Why Blast Captain Had to Be a Father First
When I built the Boom Squad universe, I had a choice to make about its greatest hero.
I could have made the Mighty Blast Captain the fastest. The strongest. The one with the flashiest power. Instead, in The Mega Punch Bunch, when Buster asks how his dad can possibly be the greatest hero alive if he isn't the fastest or the strongest or even the smartest on his own team, it's Scout who answers him: he's the greatest because he's the best leader. He trains people. He mentors them. He works alongside his team instead of ahead of it, puts others before himself, and does the right thing whether or not anyone's watching.
That answer wasn't an accident, and it wasn't just a nice moment for the book. It's the whole reason Blast Captain is a father before he's anything else. I didn't want the greatest hero in this universe to be defined by what he could do alone on a rooftop. I wanted him defined by his character and how he cared for others— because I believe that's exactly the calling God has actually given most of us.
The Most Important Disciples Live in Your House
It's easy to think of "making disciples" as something that happens in a pulpit, a mission field, or a classroom. Scripture keeps pointing somewhere much closer to home:
"Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." — Ephesians 6:4
"Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road." — Deuteronomy 6:7
God never treated parenting as a side project to ministry. Instead, He treated it as one of the primary places ministry actually happens. The most important disciples you will ever have influence over are very possibly already living under your roof, sitting in your classroom, or filling your church's nursery. Blast Captain doesn't stop being a hero to go be a dad. Being a dad is a major part of his hero work — for him, and for every parent, grandparent, teacher, and leader reading this.
A Father Who Trains Is an Echo of THE Father
There's a reason "training" is the word that follows Blast Captain everywhere in these stories. He doesn't just protect his sons — he prepares them. He doesn't hand them a finished version of themselves; he works with them, patiently, mission after mission, so they can grow into who they're capable of becoming.
That's not just good parenting. It's a small, imperfect echo of exactly how God the Father treats us:
"God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness... it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace." — Hebrews 12:10–11
"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" — 1 John 3:1
Every earthly father, mother, grandparent, or mentor who trains a child with patience instead of controlling them with fear is handing that child a true, even if incomplete, picture of who God is. When Blast Captain trains his sons instead of simply commanding them, he's not just being a good dad — he's being a signpost pointing toward the Father who trains and takes care of all of us.
The Gloves Are Given. Putting Them On Is a Choice.
Here's the detail I care about most, and I built it into the story on purpose.
Blast Captain gives his sons their Power Up Gloves. He's the one who hands them the case, upgrades them, believes in what they'll become before they've proven it. But notice what he never does: he never puts the gloves on for them.Every single time, it's Baboom and Buster who slide the gloves onto their own hands and choose to say the words that change them: "Power — Power — Up!"
That's the picture I want every parent, grandparent, and leader to walk away with. You can hand your child truth. You can model it, teach it, pray it over them from the day they're born. What you cannot do is make the choice to live it for them. Paul understood this when he wrote to Timothy about the faith that had lived first in his grandmother, then his mother, and had now become genuinely, personally his:
"I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also." — 2 Timothy 1:5
The gift gets passed down. The putting-on still belongs to them. Our job isn't to force that moment — it's to make sure the gloves are ready, and waiting, when they decide to reach for them.
Heroes Never Stop Training
Notice something else about the Boom Squad: nobody ever "arrives." Even after real victories, the team is still learning, still upgrading, still getting corrected and coached. Blast Captain doesn't train his kids once and call it finished. Training is the ongoing condition of being on his team.
That's discipleship, not a single decision point but a whole life of growing:
"He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion." — Philippians 1:6
"Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." — 2 Peter 3:18
If the kids in your life see you still training — still reading your Bible, still asking forgiveness, still growing — you're teaching them something a finished, "arrived" adult never could: that following Jesus isn't a costume you put on once. It's a life you keep training for.
What's Actually Underneath the Cape
I love the action. I love the boomerangs and the Power-Power-Up flashes of light and the villains getting what's coming to them. None of that is a trick to smuggle in a lesson — it's genuinely fun, and it's supposed to be.
But underneath every mission, there's one goal that never changes: pointing kids toward Jesus, so they come to believe in Him and actually live that belief out, every day, not just on the page. The training, the gloves, the father who leads by walking alongside instead of ahead — all of it is scaffolding around that one truth. If a child closes one of these books loving Baboom and Buster but never moves an inch closer to loving Jesus, we haven't finished the job. That's not pressure to preach harder. It's just the reason any of this exists in the first place.
What This Looks Like for You
If you're a parent or grandparent: You are somebody's Blast Captain. Train alongside your kids instead of just directing them from a distance — pray with them, not just at them; let them watch you wrestle with a hard decision faithfully, not just hear about it after.
If you're an educator: You may be one of the steadiest, most consistent "training" presences some of your students have. Coach character the same patient way you coach a skill — correction alongside encouragement, growth expected but never rushed.
If you're a minister or leader: Equip people, then let them choose to put it on. Discipleship that only ever hands people information, without ever handing them the moment of decision, raises spectators instead of heroes.
Every child needs someone willing to hand them the gloves. Our job is to make sure what we're handing them is worth putting on.
Become the hero God created you to be.
RISE ABOVE. POWER, POWER UP.
