Around five years ago, comic fan Douglas Wolk challenged himself to read every single Marvel comic. He’s written about them for a book called All of the Marvels. This resources pack includes an article from The Week Junior magazine, along with a sheet of activities designed to get children thinking, talking and writing about what the story means to them.
Debate
Superhero stories are extremely popular but isn’t it time we all moved on from them? Isn’t it a sad reflection on the film industry that they keep churning out movies based on comic characters whose success depends upon special powers none of us could have? Or is it all just harmless fun? Is it good to be able to escape into a different world for a few hours now and again? What do you think?
Writing challenges
Dream-up a superpower of your own that would help you in school. Write a short narrative extract in which you use that power within the course of your school day.
OR
Hopefully, you know the basic lyrics of the Spiderman song. Rewrite those lyrics for a very ordinary sort of hero, such as a teacher, parent, big sister or grandparent.
Investigate
Who was the first comic book superhero? Write a brief fact file about that character, detailing who it was, when the first comic that featured him was published as well as his strengths, weaknesses, friends and secret identity.
Find the entire series of Topical Tuesday resources to download here.
What is The Week Junior?
The Week Junior magazine looks at current affairs and helps children make sense of the world, provides context and clarity to complex issues, improves general knowledge and encourages discussion and debate.
To find out more about The Week Junior and to download its free resources, please go to https://schools.theweekjunior.co.uk.