Superhero mystery party ideas

The supervillain must be an adult, because getting on over on an adult and tying them up in a cupboard is the most fun thing ever, whereas defeating a randomly chosen small child is (as aforementioned) just bullying. I feel that this adult might perhaps take a stuffed animal hostage in the room where the food is laid out, and the challenge is to gain control of the area, rescue the animal and then obviously eat all the food. One could imagine a series of puzzles leading to identifying the challenge, being able to open the door, and then a pitched battle of some kind leading to the final defeat. If the room in question has two doors, then some strategising involving sneaking up from the rear could be introduced at a late stage when the battle is not going particulary well.

Following on Easily Confused's idea that a grownup by the villain: Presumably there will be more than one grownup, right? Let's assume there are three adults. Tell the kids that two of the grownups were born on earth and are sworn to defend the planet. One of them is an evil alien who wants to conquer the world. The only way to discover who is the undercover alien is to scour the "earth" looking for clues to the hero's origins. Then send them around the "earth" (actually, around the house) looking for clues you have hidden. These clues will relate to two of the grownups but not the third. For example, if one of the grownups is a super-detective, there might be a picture of Sherlock Holmes. Or, alternatively, they could find puzzle pieces; putting these puzzles together will result in pictures of two of the grownups. One the kids have found the clues, they can see that they relate to only two of the grownups. These are the two grownups who must come from earth, since clues to their origins were found all around the planet. But there are no traces anywhere on Earth of the third grownup. That must mean s/he is an alien who has just arrived from outer space! It's the villain! ATTACK THEM WITH SILLY STRING!!!!! TIE THEM UP! SAVE THE EARTH!

Very cool idea. There's the trope where various items of importance are scattered/hidden around the world and the heroes need to retrieve them, and in this case, perhaps to defeat the villain. Another idea is to have a set of villains (the adults, maybe), guarding valuables in different parts of the house. And only a particular hero's powers can defeat a particular villain, or in certain combinations. And maybe each of those valuables make up something big and cool. I like the premise of it being cooperative, especially if they don't realize it at first. It's a birthday party, and you don't really want any kids "losing" and having the party ruined for them. Unless I'm just getting soft.

Can I go back in time to be 11 years old so I can attend this awesome event? PLEASE?? - Are you providing the costumes ? My idea is you could tell all party guests to dress in the monotone colour of their choosing, then when they arrive you can provide masks, capes, wigs, and accessories for each character. I've got nothing else. As a parent, I'd love it if you made the costume part easy on me. Enjoy! This sounds great!!

Thanks, guys! A scavenger hunt for the villain's weakness is a great idea, and rock-paper-scissors for the battle will work nicely. For the record, the birthday girl checked in advance to make sure the kid she tapped for villainy is okay with being the villain. He's apparently super excited about it. He also gets mind control powers, so he can recruit other kids to be his minions. Looks like the plan is to hand out invitations early enough that the guests all have time to design their own costumes. We might have a mask-making craft activity, though.

As I see it, the main difficulty in tailoring a murder mystery party to fit a superhero theme is that the culprit is obvious if everyone is dressed as a superhero except for one guest dressed as a villain. A possible solution would be to have the villain be The Chameleon (from Spider-Man), who is disguised as one of the heroes in attendance. This would allow for deduction, in the murder mystery party style. Yeah, that's all I got.

I'd do a hunt guided by clues. You could have it be a race to get to the valuable http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin. You can get a thingamagig and hide it. Leave a trail of clues from one place to the other, with couplets that guide the groups to the next clue. So, a little reading, some thinking and then running around like idiots to find the next clue. I'd do about 5 clues for each team, with the final clue the same for each. So you only have to think of 9 clues. Start of by taking a picture of the item, so they know what they're looking for. Then send them on their respective ways to search for it. Each picture should be accompanied by the first clue in the game. For example: I have two hands to show you the way, I was right two times today! The clue could be in a broken clock. The clue in the broken clock could be: I'm opened twice six time a week, my door is rusted, so I may creak. The clue would be in the mail box. Then from there: The valuable MacGuffin is at hand! I have no legs, but yet I stand! You can hide the whatever in a ficus in a plant stand. Maybe it's Barbie dressed as Supergirl. Whichever team finds it gets bragging rights. I'm thinking that keeping 11 year olds on task, especially in a group, with silly string, is going to be a challenge, so the mystery activity should only last about 30 minute. As for the fight, that can be once one of the teams has the MacGuffin. Then the other team can fight them for it! You can be the Commissioner and say, "Oh Yay! The heros have the MacGuffin! I sure hope the villains don't fight them for it!" Or you can say, "Oh NO! The Villains have the MacGuffin, I sure hope the Heros fight them to get it back!" You could do some goofy stuff, Pin the Cape on the Superhero. A http://www.partycity.com/product/batman+bust+pull+string+pinata+18in+x+14in.do?page=2&navSet=170005. Or a http://www.partycity.com/product/star+pinata+17in+x+18in.do?navSet=170011. Then open presents, cake, ice cream, punch, and Pick up your kid now that he's filthy and jazzed on sugar. I'm thinking that the party should only last about 2-2.5 hours. No more than that. Corral your friends to help with the activities and to make sure that hoards of kids aren't careening through the bedrooms looking for clues in underwear drawers. Sounds like fun!

For an 11-year-old? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Heinz_Doofenshmirtz. Multiple "-inators" that the party guests have to figure out how to defeat, using the silly string and various other things you find at the dollar store. Can I also get an invite to this party? Because it sounds like the best.

Another idea would be for there to be a big star divided into sections, matching, say, the number of teams if you go that route. When the game is completed, the star would be put together, and then you present the cake. I just have the Triforce from Zelda on the mind. And I like the earlier idea of stuffed animals playing the role of hostages.