Thursday, September 22, 2016

Sidekicks in the Spotlight

My husband and I come from very different backgrounds, but one of the things we agreed on was that we’d bring up our children with the love of geekery – comics, fantasy and sci-fi in novel and TV form, etc. We’ve kept it age appropriate with Star Wars coming before Buffy, and a cute film called Sky High before the Avengers.

If you haven’t seen it, Sky High is a film about a high school for super powered teens. The staff decides if the child’s power makes them hero or sidekick material. Those deemed as sidekicks are at the low end of the high school’s social spectrum. Here’s a clip:


Now the movie makes the case that sidekicks can be heroes. Sometimes all it takes is being willing to see them in a different light. So for this prompt, I want you to create a poem that takes a peripheral or sidekick character from any book (comic or otherwise), legend, film or TV show, and give them a voice. You are free to choose outside the superhero genre if you’d like. Writing about how Krypto the Super Dog spends his days at Superman’s Fortress of Solitude when the Man of Steel isn't around is just as fine as writing about how Mary Benet copes with being the middle child, literally and metaphorically, between headstrong Lizzie and shallow Lydia.  


Remember, this must be a new poem created for this prompt. Do be sure to visit your fellow poets. I look forward to reading all of your poems.

11 comments:

Magaly Guerrero said...

Dearest Rommy, I celebrate a family that celebrates geekery. But you probably already knew that. ;-D

I went a bit mythical, with this prompt. I just couldn't help it, with today being the Autumnal Equinox and all.

Rommy said...

Mythical is a perfect choice for the equinox. *happy dance*

Kerry O'Connor said...

I love this out of the box idea. It is always refreshing to approach a topic from a different viewpoint. Thanks, Rommie.

Gillena Cox said...

Luv Luv it

Happy Thursday everyone

much love...

Jim said...

Thank you Roomy, I liked your response to the prompt and the prompt itself. There are a lot of ways we could go, mine was as true, of sorts, story.
..

Stacie Eirich said...

Fun prompt! I'm also trying to raise my kids with a love of fantasy & imaginative stories -- (whether in books or movies or both). Kudos to supporting "geekery" LOL :-)

brudberg said...

This was a hard one... somehow on a more serious note I started to think about "The World's Wife"... by Carol Ann Duffy, where she speaks the voice from the perspective of women of history and myth (often reduced to sidekicks)... I wrote a poem about Mileva Maric (Einstein's first wife) that I could share if there was not the the requirement of a new poem....

brudberg said...

So my sidekick is a real person from history... if you feel it's too serious, please remove.

Rommy said...

Absolutely not! Thank you so much for participating.

Rommy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Outlawyer said...

Hey Rommy--mine is a rather silly sidekick--Dan Quayle--many won't even remember him! Oh well. Thanks for the fun prompt. K.