Comics for 11-15 year olds

[Let Them Read Comics]

Hi all,

I'm a teacher in the UK and my passion for comics has be noted by the bosses. They've asked me to come up with a comic book club. Their theory is that we can get the reluctant readers (mostly boys) to use the comics as a gateway into reading in general. Now I know what I like, but I'd like some advice on the best comics from a literary standpoint. Furthermore I need to make sure that these comics grab them, so while I'd love to turn them onto less mainstream comics, I need to keep to the more famous comic characters. Finally, while I need these to be collected editions to be meaty enough to be a bit of sustained reading, the school won't want to spend a fortune. Basically massive sagas are out.

How it's going to work: Every half term (6-7 weeks) students will be given a collection to read. At the end of the half term we sit down and discuss. In between we will be doing a mixture of a sketch club, film club and anything else comic related I can throw in to keep them entertained and engaged. If this works well it should inspire the students to move onto the schools reading club next year and have me repeat it with new students next year. Also, I'll love it!

Here are the characters I thought were worth focusing on:
Batman
Superman
Flash
Xmen
Avengers
Spiderman

My only thoughts are:
Batman: The Killing Joke
X-Men: Days of Future Past

So if you wanted to show young people the best examples of comic book writing with those characters in them, what would you choose?

[NZ_InFerno]

God Loves Man Kills

[victorxd1999]

I would go for comics that are modern, easy to read but thought provoking. I would actually rather go with indie comics like East of West. But if you are looking for mainstream characters only I'd go for:
Avengers Korvac saga (this might be too old fashioned but it's great from a literary perspective.
Kingdom Come (has all the big shots from Dc and quite some messages)
Spider-Man Kraven's Last hunt
Any Superman story by Moore
Daredevil Man Without Fear and Born Again. You might want to consider buying the whole Miller run if you could get the funds
Green arrow Longbow Hunters

Some you might want to check out even though the characters aren't famous:
Spectre by Ostrander (very thought provoking but with enough suspense to keep young minds interested. It's a bit horror-ish though so don't give it to easily scared 11 year olds. Most 13-15 year olds should be fine.)
Hellblazer (again, very thought provoking and very literate. This one might be hard to understand so you maybe can use this as advanced reading material)
Ex machina (gives some insight in politics)
Planetary (one of the best sci-fi stories ever with quite some deeper meanings but it's also very enjoyable without getting those deeper meanings)
Animal Man by Morrison (especially the first few issues give quite some insight on political issues while staying entertaining)
Hope that helped at leat a bit.

Btw, it's an awesome idea

[ohmshalone]

Man, I wish I had teachers like you when I was young.

You could give them anything that doesn't come off as 'childish', so as long as you stay away from imprints aimed towards children, they should get into it. That leaves you with virtually every regular Marvel and DC trade currently on the shelves.

I could list some easy-to-get-hooked-onto stories from the past (like Marvel's the Ultimates line, which is basically a re-telling of their popular heroes with a mature twist: perfect for newbies) but you don't even have to go that far back. There's stuff right now (1-3 years old) that I can't imagine anyone with an interest in superhero-reading wouldn't want to give a try.

Try the softcover collections which are a lot of value: Spider-man Big Time volumes, Amazing Spider-man by JMS vols. 1-5, Deadpool collections (a verrry popular character with teens at the moment). If you want to go even further back: Batman No Man's Land vols. 1-4, and the Batman Knightfall saga (3 huge, softcover volumes).

Or you could go with the current trades from either Marvel or DC. They don't have as much value for money, but are still priced okay. You get complete stories in 120-150 pages or so, plus you're reading *current* stories, which always makes you feel good that you're up to date. Try DC's New 52 line. All stories started from scratch a few years ago, so you can buy 3-4 trade paperbacks on each character or team (Superman, Batman, Justice League, the Flash) and you're up to speed. Marvel has a few X-Men "Vol 1" trade paperbacks out as well.

My 2 cents when it comes to introducing new readers to comic books is don't give them the classics first. They won't appreciate them as much as they should, and if you don't have a good understanding of the character, much of the significance is lost on you. Not to mention 80's and 90's art can be a little painful to look at nowadays for people with short attention spans. Give them the latest blockbuster stuff, and if they are really into these characters, they'll hunt down the classic stories themselves.

Hope that helps.

[Let Them Read Comics]

Thanks very much for the feedback so far. I'm going to use this as an excuse to buy myself a few more comics as research. The Deadpool suggestion was a good idea, especially as I believe a movie is in the works.

Keep 'em coming! Gives me more excuse to buy comics.

[FlashingSabre]

Stay modern. It will help keep newbies interested.

Deadpool movie February 2016

[seusilva]

It's less mainstream, but I think Hellboy can be very interesting. Lots of folklore, myths, religion, WW2 discussions... and with explosions, monsters and fun too!
There are two movies from the 00s and the series is almost entirely collected in six fat volumes.

[America / Bucky / Russia]

My school has a couple of copies of Maus. Might not be engaging for everyone, but if the GCSE at your school covers Nazi Germany it's a useful resource.

I'd probably suggest getting some graphic novels which work nicely with the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, so:
Captain America: Winter Soldier
Iron Man: Extremis
Thor by JMS
Civil War
The Ultimates
Black Widow: The Name of the Rose or The Finely Woven Thread
All but Thor have UK editions published by Panini. Some of the Marvel Platinum compilations could be a useful primer on heroes too.

Some 'teen hero' books make for a good entry point as well:
X-Men: Season One
Young Avengers by Heinberg/Cheung or the run by Gillen/McKelvie
Runaways by Vaughan (this was recollected over this year in a series of Complete Collections) - both these two look at LGBT issues in some capacity within the background of the characters, which would be great to get the class talking about and also might be good for LGBT students in the class to see that they're being represented by awesome superheroes.
Ultimate Spider-Man; the 2011 series with Miles Morales is more relevant in terms of the art is more contemporary, people aren't wearing Blink-182 shirts and also it's good to explore a black superhero, and uses the idea of legacy and how one can live up to and respect someone who has died.

