'Superformula' Turns Child Cancer Patients Into Superheroes

Cancer isn’t so scary if you’re the Batman.
The Caped Crusader, along with Superman, the Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman are helping children at the A.C. Camargo Cancer Center in São Paulo, Brazil, overcome their fears with a superhero's strength.
To help the children better understand their cancer and chemotherapy, the cancer center's ad agency, JWT, partnered with another of its clients, Warner Brothers, to get the superheroes involved in the fight against cancer.

Artists with DC Comics in Burbank, Calif., are working on custom comic books and illustrations specifically for the project. In the story lines, each Justice League member undergoes a life-threatening ordeal similar to that of a child with cancer.
Like the children, the fabled heroes regain their powers through a "super serum" delivered intravenously.
(Settle down, comic purists—this one’s for the kids.)
The stories jump off the page and into the exam room with medical grade plastic coverings that disguise the children’s chemotherapy bags to look just like the formulas that nursed the Justice League members back to health.
“Yesterday, one of the young boys was wearing a Batman costume and said to me, ‘I want my superformula because I’m Batman!’,” Rodrigues said. “I almost cried in the end. He wanted to show me his superformula and it was his chemo.”

Story

This brought a tear to my eye and had to share it

reply to post by HomerinNC


Dear HomerinNC,

F&S, thanks for posting that.

Well, I suppose whatever takes their mind off of their body being ravaged by both cancer and the chemo.

I had cancer as a teenager and was treated in a children's hospital. I remember watching stuff like Charlie Brown where someone had leukemia or something. It's been many years since I've watched it.

I also remember the Spider-Man comic where a pediatric cancer patient's dying wish is to meet Spider-Man. In a heart-breaking twist, Peter Parker unmasks revealing his closely-guarded secret identity, knowing that the child doesn't have long to live.


I think it's a great idea...there's a lot of kids fighting terrible diseases out there. It's a very harrowing experience and can take many, many years to recover from the physiological and psychological repercussions. It's nice to know that someone is thinking of those kids They need all the support they can get, even if it's just to be acknowledged by a major institution like DC Comics.

By the way, one of my favorite rituals in that hospital was waiting for my monthly MAD magazine to arrive in the downstairs gift shop

Originally posted by supremecommander
Well, I suppose whatever takes their mind off of their body being ravaged by both cancer and the chemo.

There is a great surrealism and disconnect involved in being a young person who is removed from their normal life and placed in a hospital to deal with a disease that they may not survive.

I think it's a terrific idea on DC's part. A lot of these kids are going to feel very isolated, alienated, and spiritually broken. To get an acknowledgement from the outside, "normal life" does wonders to one's sense of worth when facing terminal disease.

Sorry, I can see no good at all in ANY of the cancer organizations when there IS therapy out there.
I have known 2 people who put double mortgages on their homes and spent all of their savings for these treatments.
I think we have given enough cash to find a cure for something "they" have no interest in curing.

reply to post by HomerinNC

Like the children, the fabled heroes regain their powers through a "super serum" delivered intravenously.

lol if only there was such a super serum. Imagine if they actually drew in the books what really happens. The characters would be losing weight and hair and the majority of them would never make it past a year of treatment.

reply to post by g146541


I'm sorry, but I think you're greatly misinformed here. There ARE advancements. Yes, it is frustrating that progress is slow, but there are a lot of different cancers out there. I was treated about 10 years ago. I have seen new, less invasive and less severe treatments introduced between then and now that were not available to me. Personally, I think it's great that some kids will have an easier time of it than I did. And heck, people only a generation or two ago pretty much had a death sentence when diagnosed.

It is false to say that researching new treatments is futile. To say that the search for a cure is slow-going..then that's much more accurate (for whatever reason that may be.)

There have definitely been great strides made towards treating cancer, every decade.

Originally posted by ChaoticOrder
lol

Well, I can see with this post that it's too much to ask for a little respect in this thread.

Originally posted by NarcolepticBuddha

Originally posted by ChaoticOrder
lol

Well, I can see with this post that it's too much to ask for a little respect in this thread.

And this thread is insulting to my entire being on every level. Why would I respect something I detest.

reply to post by NarcolepticBuddha


I'm not saying it's a futile pursuit or not possible, I understand it is very possible.
But the places where you can get treatment will milk the lifes blood out of yours and your families finances.
All because they can.

reply to post by NarcolepticBuddha


Maybe once we discover a magic bullet for these types of cancers we can look back and count the names of the children who have died due to the delays in medical advancements caused by religious idiocy.

Originally posted by Wertdagf
delays in medical advancements caused by religious idiocy.

I don't see how religious idiocy is delaying medical advancement. Care to clarify?

As another poster pointed out--and I'm not disputing it at all--cancer treatment is big business. When a disease is lucrative and profitable for someone else, that's incentive enough to delay medical advancement.

reply to post by NarcolepticBuddha

As another poster pointed out--and I'm not disputing it at all--cancer treatment is big business. When a disease is lucrative and profitable for someone else, that's incentive enough to delay medical advancement.

And I might also point out that it's incentive enough to create propaganda like this and suppress the truly useful treatments which clearly do exist if one is willing to look. Now you know why I find this thread disgusting.

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


Fair enough. I didn't mean to demonize you the way I did. I just got a little too emotional with this subject. As far as pediatric cancer goes, I'm just as concerned with the psychological healing that needs to be considered and not just the chemotherapy etc.

These are kids who need emotional support as well. I'm not even going to dig deep into the conspiracy/business aspect of the medical establishment. But it's good that people are. This is something that needs to be attacked from all angles.

To all the posters who are talking about the profit and crap from the treatments:
You know what? I dont give a GOOD GODDAMN FLYING FRAK about that crap, my OP is about how this company is TRYING to help these kids take their minds off whats going on around them, apparently you trolls either dont have a shred of compassion or children yourselves to understand what the child thats going thru while undergoing treatment. This improves ther morale, and actually ASSISTS in healing. Mind over matter.
Troll elsewhere you failtards!!! You people make me SICK!!!

reply to post by HomerinNC

my OP is about how this company is TRYING to help these kids take their minds off whats going on around them

Yes and if they actually had their mind focused on what was going on around them they might realize they are being led into a death trap painted with a sugary coating of super hero nonsense. The company is trying to take their mind of the facts which they should indeed be paying attention to even if it scares them.

reply to post by HomerinNC


Yeah, that's what I was trying to say HomerinNC. Regardless of what's going on in the medical establishment, these kids are individuals who need some support. And in my experience, a lot of the time their friends and families are not there enough to provide that support. Parents are usually busy working and taking care of other kids as well. It's very sad, but a lot of children end up alone in those hospital rooms.

Thanks again for the heads up in the OP As I mentioned, not only is a comic a great thing to look forward to when you're stuck in a hospital for months at a time, it's also a good device to spread some optimism to these kids while also teaching them a little more about their illnesses/treatments. According to the article though, this program seems only limited to Brazil. Don't expect to see it anywhere else.

reply to post by HomerinNC


With this 100% Homer.

Having lost my 6yr old son to leukaemia ( he would have been 21 this year ) I can appreciate the
moral boost as well as the inner strength that this will garner.

To the trolls ... Spend some time in a children's oncology ward. THEN get back to us.

I think this is a fantastic idea and should be backed all the way !

reply to post by HomerinNC


I think its great what they are doing. By imagining they are Batman, these children are fighting this disease with all their might.
This is the best attitude to survive.
Its often said that children have a better change to survive cancer, because they have greater imaginations.

Thumbs up for this hospital, they are not only giving the kids a better time, they provided the strongest tool a person can have to become healthy again.