Comic Suggestions for the Family // Raising the Next Generation
So, you’re ready to get your kid into comics - either reading them yourselves, or letting them voyage on their own. What comics do we at YDRC recommend? Well, here’s a small list assembled for parents or aunts and uncles who are looking.
Superman Smashes the Klan. Released between 2019 and 2020, this is a wonderful story by Gene Luen Yang, Gurihiru, and Janice Chiang. It adapts the 1946 radio serial of the same name from the Superman radio show, and focuses on similar themes. It’s fantastically well-written, with even the racists who are in the Klan substitute feel like human characters. The art style is eye-catching, and the writing is sharp. It’s amazing, and deserves all the love it can get.
Warning: Realistic depictions of racism
The Untold Legend of the Batman. Released back in 1980, writer Len Wein with artists Jim Aparo, John Byrne, and Tatjana Wood assembled the entire history of Batman at the time and assembled a timeline that would make sense to fans. How did Bruce meet Robin? Who was the first Batman or Robin? When did Alfred show up? All of these questions are answered in ways that are clever and work with the stories that were told in decades past. The art is fantastic, with both Jim Aparo and John Byrne putting in some of the best work of their careers.
Warning: Death (a lot of it)
The Fantastic Four. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s first 100 issues of the Fantastic Four are amazing. I don’t need to put much more here! However, the earliest issues are awkward, with things like Ben trying to take Sue away from Reed, or Sue being wallpaper for many issues.
Almost any early Marvel comic, or silver age DC comic will be a great sample for kids, but we chose Fantastic Four because it is arguably the best of the early Marvel comics.
Warnings: Poorly-aged writing and characterization. Potential racism. Confusing political slants as the comics are filled with 50s patriotism despite being made in the 60s.
The “Adventures” books from DC. Put out in the 90s and early 2000s, these comics often tied in with the DC animated cartoon out at the time. Batman, Superman, Justice League, and others. They’re all self-contained comics that use characters from the cartoons, but also bring in characters who couldn’t be used in the cartoon due to licensing issues or limits on who could be used.
These were published for an all-ages audience, so no warnings here, honestly.
The Marvel Age books from Marvel Comics. Released circa 2004-2006, these comics retold classic Marvel stories from the start of the company with a modern slant. The original creators were credited with the inspiration for the stories, and events played out fairly similarly to the originals. However, the art is more modern, and the dialogue represents the era they were published in. Books covered the Fantastic Four, Hulk, and Spider-Man with a separate comic for Spidey Team-Ups. They were never really collected outside of small digest-sized releases to try and compete with manga at the time, but floppies should be easy to get.
Again, all-ages comic, so no warning.
Marvel Adventures. Running from 2005 to about 2010, these comics covered all the core Marvel properties: Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Avengers, Hulk, and even Power Pack. Spider-Man’s adventures were focused on a teenage Spidey, while Fantastic Four, Avengers, and Power Pack were more into their adventures before the comics came out. The original comics came out between 2005 and 2007, but the Power Pack tie-ins would come out for another several years. The art is fantastic, and the adventures are all self-contained and great fun.
This was Marvel’s last real all-ages attempt, and there are no warnings here.
X-Men First Class. Released alongside the Marvel Adventures line, The First Class concept runs during the Silver and Bronze age stories of the X-Men with fairly charming stories. They’re intended for older audiences than Marvel Adventures, but still have that all-ages quality of writing that means you can still read it to the younger kids without worry.
Archie Comics’ Pep Comics reprints. These are digital-only collections from Archie Comics, put out with weird themes. Sometimes, it’s a 90s comic like Archie’s Explorers of the Unknown, Archie 3000, or Jughead’s Time Patrol. Other times, it’s romantic hijinks, or the time Jughead’s sister was born. On the plus side, they’re also often sold on places like Comixology for a buck or two per collection. I’d say they’re worth it, but Archie may not be for all kids.
My personal favorites are actually those three I listed. Archie 3000 is a hilarious look at the future shaded by the late 1980s fashions. Mullets will return to fashion one day. Be afraid. Jughead’s Time Patrol is nothing short of amazing, putting Jughead Jones as the core of a time travel plot no less than three times, while also romancing Archie Andrews’ long-distant daughter. It makes no sense, but it is amazing. And Explorers of the Unknown is literally just a riff on the DC comic of the same name.
Marvel’s Star Wars… from 1977. Kids love Star Wars, that’s fairly simple. These comics were written to appeal to kids in the 1970s and 1980s, and it’s really hard to beat what these comics were trying. A lot of the action is swashbuckling fantasy, and there’s a ton of action and adventure to be had. Yeah, it was made up on the fly and is hilariously inaccurate compared to Disney’s official expanded universe, much less the Legends EU. This comic didn’t have much to draw off of, and made the most of the two hours of movie and script they had. It’s commendable, and worth seeing.
Archie’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turltles Adventures. Based loosely off of the cartoon series from 1987, the book has some fantastic art and slowly expands with original characters and concepts that both pushed toys at the time and original ideas. There’s a lot of positive environmental messages that come from the 1990s, and the original characters are quite cool. The comic has aged pretty well, avoiding the pitfalls of constant pop culture references that other licensed comics from Archie did at the time.
It’s 16 total volumes, which cover most of the entire 72 issue run. For some weird reason, issues 32-37 are missing. Maybe it’s the digital collection I found. It doesn’t have every single comic released by Archie under the TMNT banner, such as the Mighty Mutanimals, but it does include some random issues when there were crossovers. There wasn’t a lot of digital restoration for these collections, but they still look good.
Warning: Dark future. Dark imagery. Suicide. Adolf Hitler.
I’m not kidding.
Remember, folks. Even Hitler liked killing Hitler.
And there you have it. We’ve only really scratched the surface of kid-friendly comic content, but going over all of it out there could take forever. If you want more recommendations, let us know!
