Kid Friendly Marvel and DC Comics Recommendations?

[Rikun]

So today I decided to visit one of the comic shops in my area and I overheard a conversation a middle aged dance teacher was having with the shopkeeper on how her students really liked superheroes and was planning to have a dance recital with a superhero theme. When she asked about superhero comics that her 10 year old students could read, however, I could see that the store manager was having trouble trying to come up with any substantial title. I decided to help out as much as I could being a comic nerd myself, but I also realized that as far as finding Avengers or Justice League comics that the kids could read I was coming up blank.

I also remember that one popular twitter post an 11 year old girl sent to DC that addressed the fact that there weren't enough super heroines for her. While I know DC did acknowledge her tweet, I can't help but feel they're probably not gonna do a thing about it beyond nice PR talk until she goes away, and I can already see that this is gonna be a huge problem later on. Even with Marvel being as big as they are now I remember how my aunt couldn't let my 8 year old cousin watch any of them due to their PG13 rating.

So now I'm thinking that kids today are in a serious conundrum when it comes to superheroes. As much as I WANT kids to read more comic books about their favorite hero, I'm also savvy enough to know that Batkid of Make-A-Wish wouldn't be able to read most of the modern Batman mythos because he's simply too young for it. When I mentioned this kind of lockout to my other comic friends, they had a nonchalant "These are our heroes" attitude and were willing to accept that the kids will never know these superheroes due to mature content. I can't help but feel disturbed by this development.

Are there any suggestions you all can make for this situation? I know it's an industry-wide problem, but there has to be some kid-friendly Avengers/Justice League/Superhero comics that the kids can read so that the next generation of nerds won't be deprived of reading comics the way we used to. I know that the movies are the go-to source nowadays, but I keep feeling we can all do so much better than what we have now.

 

[Queen Michael]

I'd recommend The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.

It's funny, it doesn't sexualize the female characters, and it's kid-friendly. Also, it uses "Deadpool's guide to supervillains" cards to explain who the other old characters are, so that the new readers won't have to wonder who one of the new comics that everyone loves.

 

[Fox12]

Berserk is a lovely children's comic written by J.R.R. Tolkien, and illustrated by Jack Kirby and Dr. Seuss-

Oh, I guess I should be serious. Gotham academy looked like it was pretty cool, and the art was great. I'm certain there's still a kid friendly version of Teen Titans, which also had good female characters. Anything by mark crilley should be good, though he doesn't do superheroes. Gunnerkrigg court should have a printed version, and I've seen children's comics in the children's sections of book stores.

There's stuff out there... Just not much superhero related.

 

[PapaGreg096]

What is with Toonzone members starting the same threads on escapist

 

[Scarim Coral]

Err I thought there were plenty of those already you know like Tiny Titans? I mean I find those sort of friendly comics within the superhero kid magazine in the kid section in the Newagent or stores that sell newpaper and magazine? Yes they also stock proper comicbook but still I know the difference.

Even then there are those kid friendly comics in certain stores that it a comicbook store itself sort of like random stock to try to sell. E.g. the Stationary store "TheWork" got a few kid Marvel and DC friendly comics.

 

[LongAndShort]

Gotham Academy from DC and the current Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan) from Marvel are both great books and pretty kid friendly. Captain Marvel might pass spec as well.

 

[happyninja42]

I dunno, I didn't have any problems as a kid reading comics and following the stories, even as young as 8 years old. Granted, I was also reading the Sword of Shannarra at that age, so I was significantly above the reading curve for most kids my age. But the benefit of comics is that they are mostly a visual media. The dialogue is usually condensed to very small phrases, designed to convey as much emotion in as few a words as possible. It's pretty easy to follow it. Even if you don't know all the words, connecting the phrases to the expressions can easily convey the emotional meaning behind them.

I think they would be fine with whatever comic you gave them. The main issue I think they'll have is simply trying to catch up to whatever crazy, convoluted, 500 issues deep meta-story is going on. But everyone, of any age, has that problem.

 

[Armadox]

*sigh* If we wasn't pinned down to superheroes there would be a vast and varied amount of comics I could mention (Everything from Princeless to Oddly Normal. There are a LOT of young adult comics dedicated to any topic and genre you can imagine, if you only delve a little deeper...)

Yes, Squirrel Girl and Ms. Marvel are excellent choices. I'd honestly stay out of DC till post Convergence, as they really aren't producing anything tailored to YA right now. Gladstone's School for World Conquerors by Image is pretty fun. Action Lab has things like Molly Danger. Hummmph. I'll think on it when I am not at work, and will come back with a list..