Comics for Young Adults

                I love comic books and basically everything superhero, but I’m not one of those people who judges DC and Marvel fans if they’ve only seen the movies. What I’ve learned from various Tumblr superhero confession blogs (and yes that can get as uncomfortable as it sounds) is that a lot of people want to read the comics of their beloved characters, but they find that comics are just too hard to get into. A lot of these superheroes debuted as far back as the 1930s and have a thousand intertwining plot lines. New readers are often left wondering what the heck the Superhero Registration Act was and wasn’t that Norman Osborn guy the Green Goblin?

                So I’ve compiled a list of easy to get into, almost no background knowledge needed, comic series especially for those who love Young Adult literature.

1.       The Runaways (2003)

This was my first ever comic book series. I read the first volume in about three days back in middle school. To this day, I still love these books. A group of LA teenagers finds out that their parents are all super villains wrapped up in a ritual sacrifice with the potential to bring on the apocalypse and decide to go on the run. They must stop their parents before it’s too late. The series, while having all the action and plot twists one expects from Marvel, deals with teen issues like rebellion, relationships, and trying to maintain childhood innocence in spite of all the world’s crap.

2.       Young Avengers (2005)

In its unfairly short run, the Young Avengers introduced teenage versions of many classic Avengers. This series contains wit, drama, and kick ass female characters. Also, Billy and Teddy are the cutest and healthiest couple in comics. The Young Avengers have recently had a reboot featuring kid!Loki and have played major roles in many Marvel-wide plot lines, so it’s definitely worth reading.

3.       Hawkeye (2012)

Unlike the previous two series, a teenager is not the main focus of these comics. But it does feature Kate Bishop from the Young Avengers and she is fabulous. Plus, if you loved Hawkeye in the Avengers movie, this series has all the sass and emotions you’ve been longing for.

P.S. My number one rule about starting to read comics is to just go with it. Read the descriptions at the beginning of every issue and understand that there are some references you’ll have to pick up on as you go. Also, Marvel and DC’s wikis help a lot with learning about back stories.