Visa and Marvel Comics recently launched a 16-page comic book to help elementary school children learn the value of important financial basics: saving and budgeting. The collaboration between Visa and Marvel is the latest installment in Visa’s multi-faceted financial literacy program, which has the ambitious goal of reaching 20 million people across the globe, including children, by 2013 with important information about financial basics.
The local launch of the English and Arabic language comic book took place on March 31st at Al Alsson’s annual Spring Carnival, where students and parents had the chance to take home a copy and enter to win prizes through the Visa Egypt Facebook page as well as engage in Visa’s other financial literacy tools like Financial Football, which can be found on Visa’s local My Money Skills.
“The Marvel team are great storytellers,” says Jason Alderman, Visa’s Senior Business Leader of Corporate Relations and Head of Global Financial Literacy Initiatives. “They understand how to make the material simultaneously educational and entertaining so that it helps instill the right knowledge and values in a way that’s appealing to kids.”
The collaboration of Marvel’s iconic super-hero characters and Visa’s experience in financial education, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and other members of the Avengers team take young readers on an action-packed mission tackling daily money matters. While the team takes on Mole Man and his evil henchmen, Iron Man shows Spider-Man the art of budgeting so that he can buy his aunt a birthday gift.
“By combining Visa’s commitment to financial literacy and the global popularity of Marvel’s characters, we believe the new comic will help young people to learn the vital skills of financial planning, budgeting, and saving,” said Tarek Elhousseiny, General Manager of Visa North & Francophone Africa. “Harnessing the popularity of Marvel characters by making them personal finance champions can help teach Egyptian youth the benefits of responsible financial management skills that they can use for years to come.”
Marvel writer James Asmus, who penned the financial literacy comic book, said: “There’s a lot happening in this comic! We’ve packed danger, humor, spectacle, and character moments in alongside introductions to both financial principles and Marvel’s mightiest heroes. I know that, as a kid, I would have been completely thrilled to get a comic like this.”
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