As many of you know, I teach fifth grade.
Fridays in my classroom are "comic book Friday", which means that, during silent reading time, my students are allowed to read comic books instead of their regular novels. Yes, even though I'm a comic book enthusiast, I still stay on my kids to read "real" books at all times. But Fridays are good with comics, as is any time the kids are all done with all of their work throughout the week.
I had two different kids come to me with very cool responses to the comics they'd been reading today.
The first was a girl I will call Kara. She is a very quirky, flighty, girl. Any time we are, for instance, doing Social Studies, she will undoubtedly have her Math book out. Not doing Math problems, but reading through the glossary. And vice versa during Math. Really sweet girl, it's just that she's about 30% in the proper moment at the right time. She speaks three languages fluently, so it's not for lack of intelligence. She is just very scattered.
Today she was reading my hardcover of The Superior Spider-Man vol. 1. It was time for recess, when she came to me on the verge of tears. She said these words: "Everyone thinks Doctor Octopus died, but it's actually Peter Parker only no one knows that." (Kids often tell me these things as though it's the first time I'm finding them out. It's awesome.) She continued: "But Otto [that's his real name] got to see all of Peter Parker's memories before he died, and he realized everything he went through. And now Otto wants to be a hero just like Spider-Man was. He's going to make an even better Spider-Man than Peter Parker was. So even though Peter Parker died, he still won when you think about it."
I had recess duty, so this whole time I was grabbing my sunglasses and my whistle and trying to stop boys from using three stacked-up dry erase markers as swords and get them out the door and let the other teacher know that I was just running behind and I'd be right out. I really just wanted sit Kara down and talk Spider-Man. I get the feeling the conversation would have lasted at least an hour and a half.
I gave her the book to finish at home over the weekend. (Which goes against my strict comic book policy that those books go back in the comic book cabinet. She said she wouldn't tell.)
2nd Story:
A kid I will call Danny came to me today after reading the second volume of All-Star Superman. He asked, "Did he seriously die?"
I told him, "Well, kind of. This isn't the same Superman that is in the other comics. Or the movies."
He didn't care. "But this one did."
I said, "Well, yeah. He did. Sad, isn't it? But the stories were awesome, huh?"
He just looked at the book. He asked, "Can I read this again?"
"Of course."
Replies
I'm going to keep this thread alive even if it's by myself.
I had one come to me today, comic book in hand, and say, "Did you know that the Winter Soldier is actually Captain American's old partner before he got frozen?"
I said, "Well, don't tell anyone that in case they go see that movie..."
He said, "I'm going to be so awesome when I tell people that I knew before."
Aw, those are great stories!
Very neat stories, WS. I dig them.
I love the stories, too. I often help school-age kids find graphic novel's in the library's collection, but we rarely talk much about them. I did have a guy last week who was looking for the third Justice League Dark collection! I told him it had just come out, but I had submitted an order request for it, so hopefully we'll be getting it. We spoke briefly about liking the book. Which was nice, but not nearly as colorful as yours!
Sorry I didn't reply before this. It's always interesting to look at things through a child's eyes.
I wasn't upset that no one responded, I was just saying, "Just so you know, I'm going to keep this going..." But thanks, I'm glad you like them. The two that happened in that first post were on the same day, and I thought they were pretty profound.
A kid came to me with Steranko's Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD in his hands today. He held it up and said, "Mr. Carter, I am not trying to be racist at all. But this is not Nick Fury."
Two other kids jumped in with him, "I know!"
I just smiled and said, "Well, that's what he looked like until the movies came out." [I know it was based on The Ultimates version, but I didn't have time to go into that.]
They just said, "No, that's just wrong."
One of my students today was talking about how awesome the new Captain America movie was. He said, "Dude, can you believe Batroc was in there? He didn't look as cool as in the comics, though."
Is there a comics version of Batroc that's different than the Silver Age one I remember?
Nope. That's what's so hilarious.
To fifth grade boys, the french twirly mustache is "cool".
Richard Willis said:
I will say that the Batroc of recent years isn't the same laughing stock that he was in the preceding decades. He has actually seemed formidable.
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