I decided to give my little nephews a bunch of comics as an introduction/sampling of the DC and Marvel heroes. The boys are between 8 and 12 and while they've obviously watched cartoons, to my knowledge they've never read a comic book. I figured I'd give them between 30 and 50 comics total. What I'm going for are comics that have a cool story, (4 issues max, although 1-3 issues would be better), give a good sampling of a character or group's potential, and don't have any elements that would give them nightmares or which just aren't appropriate for the age group.
The characters and comics I've settled on so far are:
DC
Batman
Batman 359 and Detective 526: When Killer Croc first shows up and Batman has to face down a ton of his rogues.
Detective 500: The Phantom Stranger takes Batman to a parallel world to prevent that Bruce Wayne's parents from being murdered. This also has an Elongated Man story, a Hawkman story, and a ton of DC's quirky detectives.
Phantom Stranger
Secret Origins 10: Four possible origins of the Phantom Stranger. (The Stranger's kind of obscure, but if I can't promote personal favourite characters, what's the point?)
Superman
Action (2011) 1: I've never been much of a fan of Superman as a solo character but I thought this was pretty accessible, and even though it's not the complete story, I thought it was entertaining on its own. (Plus it has the added bonus that if they want to continue reading, this series is ongoing and should be a lot easier to get than most of the other stuff.)
Green Lantern
Green Lantern (1960) 166-168: This story had Hal Jordan having to bail out the Guardians and fight fellow Corpsmen when they've been corrupted by more powerful rings that can affect the colour yellow. (I felt this gave a sense of the Corps even though things have moved on a bit since then.)
Justice League
Justice League of America 221-223: The satellite League against Maximus Rex and the Ani-Men with most of the league getting a good spotlight at some point during the story. (This one was a little bit gruesome but not by today's standards.)
Justice League of America 224: The satellite League against Paragon with a focus on teamwork for the takedown.
JLA 18-19: The watchtower League must correct the forces of chance while reality shifts around them and their members progressively disappear.
JLA 33: The watchtower League deals with a memory wiped white martian who becomes unhinged.
(I thought it might be cool to give them a couple versions of the League without confusing them with JLI.)
Legion of Super-Heroes
DC Comics Presents: Superboy's Legion: With so many versions of the Legion, I thought it would be best to go with one that had a good self contained story.
For DC, I also wanted a Captain Marvel story, a Blue Beetle story, and another Superman story. I haven't recently had a chance to comb through my Power of Shazams or Blue Beetles but I'm at a loss for Superman. Additionally, while they're in other stories, no Wonder Woman or Flash issues jumped out at me. Anyone have any suggestions?
Marvel
I've never been as in to Marvel, except for the Defenders, but I figured I should include a sampling of Spider-Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, The Avengers, and of course, The Defenders. I can kind of see arguments for Daredevil and The X-Men as well, but I question whether a good sample of Daredevil would be age appropriate and whether there's a x-title out there that's both enjoyable as a done in one and understandable without the convoluted background. In any case, my picks below.
Spider-man and Hulk
Marvel Adventures Two-In-One 10: Spider-Man vs. the Green Goblin and a Hulk backup.
Marvel Adventures Two-In-One 11: Spider-Man vs. the Taskmaster with some good Flash Thompson moments... and a Hulk back-up.
Marvel Adventures Two-In-One 18: Spider-Man vs. the Lizard and the Marvel Adventures Defenders come together in the Hulk back-up.
Marvel Adventures Two-In-One 19: Spider-Man vs. Doctor Octopus with J. Jonah Jameson getting in the way... and a Hulk back-up.
Avengers
Avengers 282-285: Roger Stern's story of the Avengers vs. the Olympians. The story lacks Iron Man and Hawkeye but it seems a fair trade for Sub-Mariner and the Black Knight. (I realize the story begins at 281 but I don't feel that issue adds much to the story.)
Defenders
Defenders (2001) 1-7: Kurt Busiek and Erik Larsen bring back and curse the "big 4" Defenders while having the "little 3" Defenders tag along. (Seven issues was a little more than I was going for, but they're cheap and each of the main characters narrates one of these issues. Add Gargoyle to them and this is my favourite Defender lineup.)
Any ideas for good solid Cap, Thor, or Iron Man stories that might be appropriate? Alternatively, any one feel like making a case why some other character should be included or why a different story would be better? I'm open to suggestions.
