NEWTON COUNTY, Ind. — Spiderman, Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk stood as pallbearers for the funeral of 5-year-old Brayden Denton, who died after a battle with brain cancer that was, well, fit for a superhero.
He died May 8 after a fight with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma.
“The whole time I saw them carrying Brayden, he was probably up there going, ‘This is so cool,’” his mother Staci Denton told the New York Daily News.
Brayden had been a comic book fan from age 3. His favorite hero was Spiderman, but he expanded his net because he had all the toys, and became a fan of the all.
He was diagnosed with brain cancer on April 20, 2013, and always had a superhero with him during every treatment, which included 30 rounds of radiation. When her son stopped breathing, Denton decided to take an unconventional approach to his funeral, which she said is what Brayden would have wanted.
A photo of the casket being carried by Iron Man, Captain America, Spiderman, Batman, Superman and the Incredible Hulk has gone viral on Facebook.
Brayden’s Uncle Cory, who dresses as Thor, said he watched every Iron Man movie with his nephew, and took him to see Superman.
“It was hard,” he said. “But I did it for him.”
Denton donated Brayden’s tumor for medical research.