Around this time The Lone Ranger radio program made its debut on a Detroit radio broadcast. People began to look for and admire ordinary people that could achieve extraordinary things. This came to life in comic strips through the first superhero in the papers Mandrake the Magician. Mandrake used his powers of hypnosis to create terrifying illusions for criminals. While this was just a comfortable jump from real life to fiction, the world got turned upside down when Superman made his debut and the end of the 1930s. The American 1930s were flush with bad news especially at the time of the Great Depression. People did all they could to escape this reality. Newspapers began publishing comic strips which were a sequence of drawings with written dialogue. These comic strips gave rise to complete paperback magazines of drawings with dialogue called comics. As time passed, this was the medium that was to bring to life the stories of extra-ordinary people known as superheroes.

These worksheets take a look at modern comics and the superheroes that are popular today. We look at the history of famous franchises as well as the concepts that were originated through this medium. We also take some time to reflect back on life before the existence of these pop culture mavericks. Has culture taken a turn for the better or worse as a result? Below you find some great printable reading sheets that look at Marvel Comics, the setup and creation of superheroes, and many historically favorite superheroes.