Raising Dion is a short film that explores what it would be like for a single mother to raise a superhero, and what's so brilliant about the film isn't how it handles the powers aspect of the story, but the fact the powers are being used by a child.
"Why isn't my poop invisible?" Dion asks at one point. And ... that's a really good question. Dion plays Star Wars and uses his powers to lightning bolt the floor. That may be a fun game of pretend for other children, but there's a darker aspect to it here; Dion actually has the ability to use those lightning bolts to punish or kill someone.
He thinks he's playacting something he saw in a fun movie, but his mother is looking at a very scary future if she doesn't raise him right.
The short is actually a bit of promotion for the Raising Dion comic book, but I'd love to see this concept picked up as a Netflix series or something. Most superhero origin stories exist in a sort of glassy comic book world, but the tone of this piece starts with the reality of single parenthood and then layers the powers on top of it. This is great stuff.
