Why Comic Books Are Important

Meet Victor, a typical nerdy 10 year old kid who loves drawing, video games and sports. Sounds like everything is all good in the hood... except for one huge problem... Victor HATES to read.

Here is an exclusive photo of scrawny Victor (left) flexing his bones with Magneto and his good buddy Kenny at his second Comic-Con... oh yeah, and there's a not quite so agile Spider-Man falling over in the corner:

Did I mention that Victor hates to read? That's going to be key later on. Alright alright... just making sure.

In Victor's fragile young mind the X-Men look like this:

A highly 70s/80s influenced group of characters thrown together to kick major tail. *YAWN* This may have been the pinnacle of the X-Men for many but not for the new Gen-Xer kids of the 90s like Victor. Oh no...

So, imagine Victor's surprise when he walks into a comic book store perusing for art references and he stumbles across this gem:

Victor thinks to himself "X-Men #1? Aren't they approaching issue 300? I'm familiar with Colossus but who's this guy with a stick? Most importantly, who is that ninja babe on the bottom right? Hubba hubba!"

Remember, Victor is a 10 year old kid who grew up in the 80s so terms like "hubba hubba" and "babe" were spreading around the schoolyard like wildfire.

Victor flips through a few of the pages and sees this epic shot:

"Wait wait wait... Did she just ninja kick the helmet off of Magneto? *GASP* TOTALLY AWESOME!!"

Sidenote: Victor was a huge fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at the time. Give him a little bit of credit. At least he didn't exclaim "COWABUNGA, DUDE!" Also, observe the lack of vocabulary in Victor's statement due to his disdain of reading.

"I must learn more about this ninja chick," Victor thinks to himself.

Annoying several comic book connoisseurs throughout the shop, Victor begins to haggle his mother "Mom mom mom mom mom... can I buy this comic?... please... mom mom... I'll do anything... dishes... clean my room... laundry... you name it... mom... pleeeeease..."

Victor's mom smirks and begrudgingly agrees to buy the greatest comic book of all time for him.

Sadly, Victor never did those chores he promised his mother. Shame on him. He did however go on to read his comic book and several others on a journey to find out as much as he could about his new favorite team the X-Men and that one ninja babe. On that journey Victor discovered the joy and wonder that can only be unlocked through the power of reading...

All thanks to a single comic book...