The New Mutants… The Legion Of Super-Heroes… The classic adventures of Spider-Man. For my money, you can’t beat a good teenage superhero book. Heck, even the All-New All-Different X-Men were technically teenagers, ‘cept for that one octogenarian Canucklehead in the pointy hat, and some of the most compelling superhero comics of all feature protagonists whose age starts with a ‘1.’ Remember the New Teen Titans? Generation X? The Partridge Family 2200 A.D.? The best part is, I didn’t even make that one up, leading us to today’s adolescent query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) enjoys Kamala Khan’s complicated life greatly, even though it reminds me how much I miss the New Warriors, asking: Which teenage superhero has the most realistic teenage adventures?
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Runaways was great – one of the few series taking place in the main Marvel 616 Universe that I’ve really enjoyed in a long time.
If I think about what me and my friends were like, I cant think any superhero book that even vaguely resembles anything we did. Reason might be that I usually don’t care much about teens in comic books or any other form of pop culture either. If I had to pick a favorite, its Kitty.
I’ve always been partial to Peter Parker, no parents, death of Uncle, living with Aunt, putting up with school bullies, trying to be a good friend, pining over the girl(s) next door…
Milestone’s Rocket. She convinces an alien to become a superhero and for her to his sidekick. Instead of their adventures being “help! a thief stole the priceless artifact from the museum” it was more about what would a teenager do with the power to help their neighborhood. She eventually deals with teenage pregnancy, trains her superhero replacement so that she can go on maternity leave, does not just mimic that politic ideas of the superhero she is first a sidekick to, etc.
At times I would say Speedy. What else does a person orphaned by both parents and then his caregiver do when his next caregiver (who lost his fortune leaving them in the ghetto) abandons him to travel the country? Get into drugs to drown out his sorrows. No family, no money, no future, no friends, what else is there?
As his world’s only active superhuman Zenith decided to use his awesome gifts to. . . become a popstar.
While he does occasionally get Shanghai into saving the world he would really much rather use his powers to get rich go to parties and hook up with groupies.
Young Justice. The way they kept bonding together as friends, despite everyone – their elder counterparts, their adversaries, the authorities (except maybe Fite ‘n’ Maad of A.P.E.S.)- treating them like little children.