Yes Virginia, there is a Spider-Man

"Do you think there really is a Spider-Man?" Allie asked.

I didn't want to quash my daughter's super hero fantasies so I said I'd like to think there were people with superhuman powers. I went a step further and told Allie she may even have super powers herself.

She wanted to know where they were.

"Maybe you won't discover them until you get older," I told her.

"Like when I go to school?"

"Who knows? Maybe when you turn five."

Her eyes got really big and she asked, "What kind of super powers will I have?"

At that point I did a mental inventory of the 3,000+ comic books I have stashed on dusty shelves in our basement. I rattled off the archetypical super hero attributes like super strength, super speed, super senses, heat vision. Allie really like the idea of heat vision. She got a look in her eye that spooked me a little. Something that told me she was imagining frying my ass the next time I make her turn off Fairly Odd Parents.

As we got ready for bed she asked me to describe more super powers. The list was getting pretty long when she announced she had thought of a super power of her own. She pointed to one of her front teeth and said, "See this tooth, Daddy? When someone writes a note I don't like or just puts scribbles on paper or something this tooth will fly out of my mouth. The tooth will spin around and shred up the note. Then the tooth will fly back in my mouth."

"What do you call that kind of super power?" I asked.

"Tooth Vision."

"Will you be fighting for tooth, justice and the American way?"

"Huh?"

"Never mind. . ."