Located in the suburbs of a large midwestern city, Trail Middle School serves a predominantly middle-class population. The data the authors feature in this article include group discussions and interviews with students, as well as recordings of in-class lessons, student work, and fieldnotes. The authors focus on the theme of gender as it emerged from conversations occurring both within focal students' formal classrooms and "Our Comics Group" sessions. Following the lead of students in the study, the authors focus mostly on Marvel superheroes, since in 2014-15, students preferred discussing these characters. In this article the authors offer insights for middle school and secondary educators looking to invite their students to engage in critical inquiry with superheroes. The genre, the authors argue, is uniquely suited to follow students' critical leads. Superhero texts provide openings for students to talk about issues of identity. As the superhero genre has gained in popularity, the authors have seen an expanding nexus of alternative learning spaces where youth come together to consume, produce, and critically discuss superhero texts. Lessons focused on the themes of "stereotyping" and "power", addressing mandated objectives while creating openings for larger inquiries to occur.