Local boy with cancer turns into a superhero for a day

Thursday was shaping up to be just another school day for 13-year-old Erik Martin, but then something extraordinary happened: Spiderman called.

Spiderman happens to be one of the few people who knows that Erik, too, has a secret identity — he’s Electron Boy, a superhero who fights the powers of evil with light.

And Spiderman needed Erik’s help.

Erik, who is living with liver cancer, has always wanted to be a superhero. On Thursday, the regional chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation granted him that wish with an elaborate event that involved hundreds of volunteers in Bellevue and Seattle.

Good thing the evildoers did not know his weakness is a magnetic field, which will limit his orientation options.