Young Avengers (v2) #11

"Stage Nervous Breakdown"

Writers: Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

Cover artist: Jamie McKelvie

Collected in:

• Young Avengers: Mic-Drop at the Edge of Time and Space (Marvel Comics, Apr 1 2014)
•  Young Avengers by Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie Omnibus (Marvel Comics, Dec 16 2014)
•  #11 is available on Comixology and as part of Marvel Unlimited.

Continuity Notes

Loki's reborn form

-        Loki, through the power of Wiccan, transforms into his 'Teen Loki' form, bearing somewhat of a resemblance to Tom Hiddleston. The exploits of this older Loki will be further explored in the series Loki: Agent of Asgard. Such a change isn't uncommon in Loki: obviously, there was the transformation into Kid Loki, but also during JMS' Thor run he appeared in a female form; Asgardians can even be known to transform into frogs, as we saw in Walt Simonson's run.! The original design sheet and some commentary can be found on McKelvie's blog.

-        Prodigy calls out for teen heroes (literally, using his cell phone), leading into next issue.

-        Marvel Boy shaves his beard, which he grew during Alternative Culture. (Finally.)

      A Question of Age

-        Hawkeye says "It's nearly my birthday. I'm so close to 21," indicating she is 20. Kate has been aged up in this issue - in New Avengers: The Reunion #1, Bucky refers to her as a "16-year-old girl with no training." Obviously, it's pretty unlikely she has aged over 4 years since that issue (The Reunion was published in 2009, actually 4 years before this issue itself.) Given that the age in this issue is coming from Kate herself, the ages given in this issue take precedence. In the case of the New Avengers issue, it's possible Bucky was being intentionally demeaning to her, or simply unaware of her actual age and guesstimated.

-        Kieron Gillen discussed his choices for the ages of the characters on the Young Avengers roster in response to an ask on Tumblr. Gillen states Teddy and Billy are "about 18," and that Kate "just felt older to Matt and I" in her portrayal. Gillen has repeatedly said that the first incarnation of Young Avengers was about "being 16," whilst the second volume is about "being 18," although not necessarily the age itself. By this logic, Kate would have been around 18 during the original run.

-        Marvel Boy states that he is 21. Miss America was placed at 14 in the Vengeance limited series, her initial appearance. Here in Young Avengers, a few years have passed for her. Gillen stated on Tumblr that "17-18 was my feeling. She's actually younger than a good chunk of the YA folk." Despite his youthful appearance, Loki doesn't really have an age as such, at least in human terms. All we know is he is several millenia old. Per the MCU films however, the opening scene in the Thor film shows us he was born around 965 AD.

F    For Prodigy, our source for this comes from the New X-Men series he featured in from 2004-2006. A computer display denotes his age as 17. As both Hulkling and Wiccan have aged two years since the original run, this means Prodigy would now be 19.

Young Avengers (v2) #10

"Mother's Day"

Writers: Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

Collected in:

• Young Avengers: Alternative Culture (Marvel Comics, Feb 4 2014)
•  #10 is available on Comixology and as part of Marvel Unlimited.

Continuity Notes

-        Page 4 flashes back to an unseen moment between issues #1 and #2, where Loki manipulates Billy overnight. The caption notes this as "half a year ago," placing the present in August. The Marvel Wiki page notes this scene is an allusion to Siege: Loki, also by Gillen and McKelvie, where Loki manipulates Norman Osborn

-        Noh-Varr's ex-girlfriend, Annie, seen in Dark Avengers and the Avengers Vs. X-Men issues of The Avengers, reappears, another of Loki's constructs. It's implied Noh-Varr's fondness for 60s pop music may come from her: “I taught him everything about Earth. I gave him Ronnettes records! Everything!"

-        This version of Annie says "Ten years from today, I inherited some Kang-tech, and started dancing across timelines. That’s where I bumped into Meree...” Whether this history also applies to the actual Annie is unknown, but we can assume this information is false.

-        Despite the title, this issue doesn't actually occur on Mother's Day.

-    Like with #6, this issue doesn't feature the Young Avengers, and instead focuses on Loki's control over Hulkling, who has been seeing the psychiatrist Leah.

Young Avengers: Alternative Culture (v2 #7-9)

Writers: Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

Cover artist: Jamie McKelvie

Collected in:

•  Young Avengers: Alternative Culture (Marvel Comics, Feb 4 2014)
•  Young Avengers by Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie Omnibus (Marvel Comics, Dec 16 2014)
•  #7-9 are available on Comixology and as part of Marvel Unlimited.

-      Much of the content in this three-issue cycle actually occurs across multiple dimensions, including Earth-212, which has already been seen in the prelude The New World. As such, #8 and much of #9 are not included in the 616 chronology.

#7 "Breakfast Meet"

Continuity Notes

-        This issue skips the narrative forward three months, as noted by internal captions and the issue's solicitation. We see various flashbacks - and Instagram posts - to what has occurred during those intervening months.

