Is that a bird? Is that a plane?
No ... it’s a group of superheroes from the Marvel and DC universes visiting pediatric patients at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.
Cosplayers dressed as Batman, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Supergirl, and Thor stopped by the hospital Thursday afternoon to tell jokes, sing jingles, and wrap plastic capes around the children’s backs.
In a room with long windows overlooking the water, the superheroes and the children added jewels to paper masks. A girl in pink shoes and a pink cape giggled as Supergirl helped her decorate a pink mask.
“We’ve got the silliest goose,” Supergirl said, sliding the mask over the girl’s face as they finished.
“We’re going to take on a bad guy,” Batman said, approaching.
“Get away!” the girl said, swinging her walking stick toward him. “Wham!”
The cosplayers were participating in Fan Expo Boston, a festival scheduled for this weekend that connects hundreds of thousands of comic, sci-fi, horror, anime, and gaming fans.
“Pretty much all the kids know the superheroes, love the superheroes,” said Leah Terrill, 34, a child life specialist at the hospital. “[The reaction], I think, sometimes, is shock. They’re like, ‘How are you here?’ I had one kid ask, ‘They’re really superheroes?’”
Matches Malone, who was dressed as Batman for the event, said that for him, the kids always come first.
“It’s always about the kids. If they really believe that you’re the character that you’re portraying, you can get them to believe in themselves and be the hero that they want to be,” said Malone, 57, a retired military personnel from Dorchester who now works in security.
Malone has been cosplaying Batman for 33 years now. He first began by dressing up for his nephew.
“I like the character because I can relate to him. He’s human. Flesh and blood,” he said.
At a table to the side covered in markers, paper masks, and coloring sheets, Thor battled a patient in a thumb war. Her small thumb squished his big one.
“You’re so strong!” he said.
Supergirl leaned over to adjust Thor’s wig, her fingers running through the synthetic hair.
“Not to brag, but Supergirl’s my wife,” Mark Robertson, 37, a United States Postal Worker cosplaying Thor, said.
The couple originally met through cosplay. They drove up to the event together from their home in Connecticut. Robertson tried to reattach the Velcro on Supergirl’s belt this morning, but it didn’t make the drive.
Robertson started cosplaying more than 10 years ago and has frequented hospitals in costume to cheer up sick children. His most vivid memory from the decade-plus he’s spent cosplaying is giving his hammer to a kid about to enter surgery.
“I heard from the parents after surgery that he held the hammer. And that’s what got him through it,” he said.
Cosplaying has grown more popular in recent years, with more than 10 million cosplayers worldwide, according to a 2023 report from investment firm Konvoy.
To Terrill, the child life specialist, the visit offered patients and their families a chance to breathe and a glimpse at normalcy.
“By the time they get to us in rehab, they’ve already experienced the hospital and had a lot of trauma and challenges medically. … I think it’s meaningful to break up the monotony of the hospital and to bring a sense of, maybe, joy they haven’t had in a long time,” she said.
“We’ve had so many kids throughout the years who do get better,” she added.
Audrey Tomlin can be reached at audrey.tomlin@globe.com.