I’m far from an expert in this field, and the more I read, the more I realize how ignorant I am, but in our on-going quest to totally nerdify our girls, we’ve come across a couple of great comic book series that my 9-year-old has DEVOURED.  As in read, then read again, then loaned to friends.  (That last one is the true test of pre-teen fandom.)

So.  This isn’t a list.  It’s the first step into a whole world which we are having so much fun exploring.  Want to bring your girls along?

• Mary Jane by Sean McKeever and Takeshi Miyazawa – When my husband first brought this one home, I was a little iffy about the whole high school boy/girl drama aspect, so I read it before I gave it to my daughter.  Then I read all the other ones in the series.  You know, just in case it got worse or something.  They’re great.  Mary Jane is easily the best superhero girlfriend of all time.  Don’t even talk to me about Lois Lane (not that I don’t love her, but she just doesn’t have MJ’s vulnerability…or her red hair).  In this version MJ is smart and sassy and real.  She has problems without being whiny about them.  She tries new things, some of which work and some don’t.  The comic is super appealing to girls and it gets the tone of Spider Man just right.  It’s basically a gateway drug.

• Spider Man Loves Mary Jane by Sean McKeever and Takeshi Miyazawa – This series continues the Mary Jane story.  It’s all basically of a piece, but I listed it separately so you won’t miss out on both parts.  I’m nice like that!

• Star Wars Legacy 2: Prisoner of the Floating World by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman – It’s been over a hundred years since Luke Skywalker took down the Emperor, and now his descendents (and Han and Leia’s) are still fighting to make everything right.  The first Legacy series is great, but this one centers around Ania Solo, and she’s the reason my daughter got into it.  Ania isn’t a Jedi, as far as I can tell.  She’s just your average scavenger and genius mechanic, traveling with her robot companions and being awesome.  What’s not to love?  To be fair, my daughter didn’t geek out about this as much as MJ, but I think it was mostly because it has multiple story lines, which made it a little harder to follow.  Still, she’s a Star Wars baby, and this is one of the few SW comics that’s clean enough for her age (as in, not so much on the scantily clad alien women).

So that’s our start, and we’re keeping our eyes open for more.  You have any comics to recommend?

(Ha! I had these comics out on my desk after writing this post.  My daughter came home from school and immediately picked them up and started reading again.  So I guess that proves my point…)