chose Hulk—because what barely-on-the-doctor’s-growth-chart kid doesn’t dream of being a giant, super strong, irradiated monster?

The rest of us took one at random and raced in to face the frost giants. With Nerf guns that represented our powers, we all shot at the ice giants cutouts we’d placed around the house.

This worked well until my son, realizing he was Hulk, threw the gun to the side and charged the targets. Hulk don’t shoot. Hulk smash.

What You Need for a Superhero Party

The whole shebang took a few hours to plan and lasted maybe eight minutes, but it was so worth it. Luckily for you, it won’t take anywhere near that long to plan your own superhero party, because I’ve already assembled all the things you’ll need.

Heroes. Buy or make masks of your kid’s favorite superheroes. These Marvel masks are well worth the $9 on Amazon, or you can search Pinterest for “superhero mask” to find dozens of DIY options.
Capes. Despite what Edna Mode says, every hero needs a cape. We had some we’d purchased on a Six Flags trip, but you can buy them online, easily make them, or use a play silk or scarf.
Villains. My son, at the time, was obsessed with the Marvel stories in Disney Infinity. We searched for something that resembled the cartoon style from the game. Luckily, we found these from concept artist Sam Nielsen, who did the design work for the frost giants in the actual game. Score! We printed off several dozen to use as our targets.
The Big Bad. Since my son was so into Disney Infinity, we decided to use part of his present in the game. We purchased the Loki character for the game, and used it as the menacing villain perched atop his wrapped birthday gifts.
“Powers”. We used Nerf guns because we had them on hand, but I wish we’d set the adventure up outside and used water balloons. The paper frost giants “melting” as they were hit with the powers of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes would have been pretty cool. With the Nerf guns, I had to declare each bad guy defeated after a few direct hits.

The Superhero Party Was a Smash — a HULK SMASH!

All in all, this superhero party was one of the most fun kids’ parties we’ve had, and it was relatively cheap and simple to pull off.

By spending just a little bit of time doing some arts and crafts, I was able to let my son know what it’s like to save the day. And that made me feel pretty dang heroic.

Have you thrown an awesome nerdy birthday party for your kids? Tell us about it in the comments!