November SuperLunchNotes: Hero Flicks & Birthdays!

The last couple months of the year are a downhill avalanche of festivities for our little fam. Halloween quickly gives way to Jon’s birthday week, which then steamrolls into Thanksgiving, and then it’s just all-holidays all-the-time until January 2nd. Mixed in with the holidays and birthdays was a lot of movie-going — all of which provided some great lunchtime inspiration. So grab some popcorn, a turkey leg, and a slice of birthday cake — here comes November’s SuperLunchNotes!

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11.1 Thor  |  11.2 Hulk  |  11.3 Hela

Thor: Ragnarok was a fun, candy-colored departure from the previous two Thor films. And it was amazeballs. Amidst the dazzling effects, incredible action, and brotastic humor sits Cate Blanchett’s scene-devouring, villainous Hela. The headdress alone warrants a gasp or two, as does the borderline profanity on her day’s lunch note. 😉

Jon’s birthday is November 7th, so in honor of his 8th trip around the sun, I did a week’s worth of similarly-named superheroes. The apex was on Jon’s actual birthday — his favorite real-life hero, wrestler John Cena.

11.6 John Henry Irons (Steel)  |  11.8 J’onn J’onzz (Martian Manhunter)  |  11.9 Johnny Storm (Human Torch)  |  11.10 John Stewart (Green Lantern)

Not only did our full-tilt 8-year-old get a John Cena note in his lunch, he also dressed as Cena at his birthday party (as he did for Halloween). His crafty dad even customized a cake with some Cena flair, complete with a wrestling ring made of silver string and swizzle sticks.

11.7 John Cena

The next week was another momentous one — the premiere of the Justice League movie! Yeah, I know the critics panned the hell out of it, but being able to see Aquaman on the big screen was mind-blowing for this lifelong Aqua-fan. And by the end of the film, Jon claimed Aquaman was his favorite Justice Leaguer now, too!

11.13 The Flash  |  11.14 Cyborg  |  11.15 Superman  |  11.16 Batman  |  11.17 Wonder Woman & Aquaman

I took inspiration for the notes from the movie posters, which included a tagline incorporating the symbols of the six Leaguers. I’m not sure if Jon picked up on that, but I sure had fun doing it. 🙂

The week before Thanksgiving was a short one, so initially I was befuddled as to what the theme would be. But then the show Runaways debuted on Hulu, so I doodled mine and Jon’s favorite character, Nico. Every Wednesday night is comic book night at bedtime, and for the last couple of months we’ve been reading through the Runaways comics — highly recommended reading. The show, however, is a bit too mature/talky/boring for Jon, much to his chagrin.

11.20 Nico Minoru (Runaways)

However, instead of doing more Runaways characters, I followed the magic theme instead. Fun fact: this is the second appearance by Aladdin‘s Genie. The first time was in August of 2014, as a tribute to the recently-passed Robin Williams.

11.21 Zatanna  |  11.22 Genie

Due to a short bout with strep throat, the final week of November was another short one. Having just seen Disney’s Coco, I chose to draw the senseless/streetwise dog, Dante. This inspried me to do a couple more movie sidekicks: Iron Man’s right-hand iron man, War Machine; and everyone’s (new) favorite droid, BB-8*.

11.27 Dante  |  11.29 War Machine

And yes, there will be more Star Wars notes in December’s wrap up, related to the release of The Last Jedi!

11.30 BB-8

Finally, a very special request lunch note. For the last two year’s, one of Jon’s classmates has been a boy named Finn, who has Down syndrome. Jon considers Finn one of his “buds.” One afternoon at pickup, Jon was visibly upset — he informed me that the following day would be Finn’s last at his classmate. Finn was transferring to a different school (for special needs kids). A couple of times on the ride home, Jon explained how he was happy for Finn and his new school, but sad his friend was leaving.

I floated the idea of doing a lunch note for Finn, which Jon immediately liked. “Do Garfield!” was his quick and excited response. “He’s Finn’s favorite!”

November special request: Garfield

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*In case you don’t get the BB-8 note reference: