(Yes, he’s wearing a Fullmetal Alchemist shirt. Mine’s Harry Potter, if that counts for anything. The funny part is, our parents aren’t nerdy AT ALL. And I didn’t brainwash the kid, he developed geeky tendencies on his own.)
Like any cool older sister, I came home bearing gifts for the big one. What did I bring? A copy of the last issue of Titans Go! and the #0 issue of the new Boom! Kids Incredibles series. (Also a glow in the dark finger puppet zombie, which if you follow me on twitter, [link], you will have seen.) In flipping through this issue of Titans Go! (which came out in 2008), Vincent points out to me ads for all sorts of other kids’ comic series put out by DC in conjunction with Cartoon Network (which, as far as I know, is not owned by Warner Bros and actually whatever company owns CNN). We’re seeing Batman, the Legion, and even a Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends issue of a cartoon series. This all begs the question – Where are they now? Why don’t I see these series on the shelves? DC cancelled Titans Go! in lieu of putting out Tiny Titans; Which granted, is absolutely adorable, but not appropriate for a nine year old boy. And by appropriate I mean, he thinks it’s stupid. Teen Titans is ALSO not appropriate for a nine year old boy, and in that sense of appropriate I mean THERE ARE BOOBS AND GORE EVERYWHERE. Ravager is not a character I want Vincent exposed to in the 4th grade. Call me overprotective..
Let me describe to you a moment we had. He’s poring over this comic, and finds a page where they have this massively cute lineup of chimi versions of all the minor characters. He’s naming all of them, and asking me about the ones he doesn’t know. We get to Jericho, and he gets really excited and tells me, “This guy is SO cool! He has like magic eyes, and he can just LOOK at somebody and have control over them!” And I said, “yeah, that’s Jericho,” thinking back on the last time I saw Jericho in the comics, when Vigilante was cutting his eyeballs out. Not. Cool. And then another one – “that’s Red Arrow! He doesn’t even have powers but he’s really cool!” Oh, the smack addict? Riight. That slept with Hawk Girl? And she called Carter’s name and – yeah this won’t go any further.
The kid’s cool – he’s really into video games, loves RPGs, plays this MMO for kids called Wizard 101, collects/plays Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon, does those Bakugon things (my first experience with one of those scared the piss outta me, I had no idea it was going to turn into a dragon), super into Teen Titans and my old Justice League DVDs, reads Harry Potter and a graphic novel series called Bones – I like him. He is my nerd protégé. I’m going to make him geekier than me. What better way than that but to feed him comic books? And he’s always asking if he can read my comics, and I’m perpetually turning him down because of the adult nature of so much of DC’s stuff. I feel bad. But what can I buy him? I go to the comic store and ask, and he directs me to Tiny Titans, ORRR.. Boom! Kids. And I say, alright, and take a look at their stuff. Finding Nemo.. Muppets.. Incredibles. All of it is STILL a bit *young* for Vincent. He’s a geek, he’s a smart kid, he’s at a higher reading level and concept-mastering level than most kids his age. He’s not going to read Finding Nemo and find it riveting any more than you would. I bought him Incredibles, because it was the best option, but I am still dissatisfied with my options. I feel like I deserve more than that. I read it, and the story is interesting, the series is sure to be packed with kid-friendly action, but I feel like the plot will lack complexity that good reading calls for. Tiny Titans and Boom! Kids, they’re a little too young. And everything else is a little too old.
I’ve decided I’m going to be loyal to whoever presents the best product to the target market at hand. The target market: Boys aged 8-13. The product: Interesting comics. Who can do it? Well, Disney licenses some of their Pixar characters to Boom! Kids to be made into comics. Disney now owns Marvel. If Disney will do what Boom! Studios does with their own Pixar characters with Marvel characters, I will buy it. I will. If they will make me a comic like the Incredibles series, with Spidey or the X-Men or whoever—I will buy it. I will spend my hard-earned cash on Marvel comics for my brother if DC doesn’t step it up and give me what I want. They had it going last year and I’m not exactly sure what happened. All I know is, I’m not buying backissues of canceled comics in trade for the next few months just to keep Vincent interested in the genre and loyal to DC.
I’m just sayin, remember the kids. Comics are going to continue to be a dying medium if no one is going to even try and capture the attention of the next generation. I’m doing what I can, and it’s time the industry do its part, or all they will have left loyal to them are the creepy middle aged men that hit on me in the comic shop. And nobody wants that... trust me.
Comics, kids, and love from
Aria
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