My friend’s son is turning 8 on Thursday and she tells me he’s big into superheroes. The thing is, she wants him reading stuff that’s not rated Teen. Are there any superhero comics out there that aren’t insanely violent or sexual? Me, I was reading Batman and Wonder Woman around that age but comics have changed since the 70’s. Any suggestions, Dopers?
Go into a comic shop and ask where the children’s comic lines are. There should be a separate section.
Concur. Every comic shop I’ve ever been in has a section for younger readers, a general section, and a section for older readers.
What about the European ones… Lucky Luke, Tin Tin, Asterix?
You can always find old issues of comics that are good for kids - and usually buy them for less than new comics! Just go to a decent comic shop and ask for their older, used stuff.
My kids loved Teen Titans GO! when they were around that age.
Captain Underpantscomes to mind but that might not be exactly the type of superhero story you’re looking for.
Marvel had a kids imprint called Marvel Age which was later relaunched as Marvel Adventures, there’s a few dozen collected volumes available. Currently I think most of their kids stuff is tie ins for the animated series. Of course you could also pick up comics from the 60’s and 70’s. Marvel has the Essentials line, big phone book style collections of dozens of issues for dirt cheap, DC does the same with the Showcase line.
You might try Marvel’s all-ages imprint Marvel Adventures.
My kids like Bone.
You know you’re on a list somewhere now, right? 
Those are always great options. I’d think your best bet would be Amazon or something online.
It gets worse - my kids have access to it at the school library! For shame!
Tiny Titans
Thanks for all the advice! I’ll pass it along.
Marvel and DC have really cheap reprints of their classic 60s stuff. Spider-Man and Fantastic Four hold up really well, as long as you stick with the Lee/Ditko or Lee/Kirby stuff. And kids read the old 50s and 60s Batman, Superman, Jimmy Olsen, etc. with a much less critical eye than a teenager might.
There’s an old reprint book of DC’s Science Fiction titles (Mystery in Space, stuff like that) with old Adam Strange, Atomic Knights, Star Hawkins and the like. It’s a delight and was written with 8-year-olds in mind.
For something more contemporary, James Robinson and Paul Smith did a series called Leave It to Chance. The premise is that a Dr. Strange-type magician has a daughter whom he is vainly trying to keep out of the family business. REally fun stuff.
Oh, also, look for Little Lit, an anthology title edited by Art Spiegelman. It’s kid-friendly stories by the cream of the alt-underground artists of the 90s (Charles Burns, Kaz, etc.). Kind of like RAW and with a lot of the same artists, but for kids.
GON is a series of wordless manga about a miniature dinosaur running around in nature and doing stuff. It’s not going to encourage reading, but it’s quite fun and a wonderful example of sequential art.
A giant stack of Tintin will sort the kid out.
Yes, Little Lit is great - how did I forget those. And loads of the delightfully silly Silver Age Superman and Batman cheap reprints others have mentioned. I’d give a lot to be eight again with all those in front of me.