In recent years, Marvel Comics has made it a main aim: Connect to a more diverse readership. From Miles Morales and Ms. Marvel to an all-female Avengers team, the House of Ideas has followed the central idea that it wants everyone to feel that they could be a superhero. Regardless of ethnicity or gender or faith, the thinking goes, there’s a place for you in the Marvel U.
Because readership growth is always a goal, though, Marvel’s announcement that its next batch of comics released for May’s Free Comic Book Day will be available in Spanish as well as English can be seen as a smart and logical step.
A sizable generation of American-born Latino youngsters walk in both worlds, speaking English in school and Spanish at home. For some Spanish-speaking parents, it can be hard to keep up with their English-speaking kids as the next generation dives into American pop culture. For those who like to take the commercial-culture journey with their kids but have a language barrier, these comics could be the first step to sharing a fun universe with their spawn.
A current Marvel hero provides an example. When teen Sam Alexander isn’t flying in space or the Arizona sky as Nova, he’s home with his bilingual Latina mom, who speaks to him in English but when upset, will discipline him in Spanish. Sam will get a look that says he’s not understanding everything, yet he still knows he’s in trouble.
There are young American Latinos who refuse to speak Spanish to their parents because it’s not what they hear in school. Sometimes they’re embarrassed to speak their parents’ native tongue. But seeing some of the Marvel Universes’ top heroes habla español could help reinforce to young Latinos that there’s nothing to be embarrassed about.
Then there’s the situation of those bilingual parents who decide not to pass their native tongues along to their kids. It’s less common, but it happens. If you’re a fan of comics, adventures with Marvel heroes is a great way to learn another language. Hombre Araña esta esperandote.
This isn’t the first time Marvel has explored multilingual offerings on a larger scale. Marvel publishes comics all over the world in many languages, and has a Marvel Global app that allows fans to download (older/not current) comics in various languages.
