Halloween is the perfect time to live out your fantasies and be whoever you’ve always wanted to be. It’s an unbelievably empowering experience. But nothing really charges you up the way a superhero costume does.

“With great power comes great responsibility,” says Uncle Ben, the late uncle of the iconic comic book hero Peter Parker. But you can’t truly understand what “great power” Uncle Ben is talking about until you slip into an actual Spider-Man costume.  Nobody talks about the character embodiment that takes place mentally.  When everyone surrounding you smothers you with “wows,” “oohs” and “ahs,” and you’re decorated by the flickering of endless camera flashes, you’ll start to believe that your costume is a part of you. Suddenly you become the superhero you’re portraying, and nobody can tell you otherwise.

Nobody can relate to this feeling of empowerment better than professional cos-player Marc Arjona, who majored in Kinesiology at CSUSM.

“I think the most exhilarating part is when little kids want to take a picture with you,” says the CSUSM alumni.  “It’s like reliving your childhood experience.  It’s like sharing your happiness with others.”

You might start to wonder why Bruce Banner would rather lead a dull and boring life, with the Incredible Hulk captive and seething behind the mental prison bars of his self-control.  You might start to look for real-life criminals to beat up with your new superpowers (not recommended), and you may find yourself trying to move objects with your mind while draped in the robes of a Jedi master from Star Wars.  All of these are possibilities when you wear the costumes of a powerful superhero.

But all jokes aside, we have all been a Peter Parker, drowning in the occasional hopelessness of life.  There are times when we can use a hero to  save us from our woes of our reality.  The great thing about a superhero costume is that, for just one night, we don’t need a hero save us from evil and injustice.  For once, we can strip from the costumes of our real-life identities and become the superhero that dwells within all of us.