Some Vertigo series like Y: The Last Man (also by Vaughan) could be good to get the students thinking about gender issues.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World also makes for essential reading, although I suspect many of the 11-15 y/os would have already read it.

Batman: Year One goes without saying. The Dark Knight Returns also plays on the dystopia genre (I read it when I was 15), and is the inspiration for the Superman vs. Batman film and there's an animated version of it as well.
Batman: The Long Halloween is a little longer at 12 issues, but it has multiple villains and explores early in Batman's career.
Batman: Venom is 1990s, but covers a more fallible Batman who has become addicted to the eponymous drug which threatens to ruin his career.

Superman is a tricky character, and I'm struggling to think of any. There's For All Seasons which explores his relationship with his adopted parents whilst All-Star Superman (a 12-issue series) looks at the mortality of Superman, who we perceive as somewhat of a god. Red Son I think is overrated but provides some insight into the Stalinist and Cold War era USSR. I've heard Secret Identity is good, which looks at a kid inspired by the Superman character.

Diana Prince: Wonder Woman is a little dated, but makes for a good exploration into the period of the late 60s and a feminist portrayal. Alternatively, there's a New 52 series by Brian Azzarello which is really good.

[vark]

Hi, you are from UK and the title of this thread is comics for "11-15 Years old", so it made me think of the last article on Pat Mills' blog http://www.millsverse.com/blog/45851...DIENCE/9072529.
I kind of agree with him about the neglected audience. I've been in Chicago 2 years ago, and twice a year I go to London, and I don't recall seeing a child or a teenager in any comics shop I have visited. So I don't think that "stay modern" is truly the good way.

In France we have at least one weekly comics anthology aimed to this audience, Spirou, which would have been my advice if you were a French teacher.

In UK you have 2000 AD but it's more a boy comics and it has also evolved to target an older audience (except Pat Mills stuff indeed).

My advice is not a sure thing (and I will welcome any feedback if ever), but if you prefer to stick to super heroes stuff, why not try Alan Moore's Supreme, 1964 or Tom Strong?

[Let Them Read Comics]

Again, massive thanks to all that contributed. I'm really impressed with the warm welcome I've received here. I'm gonna jump on Amazon now. Thanks again!

[The Cheat]

If you're in the UK then I highly recommend checking out the Phoenix magazine. It's a great read for all ages and well worth supporting. Unfortunately, 11-15 might be the wrong age range, what with the common 'I'm too mature for anything that could remotely be for kids' attitude that often crops up in teenagers.

[Spirou]

Thanks very much for the feedback so far. I'm going to use this as an excuse to buy myself a few more comics as research. The Deadpool suggestion was a good idea, especially as I believe a movie is in the works.

Keep 'em coming! Gives me more excuse to buy comics.

Deadpool is also quite available right now and a very fun read for the younger audience. It's sometimes quite violent but the gore effects are on the fun side. If you take the Posehn Duggan collection, you may even be able to add a small history lesson as he has to kill the resurrected zombie presidents of the United States. And hey: Zombie stories are pretty cool, aren't they? ;-) And if you like to talk about comics & mythology, take a look at Thor (who in it's recent incarnation is a woman!). Lots of things to discuss here probably...

[SXVA]

Adventure Time for sure with the younger teens.

Younger teens who aren't into comics i notice still reads Adventure Time casually... perhaps Bravest Warriors as well but if only choosing one out of them, then Adventure Time.

Spider-Man, Spider-Verse, Spider-Gwen [coming soon],Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles either the New Animated Adventures or the regular ongoing, Loki: Agent of Asgard, Ms Marvel, Guardians of the Galaxy, Rocket Raccoon, Batman [for the older students maybe], Deadpool [again, maybe for the older ones], X-Men, Teen Titans, Gotham Academy, Batgirl's newest version, Miles Morales Ultimate Spider-Man, Lemire's Green Arrow banking on the TV series Arrow giving familiarity, Supergirl's newest version, recent Hawkeye.

Hickman's Avengers could be an interesting choice for the older teen students, i think it would would challenge them and they could respond well to that challenge. Teens are pretty smart in ways, a lot of times much smarter then given credit for and so i think it would be good to at least put a few challenging books in there like this.

I'm more into "girly" stuff so i'm a bit out of touch with the younger male interest in general but i think Adventure Time, Batman, and Spider-Man are always a sure thing and since Guardians of the Galaxy is so hot right now and going forward that might be a good bet as well. Putting myself in their shoes, they'd probably want cutting edge modern stuff that's hot right now and going forward that they can talk about with others... but again, i'm slightly out of touch so...

[ohmshalone]

Search for "ultimate collection"'s by Marvel, or "collection", or just "coll", etc. You'll find plenty to keep (you and) your students busy. Try the Wolverine paperback collections by Jason Aaron, or the Ultimate X-Men and Spider-man collections, etc. Really, the list is endless. It's just a matter of choosing the stuff that you and your students will like reading, and that you only learn through experience. The Mark Waid Fantastic four stuff is excellent, and I personally like anything Marvel with Mark Millar's name on it (though many would disagree with me).

Some DC trades that aren't too old and have great bang for your buck:

Superman - Our Worlds at War (Complete Edition). 512 pages for under $13. Although I can't say this looks very good. I own it and it looks a little convoluted.

Superman/Batman TP vol. 1 (336 pages for under $11).

[Batmil]

Fantastic!

I'd go with some classics like All-Star Superman, Kingdom Come, Marvels, Batman: Hush