Replies
...I luv the Phantom Stranger , but that" possible origins " story brought up the possibility of the PS being the actual " Wandering Jew " of legend ( And the recent Blackest Night Stranger one-shot made a clear reference to this hypothesis too , IIRC . )...Wouldn't that be a possible " offender " ?
I came into comics later so many my suggestion might be more current. I think you've got a good sampling. I'm more of a Marvel guy and a big Spider-man fan. I haven't read a lot of the Marvel Team-up or Marvel Two-in-One issue but anything with Spider-man being funny is a plus. The one part the movies failed in, imo, is showing his humor. Sure there was funny monents but I grew attached to the character by his humor and interaction with other heroes. I think it's one thing that makes him stand apart.
If they were a little older I would recommend Batman Year One, Batman the Long Halloween, and Dark Knight Returns.
Emerkeith, depending on religious beliefs and/or strictness, I could see how that issue could be a problem, but I think I'm ok with this family. The funny thing is, I was thinking the origin with the fallen angels might be considered offensive, I never even gave a thought to the "Wandering Jew" origin.
Jason, I think Batman Year One is a fantastic pick, although I agree, certain scenes are probably a little mature for younger readers. When thinking on my list, I quickly came to the conclusion that it would be only too easy to make most of the choices Batman comics.
It's been a while since I read Year One it's probably the safest out of the three Batman books I listed. I agree Batman is probably the easiest to pick.
I'm trying to think of an Iron Man and a Captain America story for you. I know a lot of people really like Ed Brubaker's run on Cap. Might be a little dark for the 10 year old but probably ok for the 13 year old. Invincible Iron Man by Matt Fraction has been good but it tends to deal with some adult issues. It's not a mature readers comic but I don't know about a 10 year old or 13 year old reading it. Prior to that there was Iron Man Director of SHIELD. That may be more their speed. There has been some Iron Man miniseries over the past few years- Iron Man Enter the Mandarin and Iron Man Armor Wars. Both have a all ages feel to them. Not sure how good they are though.
There should be some X-men in your list. I'm not sure where to start there though.
Some new series that you might want to introduce them to are Daredevil, Flash and Ultimate Spider-man. All are really good. Utlimate Spider-man doesn't have a lot action but I think kids will still like it. Daredevil and Flash are both a lot of fun superhero antics with great art.
If you don't have a bias against non-official, non-continuity, non-canon versions of characters -- some people do have such biases, but for the life of me I can't understand why -- I would highly recommend the Batman Adventures titles based on the Paul Dini animated TV series. For a long time, those gave me a lot more satisfaction than the mainstream Batman books.
Otherwise, I think you have a pretty good list. I completely agree that four issues is the sweet spot for a continued story, although I can live with six. Too many stories with more parts than that get bogged down.
If you want to introduce them to Daredevil, I'd go with the current run. I'm surprised to hear myself say this, but it really is a breath of fresh air after the relentless grim-and-grittyness of the past decade or two.
For Fantastic Four, I'd consider much if not all of several tales from the Mark Waid run, such as #60 / #489, the first issue of the Waid/Mike Wieringo team, which introduced the characters and let the readers in of Reed's deepest secret. I suppose one should skip the ones where Dr. Doom sends Reed's kid to Hell. But the story where Johnny becomes CEO of Fantastic Four Inc. is fun (#65-66/#494-495), as is the one where Spider-Man guest stars (#512-513), and the finale of the Waid/Weiringo team, where the Fantastic Four's powers are bouncing around the city from person to person
As for Secret Origins #10, the Phantom Stranger issue -- I like your thinking! And, hey, one of those stories was drawn by Jim Aparo and one by the ever-wonderful José Luis García-Lopez! That's good enough for me!
But then, if the Wandering Jew is a problem, so would the others -- (SPOILERS!)
-- one posits the Stranger as the product of the Creation, one presents him as a fallen angel who refused to choose sides in a war between God and Lucifer until it was too late, and one has him as a man punished by the angels for hubris, an honest man spared the damnation of his city who refuses that gift out of loyalty to his family and neighbors.
I agree with Jason that some X-Men would be a good move. If you're looking for something classic, I think Days of Future Past is a pretty solid intro to the comic (I think that was one of the first X-Men stories I read). Alternately, the current Wolverine and the X-Men is just fantastic.
This just came to me, Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-men is good too.
Alan M. said:
Is the goal to introduce them to superheroes, to the particular characters, or to comics? If the last, I'd recommend Asterix and Tintin.
and The Trigan Empire.
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