I live fairly close to a Half-Price Books and a Barnes & Noble. Every so often, I browse the shelves to see what both stores offer in terms of comics. (Quite frankly, it’s a miracle I can restrain myself from buying all the books.) One thing that’s jumped out at me is the amount of comics targeted toward young readers. It makes sense – kids are more likely to be in a bookstore than a comic book store, so why not have comics that they’d be interested in? That’s the energy Marvel Super Stories: Amazing Adventures is bringing to the table.
Amazing Adventures is the second installment in the Marvel Super Stories collection, which gathers together a group of cartoonists who draw six-page stories focusing on a variety of Marvel heroes. Those include Marvel icons like Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and Captain America, but also some lesser known folks like Ant-Man and Silk. Even the Avengers story, “Cheese Not Be Proud” by Brian Fies, isn’t about the usual collection of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, but Wonder Man and the Beast.
I actually love this; it’s a great way to introduce younger readers to the different corners of the Marvel Universe, especially if their first exposure to the Marvel universe is through movies or TV shows. The variety of heroes represented in Amazing Adventures also matches the variety of creators on display. In addition to Fies, there’s work from Dan Haspiel (Mo and Jo Fighting Together Forever), Chan Chau (who’s illustrated The Baby Sitters Club graphic novels) and Judd Winick (who comic book fans probably know as the man who brought Jason Todd back from the dead, but recently pivoted to younger readers with his Hilo series).
Such a collection of talent comes courtesy of John Jennings, who not only curated Amazing Adventures but also contributed a Black Panther story, “All in the Mix”, to the anthology. Jennings also pens a preface that talks about the power stories have, especially as they’ve been shared across the years. For example: the original legends of Thor and the Norse gods were shared by Scandanavian people, and then reintroduced to the modern world when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby first introduced Thor all the way back in Journey into Mystery #83. “These are the same heroes who have inspired generations before you,” Jennings writes, “and – inevitably – readers who will come after you.”
That stuck with me as I read the book. Indeed, the same characters I grew up to know and love are reinterpreted through a new lens – one that’s rooted in the modern day. Take the Spider-Man story, “The Bogus Bodega”, by Jarrett J. Krosoczka. Spider-Man fights Doctor Octopus, who is attempting to brainwash the population with an energy drink that he plans to push via viral videos. Spidey beats him by recording their fight live, which immediately gets Doc Ock trending. It’s a plan that actually feels like it’d work in the modern day, especially with how we use our phones for a majority of things including entertainment, and concerns over kids’ screen time. Krosoczka also captures the acrobatic energy of a Spider-Man comic, especially his web-slinging.
Other stories in the collection lean into this same vibe. The Hawkeye story, “The Signs of Justice” by Carlisle Robinson, is mostly told in sign language since Clint Barton is partially deaf; Robinson even puts dialogue with different hand signs, and blurs out words to show us how Clint operates. Likewise, Chan’s “The Knight Watch” focuses on how Moon Knight’s mental struggles sometimes isolate him from his friends and the people he protects. And I was genuinely surprised by how Haspiel’s Fantastic Four story “Friend or Foe?” paints the Mole Man in a surprisingly sympathetic light.
Marvel
Amazing Adventures is also surprisingly portable. In the vein of DC’s Compact Comics and Marvel’s upcoming Premier Comics, it’s a smaller volume, making it easy to carry around in backpacks or read on the go. The length of the stories also has a great flow and structure; there are three Spider-related heroes (Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2009 and Silk), but it’s spread around so that other heroes like the Guardians of the Galaxy or Doctor Strange get a chance to shine.
Marvel Super Stories: Amazing Adventures continues a trend of modernizing Marvel heroes and presenting them in a format that’s appealing to younger readers. I encourage teachers, parents, and others to gift this as a Christmas present or birthday present; it’s a great way to get kids to actually read, and can be a bigger introduction to that world outside the window that Marvel represents.
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