My 9-year-old niece and legality scan

[indy2012]

Hey, all.

So, I was babysitting my nieces and nephews the other day. My 9-year-old niece Bella has always liked superheroes. She loved watching B:TAS and the Gotham Girls web toons and gravitated towards Babs and Ivy.

However, when she was perusing through my comics, I realized that I didn't own a single thing that she could read. She was intrigued by the premise of Birds of Prey, but the art and the costumes are way too inappropriate. She thought Kitty Pryde was cool, but Astonishing X-Men also includes sex scenes and Emma Frost.

Do any of you know any comic series that would be appropriate for her? I was thinking that Batgirl: Year One would be safe enough, and stuff in the vain of Colleen Coover's work on X-Men: First Class would be ideal as well.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


For legality, what happens when a plant-lady seductress gets hold of a gun:



She forgets that she has it of course.

Comments

[jaysonbyron]

Harley MAKES that last panel.

[salinea]

the current Batgirl series?

[arcath]

Poor Harley...

Your legality scan pretty much answered your question. Get here the old dini B:TAS comics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_Adventures

http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Adventures-Kelley-Puckett/dp/1563890984/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312035725&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Harley-Ivy-Paul-Dini/dp/1401213332/ref=pd_sim_b_4

[swatkat]

Batgirl Year One, as well as the Batgirl series' featuring Cass and Steph. Cass' runs are available in trade - her backstory is somewhat violent in nature, so you might want to take a look at that, but otherwise I think it might be a good introduction to comics. BTAS. Batman: The Brave and the Bold. And, of course, TINY TITANS!

[turtlefu]

Yeah, I would says current Batgirl isn't bad. There is some scary stuff, like the scene with Calculator and his son.

If you're okay with older comics, I would suggest the Birds of Prey era circa Nicola Scott, which doesn't have the art problems courtesy of Ed Benes.

And definitely the Marvel Adventure stuff. I even love it, it's very top-notch (the writing, not necessarily the art). And it's definitely age-appropriate.

This is probably one of DC's biggest problems. My youngest cousin LOVES Batgirl. But she doesn't know Batgirl is Barbara Gordon, I don't she'd care THAT MUCH. And yet, there is no book for her. Hey DC, you actually have a huge amount of potential costumers! Do something about THAT.

[nezchan]

See, that's what bugs me about the rebootlaunch. One reason they've been losing readers is they're not hooking them as kids. So what are they doing? Not persuing the kid market, but going after adolescents and older, while turning down things like the Lois Lane: Girl Detective stuff that could bring a wider and younger audience in.

Other than a few bright stars, there's little out there for kids, and the carnage of stuff like Brightest Day or selling Catwoman on sexy, sexy, sexy shows clearly where editorial's heads are at.

It's entirely possible to aim at multiple demographics at the same time, but DC doesn't seem to get that.

[turtlefu]

I know! I mean, you have 52 DIFFERENT BOOKS. One of their selling points is that the books are fairly varied, with some not even traditional superhero books! The industry has convinced itself that kids and women don't read comics, and it's just a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[nezchan]

Yeah, it's like then shrugging and saying "can't do nuttin', it's the industry standard", when they ARE the bloody industry. It's not like DC's a small player here.

Hell, at least Marvel did Marvel Adventures. More like that, with more support from the top, and you'd see things move.

[arilou_skiff]

Well, it's not DC or Batman, but Marvel Adventures is a good place to start. Especially MA Spider-Man, but there's other stuff too.

I don't know if DC has anything similar, to be honest.

[sherkahn]

Harley is so jealous on the that last panel.

"Ohhh.... why didn't she kiss ME goodbye?"

[detective_deathman08]

And that is why people still work security at Gotham.

Arkham Security

[blue_bolt]

Why not just work at the local gardens or botany businesses, Ivy's often showing up at such places? It seems stupid to risk the Joker, Killer Croc, Black Mask, Two Face and many many more just for a kiss - though what a kiss!

I actually believe people work security at Arkham for the non-salary pay. Have you seen how often someone bribes a guard to get in and out of that place? It's like being a traffic cop in Moscow (this is not an anti-Russian comment, I lived in Moscow for 2 years and had no less than 5 cops pull me over and ask for bribes - a word of advice, unless you want to waste half your day, give them the money).

[biod]

Well there's always Marvel Adventures or Thor: The Mighty Avenger if you're looking for all ages books.

[18lemons]

While I've not actually read it, Supergirl Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade sounds like it would be age appropriate.
Marvel Adventures Spider-Man is a good one too.

[halloweenjack]

I have read the Supergirl 8th Grade book, and heartily endorse it.

[detective_deathman08]

Mini marvels was awesome too.

[cainofdreaming]

Pet Avengers might be a good choice too.

I thought of suggesting Beasts of Burden, but it might have a bit too much grownup issues in it. I'll leave it to your consideration if you believe it might not be what you're looking for.

[thediiem]

I always recommend PS238 for kids. The interior pages aren't as colorful as most other comics, but it would certainly qualify as safe in the ways you expressed concern above and it wouldn't insult her intelligence.

[auggie18]

Marvel Adventures, for sure. Jeff Smith's Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil and it's follow-up series, Billy Batson and the Power of Shazam! The newer run on Power Pack doubles as kid friendly and super fun. Thor: The Mighty Avenger is great and I've heard good things about Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade.


Actually, now that I think about it, X-men: First Class may be a good book too, not just the Colleen Coover bits. (Though those are awesome.)

[airawyn]

Also Wolverine: First Class, which despite the title is really a Kitty Pryde book with a lot of Wolverine. It's Kitty back when she first started with the X-Men, only modernized. (But she still loves Dazzler!)

