Lightning does strike twice. Barely a day after Ken Livingstone announced plans to reclaim London from Tory clutches, six more cartoon superheroes have been seen defending the capital from the forces of evil.
Well, sort of: Madame Tussauds's newest attraction, a nine-minute film that opened today, features everyone's favourite comic characters trashing their way through the Big Smoke in not just two, not three, but – yup - four dimensions.
Four dimensions? Again, sort of: Marvel Super Heroes 4D, which shows Spidey and chums saving London landmarks such as Buckingham Palace and, er, Madame Tussauds from a nasty baddy called Victor von Doom, sees audience members sprayed with water-jets fitted to the seat in front, buffeted by air-streams contained within head-rests, and vibrated by a mechanical floor. So Spidey shouts, and you get a blast of cool air in your ear. Wolverine slices with his spikes, and your seat gives a jolt. The Hulk sneezes, and you're lightly peppered with water. Or is it bogeys? Who knows.
Of course, this doesn't really count as 4D, I suggest tentatively to my guide; water is still technically only three-dimensional. She's having none of it though. "The water, the airjets," she says, "they're more than just 3D."
The kids, meanwhile, are far less sceptical. Bradley Arnold, 10, who's come all the way from Winchester with his dad Will to see the film, is full of praise. "It's awesome!" he says. "The Wolverine spikes were my favourite, and I loved the misty water. 3D is nowhere near as good as this." And what of Hulk's snot? "It really felt like a sneeze!"
