By Kathryn Skelton,Staff Writer

TURNER – Getting dressed in the morning, 5-year-old Vangjel Xhollo favors a button-down oxford, a sweater vest and a tie.

The outfit, he tells his mom, makes him look handsome, but that’s more of a side perk.

It’s also what Peter Parker would wear.

Peter Parker is Spider-Man’s square alter-ego. Underneath Vangjel’s oxford is a swatch of familiar, red-webbed costume. He keeps a mask in his pocket.

Most days, Vangjel wants to be Spider-Man. He’s not half-hearted about it.

Stripping down to reveal full-body superhero duds, he’ll bound around the house and his parents’ restaurant, Antigoni’s Pizza, striking web-slinging poses. Customers hold him next to a wall so he can pretend to climb up it. He asks his mom to be Mary Jane (Peter’s girlfriend.)

Then out of nowhere, before you can say “sweater vest,” he becomes Batman in a black cowl and cape. Or Mr. Incredible in a red jumpsuit. Or Buzz Lightyear in faux flight gear.

Vangjel has a thing for costumes.

Spidey, with three different outfits, plus all the Peter Parker streetwear, is his outright favorite.

(His Superman is semi-retired. The “S” wore off the costume from too many washes.)

The release of the “Spider-Man” blockbuster starring Tobey Maguire sparked Vangjel’s hobby.

“I thought he’d grow out of this – it’s been three years,” said his mom, Antigoni Papagjika. “All kids don’t care about clothes like this.”

Ever since they opened their Greek pizza shop in 2003, their only child’s been a familiar costumed fixture, weaving around tables, holding doors open and talking to customers.

“People come and ask, some of them, Where’s our buddy?’ Some of them, Where’s my Spider-Man?'” Papagjika said.

She thinks sometimes they call him “Spider-Man” because they’re not sure how to pronounce his first name. (Vangjel sounds like “van-jel.”)

A personable boy with light brown hair, he’s most frequently seen at the restaurant – or trying, super-stealthily, to not be seen – on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

Spider-Man’s appeal, according to Vangjel: “I like him because he shoots web and climbs walls and stuff and beats bad guys.”

At home, he’s king of the quick change, ducking under a pool table or behind a wall, only to surprise his parents with a new look. An outfit can last as little as 10 minutes.

“I’ll find his clothes, like, everywhere,” his mom said, laughing. “Every single movie that he sees, he wants the costume. He saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ so he wants the costume.” She isn’t sure they made one. “He says, Don’t lie to me, I know every single movie that comes out has a toy and a costume.'”

Vehemently insisting he was Spider-Man got Vangjel into trouble at day care – he wouldn’t listen or respond to his own name – so day care has become a dress-up-free zone.

“They had to sit him down in a chair every day and explain to him, You are not Spider-Man,'” she said.

His parents are hoping the costume thing dies down by next fall when Vangjel enters kindergarten.

Or it could just morph into another genre.

His dad, Kastriot Xhollo, said Vangjel has recently been taken by the action movie “The Transporter” in which the hero is a sort of bodyguard who always dresses in immaculate suits.

So he’s asked his dad for a fancy suit to dress like “The Transporter.” But that’s not all.

To complete the look, he told his father: “This is important: nice shoes.”

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