Young Avengers: Thankfully, Not Avenger Babies

Well, it's time for another comic review. I know, I know, you're asking yourself “God, why is he punishing us?” Well, about 95% of my entire blog library is punishment (unless you have similar interests than mine, so the percentage fluctuates) so on some level, you knew what you were in for.

Despite the title of the blog, I should point out that DC has a title known as Tiny Titans, which emphasizes comedy and isn't doing long term story arcs, and I actually want to read that. Likewise, Marvel itself has the Mini-Marvels strips and they're a hoot. What's my point in all this? That those work because of the comedy angle. But if there WERE actual Avenger babies (not the kids seen in Next Avengers: Heroes Of Tomorrow, plus that story's kinda dark anyway), that would be a stupid concept. Hell, I'm not even that supportive of the Muppet Babies show.

But with that out of the way, let's get to the review proper, starting with the synopsis/overview of the Young Avengers, in our comic for today, Young Avengers: Sidekicks, which collects the first six issues of the Young Avengers title. As usual, there may be spoilers (yeah the story's over five years old but if you haven't read it, it's new to you, which is my stance on most media).

After the events of Avengers Disassembled (in which a few of the Avengers were killed off), the Avengers as a team ceased to be (hence the title), due to the fact that Tony Stark cannot sustain both the Avengers and his company due to lack of money at the time. With no financial support, the Avengers called it a day.

In the Young Avengers title itself, four youngsters popped up, with looks similar to well known Avengers, doing good deeds. Led by Patriot (inspired by Captain America, so much so that he was referred to as Lieutenant America by J. Jonah Jameson), the team consists of Asgardian (also known as Thor Junior, again coined by Jameson. He would later changes his code name to Wiccan), Hulkling (gee, wonder who he shares his name with?) and Iron Lad (...yeah, that's a headscratcher). New members join up later but we'll get to that.

Captain America and Iron Man seek out Jessica Jones (at the time, former crimefighting hero Jewel, these days better known as Power Woman and wife to Luke Cage) to help them find the youngsters, since Jameson has tasked her to get more information about them. Upon finding them, they find out that Iron Lad is actually a younger version of recurring Marvel-wide supervillain Kang, and not too long after, the version they know appears from even further in the future with the intent of taking Iron Lad back to his timeline and restoring things to the way they should be. Naturally, he is defeated but Iron Lad still must go back or else the time stream will suffer even more. And so, the story ends with the remaining Young Avengers (including the two new recruits mentioned earlier) swearing that despite being told by Captain America and Iron Man they will be stopped if they go crimefighting without their parents knowing about their secret identities, the kids will continue to be Young Avengers.

Created by writer Allan Heinberg and penciller Jim Cheung, it's a damn good read. It's a great origin story, the major action sequences are intense and the character interactions are well written and often funny, with exchanges like this:

Asgardian/Wiccan: “Okay, this completely violates Growing Man continuity”
Iron Lad: “What do we do?”
Hulkling: “We're fanboys, aren't we? So, we collect them all”

One of the key elements to writing a team book is how the team interacts with each other. For a team like the Justice League, each member is usually cordial with each other, with only minimal confrontation, which usually ends in debate (and in most incarnations throughout the mediums, it's usually Green Arrow in debate with someone else). Meanwhile, with the Avengers, while they generally do get along, theirs is a more dysfunctional team, with Captain America usually being the one stuck in the middle trying to find a resolution. Usually, Hawkeye is the instigator (so, is this a trend with archers? Not content with just shooting literal arrows, they have to shoot verbal ones too?)
Initially, the team squabbles with each other, mostly over tactics but with the addition of Cassie Lang (who later dons the mantle of Ant-Girl, before changing that to Stature, honouring the second Ant-Man, her father, Scott Lang) and Kate Bishop (the new Hawkeye, the original being one of the casualties of Avengers Disassembled), debate then shifts to whether or not they should join.
The team's arguments seem authentic to me, like the natural thought processes of savvy comic book crimefighting teens (now there's a sentence I never thought I'd say or type). While they are relatively efficient, not everything is a clean victory and that's something that they bring up with each other, mostly Patriot chewing them out.

Now, since this blog might get a bit too long, I'll just go briefly over the character traits on display in the first arc.

Patriot does start off as being a little bit dickish and that pops up again when Kate joins the battle with them (not really sure if they get into a relationship later on but I picked up on what seems like flirting between the two).
Asgardian/Wiccan comes off as sensible but unsure about his abilities (he's a magic user) and whether or not he will be able to deliver in a fight
Hulkling is similar in nature to Asgardian, though much more confident in his abilities (shape-shifting) and a little more easygoing. Piss him off, however, and he will quickly act like his namesake. And for some reason it is he, more than anyone else, who objects to the team being named “Young Avengers” by the press, never mind his own name pays tribute to one of Marvel's biggest names and a founder of the original Avengers (a founder who left less than 10 issues into the book's run but a founder nonetheless). Also, just want to put on record, he was my favourite character in the book.
Iron Lad is a mature young man, with a clear goal of getting the Young Avengers together, though he does freak out at the thought of having to go back to his time to restore the timeline. He's also very respective of Cap, Iron Man and Jessica and just about everyone he comes into contact with.
Ant-Girl/Stature is very keen to become a Young Avenger, and clearly had a lot of respect for her father. In fact, when the timeline starts to change, she believes he may still be alive and wants to go looking for him but her request is turned down. To an extent, she is headstrong but listens to reason and is easygoing too.
And Kate (I'm going by her first name because it would be less confusing) is extremely stubborn and argumentative to Patriot (as mentioned above), but is clearly not someone who can just stand around and not do something (as evidenced in the first issue where she attempts to pick up a gun to use against the men holding the church she's attending in a bridesmaid capacity hostage). She also forms a bond with Cassie, and the two get along really well.

So, all in all, a good start. Combine the sharp writing with the fantastic art (loved the designs on Asgardian/Wiccan and Iron Lad) and you have a semi-lighthearted adventure debut. Hopefully, the second arc will prove to stand up just as well.