The "Marvel Adventures" Line Has Given Me Joy

Allow me to share that delight with you!

Last fall, I recommended a bunch of all-ages comics from the 2008 "Marvel Adventures" line that, to my mind, were absolute precious gems in a sea of heartache and dreck. Today, I'd like to reiterate that endorsement. Why? Because this week, I read the first five issues of the Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes run just for the hell of it, and I honestly feel like these books have cleansed my soul.

(Cut because this gets image heavy.)

I mean really: how can I not love a series whose second issue includes a sequence in which Tony Stark is deafened by a room full of space kittens?

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Or a series whose third issue features the most ridiculous supervillain plot one could ever devise?

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(Yes, you read that right: here, Kang uses potato chips to take over the world. If that doesn't make you want to read these as soon as possible, I'm not sure we can be friends.)

And then there's issue 3, in which the Hulk goes on a quest to "fix" everything that's sad in country music:

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Yes, these are silly-billy and random -- but oddly, they're the opposite of annoying. I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out why the gags in these land while the gags in more recent kid-focused comics don't, and in the end, I think it all comes down to the attitude the different creators bring to their respective projects. 

To be more specific: Today's YA/middle grade comics often have agendas. They're written to push for LGBT+ acceptance or "anti-racism" or worship of The Science -- basically any progressive cause-of-the-moment you can name. The Marvel Adventures books, on the other hand, have zero goals beyond pure, unadulterated fun. Or, to put it another way: today's comics try to hector and mold kids into something adults want -- while the Marvel Adventures comics accept kids as they are and attempt to appeal to what these young readers will organically enjoy.

The bottom line here? You should've tracked these books down last September when I mentioned them the first time. But if you've been procrastinating, go and seek them out now -- especially if, given 2020, you're in need of some serious blood pressure medication.