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Can we talk about the trick that got my kid into older comics?
So I have been trying to get my 11 year old son to read classic X-Men for over a year now. He would flip through but never really got into the stories because the old art style looked too dated to him. I tried showing him the 90s cartoon, I tried getting him the modern reboot books, nothing stuck. Then last week I just handed him a cheap reprint of God Loves, Man Kills from the $5 bin at my local shop. That one graphic novel did it. He sat down and read the whole thing in one afternoon. The themes were heavy enough that he felt like he was reading something grown up. Now he is asking about Claremont's run and wants to know where Kitty Pryde shows up next. Has anyone else had luck using a darker one-shot or graphic novel as a gateway for a younger reader?
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the_hayden9d ago
Man I gotta be real, I used to think this whole 'dark entry point' thing was overblown. Like just let kids discover stuff on their own, right? But my nephew got hooked after I left my copy of The Dark Knight Returns lying around when I was babysitting. Suddenly he wanted to know everything about Batman's history and started digging through my longboxes. Totally changed my mind on it, sometimes they need that mature hook to see the depth in the older stuff.
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ray_burns9d ago
Ngl, I had to reread that a couple times. You left your copy of The Dark Knight Returns just lying out for your nephew? That book is like a holy relic to me, I'd have it in a protective sleeve, not just sitting on a coffee table like it's a magazine. Honestly I get the point though. It's wild how one mature story can crack open the whole universe for a kid. My cousin got into X-Men after sneaking a peek at God Loves, Man Kills and suddenly he was asking me about the Phoenix Saga like a little scholar.
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