A couple comics questions

Marvel used to have a kids line called Marvel Adventures, which got shut down in 2011. But there's Spider-Man, Hulk, Cap America, Avengers in there. No idea how good they are, but at 3 everything is pretty awesome.

For the 60s Marvel stuff, I'd recommend the softcover Marvel Masterworks over the Essentials. They're a little pricier (not as much as they used to be, now that they're in softcover), but especially for a kid and for SUPERHEROES, you want *color*.

Oh, if we're going to start listing kid's comics of all kinds, I'll never shut up. But man do I have good memories of my dad reading me Fantastic Four on the couch.

3 might honestly still be a little young, but I'm just basing that on my 2.5-year-old, and I'm sure that a half year makes a big difference. I started reading them at 4, personally, but I don't remember if my dad was reading them *to* me earlier than that. Stan Lee is RIDICULOUSLY wordy, though, you may have to paraphrase a lot. And be aware that a key ingredient of the Spider-Man character has always been teen (and older, as he grew older) soap opera. In fact, that's kind of *the* key element of the Marvel Universe in general, but *especially* Spider-Man. I loved it as a kid, but once again I was at least a year older.

metalface13 wrote: Marvel used to have a kids line called Marvel Adventures, which got shut down in 2011. But there's Spider-Man, Hulk, Cap America, Avengers in there. No idea how good they are, but at 3 everything is pretty awesome.

From what I saw of it, the Marvel Adventures comics were really good. Fun in an all-ages way like Pixar, colorful, upbeat, and often with done-in-one stories that are very accessible. Even the four-part villain mini-series was really fun: Doctor Doom and the Masters of Evil.

Shellhead wrote: From what I saw of it, the Marvel Adventures comics were really good. Fun in an all-ages way like Pixar, colorful, upbeat, and often with done-in-one stories that are very accessible. Even the four-part villain mini-series was really fun: Doctor Doom and the Masters of Evil.

Looks like the library has a crapton of these, I'll have to check them out and see how my kid likes 'em.

dragonstout wrote: For the 60s Marvel stuff, I'd recommend the softcover Marvel Masterworks over the Essentials. They're a little pricier (not as much as they used to be, now that they're in softcover), but especially for a kid and for SUPERHEROES, you want *color*.

Oh, if we're going to start listing kid's comics of all kinds, I'll never shut up. But man do I have good memories of my dad reading me Fantastic Four on the couch.

3 might honestly still be a little young, but I'm just basing that on my 2.5-year-old, and I'm sure that a half year makes a big difference. I started reading them at 4, personally, but I don't remember if my dad was reading them *to* me earlier than that. Stan Lee is RIDICULOUSLY wordy, though, you may have to paraphrase a lot. And be aware that a key ingredient of the Spider-Man character has always been teen (and older, as he grew older) soap opera. In fact, that's kind of *the* key element of the Marvel Universe in general, but *especially* Spider-Man. I loved it as a kid, but once again I was at least a year older.

Well, like I said I was thinking more for my own research and enjoyment, but his attention span has gone up considerably. He did like me reading the Simonson Thor to him for like 15-minute stretches, and that was six months ago. In general he just likes to be read to, so I am guessing that any super heroes will be gravy for him.

I've got a big (digital) stack of Defenders, I read a few and they were kind of fun but VERY old fashioned- particularly compared to some of the better 70s comics that do hold up really well like Master of Kung Fu or Killraven.

The problem with Marvel in general is the whole crossover thing. Shit gets old REAL fast, particularly if it's a really bad one like Secret Invasion or House of M. And they'll pull EVERY book into it. Age of Ultron is the new one that will probably consume everything for the rest of the year. The first book is pretty pointless, so it doesn't bode well.

My son isn't quite ready to read comics yet, I haven't really sat down to read them with him...I'm usually reading something not very kid-friendly (not necessarily in terms of objectionable material, but things written for adults).

Don't forget those Carl Banks Donald Ducks...those are GREAT kid books. No Spider-Man, but hey.

I forgot all about Donald Duck comics, but that's a good recommendation. He generally likes adventure stuff. I've read a little bit of Tintin to him as well.

Oh yeah, my kid's 2.5 but already likes the Barks Duck comics.

Barnes - was it the Gerber Defenders? What little I've seen of those looks pretty weird. In particular the Headmen storyline looked Doom Patrol-esque. But as I said, I never sat down and read them.

Barnes again - seriously, check out the Superman Family Adventures comics. They're ridiculously very-little-kid-friendly, and amazingly for superhero stories, there's barely any "people hitting each other to resolve their problems". There's a BIG emphasis on the Super Pets. They are by far the best superhero comics I've seen for 2.5-year-old; actually, they're just flat-out the best COMICS I've seen for that age. Which is not to say that they're great comics; they are emphatically *not* "all-ages" comics like the Barks Ducks or some of the other stuff that's been brought up. Anyway, I've been meaning to recommend those to your kid in particular for a while now.

I'm going to check out those Superman Family Adventure books tonight- maybe that'll be the bedtime story. River LOVES the picture books I've bought him- I've got a whole set of Marvel ones, a DC anthology that's got a couple (pretty corny, but he loves them), a Little Golden Books omnibus (heh) with Spidey, Iron Man, and The Avengers. Got a great Batman picture book with some cool retro art. Super Friends Little Golden Book...he's probably ready for the real deal.

LOVE the Superpets...he saw that show and asked me "Daddy, does Batman have a DOG?"

I'm not sure if I was reading Gerber Defenders or not...probably not, since Gerber's writing stands out over some of the other folks from that time. I've really been wanting to read some Namor material, I may have to get back into it. Namor is such an ass, I love him. He's like a P'Oed leather queen. Such a goofy team- Namor, Hulk, and Strange.

My son has a set of Golden Books from Marvel. He's probably the only 3-year-old I know who knows who Fin Fang Foom is.

Shit yeah on the Carl Barks duck stuff. If you let him watch cartoons much, you can grab up the Duck Tales DVD sets and it's great media cross over too. The Don Rosa duck stuff is also superb and only gets talked about as little as it does because Barks is such a genius so he (rightly) gets the spotlight.

Michael Barnes wrote: LOVE the Superpets...he saw that show and asked me "Daddy, does Batman have a DOG?"

I didn't even know there was a show! In the comic, in addition to Ace the Bat Hound there's also a Robin-bird and a Bat-cow, lol (just as a one-off gag); are those in the show too?

My kid loves Krypto so much that I made the mistake of googling for a Krypto video and just clicked on the first one I found, which was all about Krypto taking a big hot dump. He loved it.

Owly, bitchez.

www.andyrunton.com/owly/

Ha! The funny thing is that Morrison actually gets into the Bat-pet thing...Damian himself christens Bat-Cow.

Man, that reminds me. I used to love Spider-Ham when I was a kid. I used to buy those when they infrequently showed up on the spinner of the news stand.