It started with the Incredible Hulk, we think. Our son hasn’t been exposed to much superhero stuff beyond the odd Avengers backpack or Justice League sticker book he’s received from pals or family. Shorn of context, they must have seemed inscrutable. Their brightly coloured forms may as well have been the cast of Hollyoaks, or the Guildford Four. But now he’s seen the Hulk in action, in an all-banging, all-clanging, all-Hulk-Smashing cartoon to which he has swiftly become devoted. Not so much that he can pronounce the character’s name correctly, incidentally, so when he smashes the little Hulk toy he’s purloined from a pal, he refers to him as HUG!, a cutesy touch that offsets the damage he is doing to our home and bodies as he slams it against them shouting ‘HUG! HUG! HUG!’
