I’ve never had athletic aspirations for my son, either as a player or a fan. I’m not big into cars or building stuff or many of the other things a lot of dads pass down to their children. But what I do know is pop culture: comics, superheroes, cartoons, TV, and of course, movies.

It started out simply enough. A quick doodle of Batman on a sticky note and a dad-like “Go get ‘em!” admonishment tucked into my son’s lunch bag for his first day of school. It was a way to remind him Dad was with him, loved him, was rooting for him. It was also banking on a tiny hope that it would get my picky eater excited about his lunch. But if I'm being honest, it was mostly a way for me to send a bit of myself out into the world with my little guy.

He loved it, so I did a note in his lunch each day that first week. Another superhero for each day, each sharing a word of encouragement or just being awesomely superheroic. That was over a year ago, and I’ve been doing it every school day since.

As we’re now into a second school year of lunch notes, we’ve expanded far beyond the world of superheroes. As I would get bored, or at a loss for ideas, I started doing theme weeks. Red week, villain week, robot week. So a lot more characters from movies we’d watched together started making their way into his lunch. Iron Giant, the Wicked Witch of the West, E.T., Buzz Lightyear, Chewbacca, etc.

One rule that’s remained constant is that I won’t draw anyone my son doesn’t know. If I’m not there to explain who they are, he needs to be able to tell his friends or teachers who they are.

This is great on a few levels. First, it continues to give me excuses to introduce new characters and films to my son, giving us more time to bond in one of our favorite pastimes. Secondly, I’ve had several parents tell me their kids — and they, as a result — have learned a ton about superheroes because of the notes in my son’s lunch. He often will give them away. Thirdly, it keeps me tuned in to what my son is into. Lately I take a lot of cues from him as to what he might like for a note.

The best part is he’s now getting to an age where he can sit through an entire movie in the theater. Okay, maybe “sit” is an oversimplification, but we’ve been able to at least stay in the theater through three films so far. On our last movie outing, we saw the trailer for Big Hero 6. He was mesmerized by the tidbits of characters and plot teased at in the preview. Not only that, his eyes also grew big when it was announced the movie would be in theaters Nov. 7. -- his 5th birthday.

Of course, he asked if we could see it, and of course I told him yes, as I was already planning it in my head the moment it came on the screen. I also told him how the very first Batman movie came out on my birthday (many, many years ago) and how excited I was. I remember feeling like the universe just knew — and it has always been a special movie, just for me.   

But Big Hero 6 is the first time we’re both going in blind — having very little knowledge about the characters, their powers, their favorite snack foods. So I poked around on the internet to get as much info as I could and will be showing him trailers and playing around on the web site, and even doing doodles for his lunch the week leading up to the film. And looking forward to having yet another adventure to share.

Brent Almond is a writer, graphic designer, comic book geek and all-around pop-culture junkie. He lives in the burbs of Washington, D.C. with his husband, preschool-aged son and their fluffy, black-and-white dog. Brent chronicles his adventures and obsessions on his blog, Designer Daddy.