The Use of Comics as an Approach to Introducing the Techniques and Terms of Narrative to Novice Readers.

The publications of the Marvel Comics Group warrant serious consideration as a legitimate narrative enterprise. While it is obvious that these comic books can be used in the classroom as a source of reading material, it is not so obvious that these comic books, with great economy, simplicity, and narrative density, can be used to further introduce novice readers to the techniques found in narrative and to the terms employed in the study and discussion of a narrative. The output of the Marvel Comics Group in particular is literate, is both narratively and philosophically sophisticated, and is ethically and morally responsible. Some of the narrative techniques found in the stories, such as the Spider-Man episodes, include foreshadowing, a dramatic fiction narrator, flashback, irony, symbolism, metaphor, Biblical and historical allusions, and mythological allusions. (MKM)