[terrykun]

Anything drawn by Gurihiru is a great place to start; as well as Marvel Adventures. Graphic novels of both the above categories also tend to come in a smaller size.

[ravenous_raven]

Don't know anything for Ivy, Babs, or Kitty, but the "Teen Titans Go!" was great if she wants another comicbook that has a TV counterpart.

[simiansyndicate]

The Amulet series, by Kazu Kibuishi. They've got 3 volumes right now, with the fourth on its way this September. Seriously, these books are a treat for anyone, child, adult, and anything inbetween.

[nomadicwriter]

There are a ton of Marvel's all-ages comics free to read online at the Marvel digital site if you want to check them out. (Or your niece could even read them there if she doesn't mind reading comics on the computer.) They've got X-Men First Class #1-16 uploaded there, plus a bunch of the Gurihiru Power Pack stories and Marvel Aventures titles. You need Flash player to read the comics, but the load times are usually pretty reasonable.

(In fact, wow, I didn't realise how much stuff they had up there. There goes the rest of my evening...)

[aaron_bourque]

Isn't the First Class stuff more all-ages?

[salmon_pink]

When it comes to DC, I second people's suggestions of DCAU books.

If she likes Batman: The Animated Series, then the obvious choice is...
- Batman Adventures. There were two trades published, collecting the first (I think) 12 issues.
- Batman Adventures: Holiday Special. Holiday-themed trade which includes stories with Ivy, Harley and Batgirl.
- Batman Adventures: Mad Love. Harley's origin story, toonverse style.
- Batman & Robin Adventures. Directly follows Batman Adventures, but I don't think any of it is collected in trades.
- Batman Adventures: The Lost Years. Bridges the gap between the original Batman: The Animated Series and the later revamped series. Collected in trade.
- Batman: Gotham Adventures. The first (again, I think but am not 100% certain) 6 issues are collected in book-format.
- Batman Adventures (volume 2). I don't believe any of this has been collected, I could be wrong.
Man, I wish more of this was collected in some way, Batman Adventures is what I read when I was young and found the normal DCU too complicated/confusing.

Teen Titans Go and Justice League Adventures/Justice League Unlimited would also be great picks, with the tv shows obviously making good companions. There's also Adventures In The DC Universe, which explores the 90s DCU in a toonverse style - lots of characters featured, including those who don't get much/any representation in the normal DC toonverse, like Impulse, Booster and Blue Beetle and the Marvel Family.

Outside of DCAU, I think Batgirl: Year One is a good idea, and would add Steph's Batgirl run. Maaaaaybe Young Justice, although it does get darker as it goes on.

[mullon]

Supergirl: Adventures in the Eighth Grade

Batwoman

Bone

Marvel Adventures Avengers

Hellboy

[hivemindcomics]

Runaways (YEAH!)
Spider-Man Loves Mary-Jane
Most definately Bone
Batgirl Year One fo sho
Robin Year One
and The Crossed

[darkblade]

Crossed? When you make joke suggestions you don't mess around.

[tsunamiwombat]

Harley: "Why doesn't she kiss ME like that?"

[flidgetjerome]

Seconding the above recs for Shazaam and Marvel Avengers, though stick to the pre-2010/pre-revamp stuff.

Rogers' run on Blue Beetle would also be good.

[kenwyn89]

Young Justice is good, though aimed at slightly older. There's a lot of manga that is aimed at younger kids too, which is worth it if you can filter out some of the 'wtf?' ones.

[stolisomancer]

Yeah, Jeff Smith is a one-stop shop for getting younger kids into graphic novels. Bone is incredible and available in nifty collected editions, although the phone book might be a bit much for a kid, and his Captain Marvel stuff's pretty nice too.

[indy2012]

Thank you so much for all of the suggestions, everyone! I'll be sure to look all these up. I'm actually not too familiar with a lot of these titles. But I definitely trust the judgment here. I've actually been trying to track down old Batman Adventures comics, but collections are actually pretty tough to come by.

I think that a lot of female characters in comics could be very positive role models for little girls, but are made so inaccessible by T&A and whatnot. Wonder Woman, Black Canary, Batgirl, Catwoman, the X-Women, etc, are all fun and dynamic characters, but a lot of the time drawn like models from Penthouse and surrounded by needlessly grim and gritty storylines.

Again, thanks, everyone!

[thistleburr]

Thor the Mighty Avenger is all-ages and very good. It doesn't have much in the way of female superhero characters but she might like it anyway.

[liliaeth]

Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man is both pretty good and age appropriate.

So was Blue Beetle (still annoyed they cancelled the best title DC had*grumble*)

[starpiper]

- Batgirl: Year One
- The current Batgirl series
- Maaaybe Cass's Batgirl series, though Cass does have a pretty dark origin...
- Teen Titans: Year One
- Blue Beetle
- Supergirl: Adventures in the 8th Grade
- Teen Titans Go!
- DCAU comics
- Young Justice, the one linked to the current show, though PAD's might also be okay
- Marvel Adventures books
- Thor the Mighty Avenger
- X-Men: First Class
- Wolverine: First Class
- Possibly Young Avengers and Runaways, though they do touch some darker stuff there
- Power Pack
- I think the old New X-Men: Academy X stuff was okay for kid to read, prior to Kyle and Yost's run. Don't quote me on that, though.
- If you can track it down, I think Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld was a good series. It might be hard to find, though, what with it having been an 80s comic.
- They're not DC or Marvel but some of the BOOM! Studios stuff, like The Incredibles and Darkwing Duck, might work.

That's all that I can think of!

[proteus_lives]

Can't go wrong with the Marvel Adventures line!