Nonviolent superheros for 5 yr old boy?

[OHmidwife]

Does anyone know of any nonviolent superheros that would appeal to a 5 year old boy who is obsessed with all superheros? He loves Spiderman, Superman, the Hulk, Flash, Power Rangers, etc, but they are all so violent. I'd love to find some superheros that don't have so many enemies, weapons, killings, etc.

Preferably something that has books or comic books, videos, action figures, etc, that go with them. It's all not my cup of tea, but he adores this stuff and will play superhero stuff for hours.

[2Peaches]

How about Super Why?  Show is on PBS, I don't know it specifically except that my friend's 5 yr old son is obsessed!

[OHmidwife]

He loved Super Why when he was 3 and 4. Unfortunately, he has lost interest in it.

[pregnant@40]

He'll outgrow most superheroes by the time he's six, so I don't think there is any reason to worry. My child still has spiderman shoes, owns bakugans & dressed up as a Clone Wars Trooper for halloween, but the obsession has greatly decreased. It's really become of minimal importance in his life, and I see in retrospect that it's all a phase. Now he likes soccer, karate, board games, mazes, artwork, stuff he's learned in school, etc.  We can talk about "real life" superheroes a bit more, such as people w/ certain careers (ex. police officers, doctors, lawyers, activists, etc....), in the context of choosing a career one day.

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it.

[JSerene]

Have you discovered the Power Pack comics by Marc Sumerak? My dd loved them.

[la mamita]

Captain Planet and the Planeteers!

[Daffodil]

I have a superhero lover too. I think the enemies, weapons, and fighting are a big part of the appeal, and you may not be able to get him as interested in a non-violent superhero even if you find one.  (Have you noticed they don't actually kill people, though?  I'm not sure about Power Rangers, but the traditional super heroes never seem to kill anyone, and even their enemies don't generally manage to kill people.)

But maybe I'm wrong about the violence, because I just remembered Rescue Heroes.  My DS loves Rescue Heroes just as much as super heroes, and there are no villains or weapons in their videos - they just rescue people (from avalanches, fires, being trapped in caves, etc.  There's lots of danger and natural disaster to take the place of villains.)  There are action figures and videos, though I'm not sure how available the videos are.  We found one at the library - can't remember if that was on DVD or not - and then we found a bunch of old VHS ones at a rummage sale.  If you can't find them anywhere else, you can probably watch them online somewhere.

[pbjmama]

My 4.5 yo boy hopes to be Word Girl (PBS) when he grows up.

[Aubergine68]

You need Superhero ABC by Bob Macleod.  Here's the website -- there are cool coloring pages from the book there to give you an idea.  He's an actual comic book artist who did an actual age-appropriate superhero book for preschoolers.  My sons have LOVED this book - they are now 4 and 6.

Geekdad blogged about making a homemade Superhero ABC book.

ETA they also love Pokemon, which is a *little* less violent.  The humans are Pokemon trainers and they train these little elemental creatures called Pokemon to use their powers and battle each other -- these battles are often represented as being like a sporting contest, a competition.  Nobody ever dies and the villans, Team Rocket, are pretty silly and sometimes represented as sympathetic characters/

[Lisoula]

I agree with Daffodil.  Rescue Heroes are wonderful.  Non-violent, no weapons, and pretty fun to play with too!  My DS#2 has played with his for about 3 years now. 

[mamadelbosque]

We like superwhy and occasionally catch wordgirl who's also fun (but I suspect a bit beyond DS1 - he hasn't really talked about her (yet)).... but I have to say, I'm in love with Superhero ABC by mcleod!! That looks *SO* cool!! Definetly on DS1's xmas list!!

[Smokering]

(Have you noticed they don't actually kill people, though?  I'm not sure about Power Rangers, but the traditional super heroes never seem to kill anyone, and even their enemies don't generally manage to kill people.)

Er, yeah, they do. Some more than others, but I'm on a bit of a comic book kick at the moment and there's certainly blood and gore and messy death. (Maybe not in, like, children's animated Spider-Man, I've never seen it - but in the actual comics.) To be sure, a lot of the classic villains like the Joker tend to undergo near-death or assumed-death experiences rather than actually perishing for good, just so they can be brought back - and some are thrown into jails for the same reason - but the body count piles up regardless. Mostly goons. It doesn't actually bother me, but it's there.

Now, the A-Team... there's a group who never seem to kill anyone. Not even during a five-minute firefight with semi-automatics, or during their weekly stunt of sending the bad guys' car spinning through the air and exploding in a ball of flame. Heck, in one episode they sent the bad guys' helicopter into the side of a mountain in a ball of flame, and we still got a shot of the baddies crawling out looking disgruntled. It was awesome. :p Not that the A-Team is necessarily appropriate for a five-year-old either, and they're not real superheroes... but their lack of corpses is a marvel to behold.

[OHmidwife]

Thanks everyone! I will look into as many of these as I can. We'll have to see which ones capture my son's attention though.