When young Evan Struckman found out that his class was going to throw a Halloween party, he couldn't wait! He rushed home and with the help of his mother, crafted an incredibly cool Tony Stark costume.
But when the day of the big party arrived, much like Iron Man himself often is — Evan was met with adversity. It turns out that a couple of bullies didn't take kindly to his costume, but Evan didn't let that stop him.
It's the one night out of the year where kids are encouraged to dress up, have fun, and run amuck! Plus, on top of all that — you get free candy!
Evan happens to be a big fan of The Avengers, specifically Iron Man. So it only made sense that he'd look to honor his favorite hero come Halloween.
It should go without saying, but in case there's actually a soul alive who's yet to see a Marvel movie, Tony Stark is Iron Man's alter ego — played brilliantly on film by Robert Downey Jr.
Evan has the hair, the goatee — even the signature Tony Stark glasses! If you look closely, you'll see that he's also wearing a name badge from Stark Industries.
Evan also requested to be driven to school in his mother's Mercedes but due to a scheduling conflict, Evan was forced to ride the school bus instead.
"Got a call from Evan at school 20 minutes after he left on the bus. Apparently[sic] some kids on the bus (who weren’t even wearing costumes) told him he looked stupid," Jill wrote via Facebook.
“He kept saying, ‘we worked so hard on it,’” Jill told Today Parents. “He was really thinking about how I would feel, which tells you a lot about him.”
It took some time, but after a while, Evan began to relax. Once he'd stopped crying and regained his composure, his mother asked him if he wanted to return to school for the party.
" So we went home redid his AWESOME makeup and matched[sic] right back into school!" his mother continued on in another post.
“He was a little scared walking back into school,” Jill told Today Parents. “But he had a great rest of the day. And he was so proud of himself."
Jill believes wholeheartedly that had Evan not gone back, it would have broken his spirit.
Since word of Evan's heroic story first broke, his mother's Facebook posts have been shared hundreds of thousands of times. He's living proof that not all heroes wear masks.