-        The third flashback, to two months ago, shows the Young Avengers celebrating Spring Break. By that logic, this would therefore place the first issue in February, and the present in May.

BILLYKAPLAN666: This is one small step for

man, one giant leap for smooching.

LOKIOFASGARD: I hereby ban the use of

the word "Smooch."

BILLYKAPLAN666: Smmooooch.

-        The fourth flashback shows Teddy celebrating his birthday. Although the exact date is not stated in issue, later issues, and Kieron Gillen's own intentions on the subject of aging, this is his 18th rather than 17th birthday. If we do some subtracting, then Teddy would therefore have been born in March 1995.

-        The sixth flashback shows Kate's "interview at finishing school," which would suggest she is around college age.

-        Are Wiccan and Hulkling the first to kiss on the moon? Or the first same-sex couple to kiss on the moon? Debatable, but I can't think of anything else which says otherwise.

-        The Young Avengers are introduced to Prodigy, who has been pursuing them following his solo appearance last issue.

-        This issue occurs around breakfast.

Pop Culture

-        Loki refers to Prodigy as "Mr. Young, Gifted and Black," a reference to Nina Simone's song 'To Be Young, Gifted and Black'.

#9 "The Kiss and the Make-Up"

Continuity Notes

-        The Young Avengers return to their own dimension. Prodigy says "We've spent weeks being led by the nose of this guy." Whilst weeks have passed for the Young Avengers, it's unknown whether they return to the point at which they left, or weeks or months later.

-        Teddy's client bio on the title page give his age as 18.

-        This issue occurs across two separate days.

-        This issue picks up immediately after #8 left off; Prodigy explains about his sexuality:

Prodigy: "I'm bi. Never said that out loud. I realized, well, you know how my power works? Picking up everything except powers from people? Well, I got everything. Skills, talents...and some other stuff. And when my mutation went crazy, and I got everything I'd ever absorbed...I got everything." 

Hulkling: "Oh, wow. That's a trip. Wasn't it strang--" 

Prodigy: "No. That's the strange thing. It was like an awakening. It was like realizing something that was always true and I just couldn't see it until now. It was like all the rooms in my head opening."

-        Hulkling splits with Wiccan temporarily, taking a leave of absence from the team.

-        Leah reappears for the first time since Journey Into Mystery, as an adult version. She isn't, however, the Leah we all know and love, as #13 explains.

Pop Culture

-        Hulkling says that Prodigy's "Wiki page needs an update" (about his sexuality.)

-        Well...

Young Avengers (v2) #6

"The Toll"

Writers: Kieron Gillen and Kate Brown

Cover artist: Jamie McKelvie

Collected in:

•  Young Avengers: Alternative Culture (Marvel Comics, Feb 4 2014)
•  Young Avengers by Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie Omnibus (Marvel Comics, Dec 16 2014)
•  #6 is available on Comixology and as part of Marvel Unlimited.

Continuity Notes

-        This issue takes place during the three month gap between #5 and #7. It acts as a side story, and does not feature the actual Young Avengers, instead setting up the following arc through its focus characters.

-        Here we are reintroduced to Speed and Prodigy. Speed was last seen in The Children's Crusade, and since then has briefly moved in with the Kaplans (per #1), and taken up a job more suited to his powers. Prodigy was last seen during Avengers Vs. X-Men.

-        Patriot also reappears, although not quite in the way one would expect: more as a mask than anything else. (He is affectionately dubbed the name of 'Patri-Not' in later issues' Tumblr-themed ['YAmblr'] recap pages.)

Young Avengers: Style > Substance (v2 #1-5)

Writers: Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

Cover artist: Jamie McKelvie

Variant Covers for the first arc by Bryan Lee O'Malley, Stephanie Hans, Tradd Moore, David Lafuente, and original series artist Jim Cheung. Bryan Lee O'Malley would also draw a variant cover for the first issue of Gillen/McKelvie's most recent project, The Wicked and the Divine, published by Image.

Miss America sketch by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Collected in:

• Young Avengers: Style > Substance (Marvel Comics, Sep 10 2013)
•  Young Avengers: Style > Substance (Panini Comics, Aug 28 2013)
•  Young Avengers by Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie Omnibus (Marvel Comics, Dec 16 2014)
•  #1-5 are available on Comixology and as part of Marvel Unlimited.

-        Kieron Gillen adds page-by-page writers notes for all of his works, including titles by other publishers (e.g. Three, Uber), which are available on Tumblr and his Workblog. His commentaries for Young Avengers features some pretty insightful stuff.

-        Similarly, Gillen has created musical playlists for Young Avengers and Journey Into Mystery, compiling tracks which, as he explains on Tumblr, either link to the issue or influenced his writing. The playlist for Young Avengers are available on Spotify here. There's also a separate playlist for The Afterparty.

-        Gillen and McKelvie wrote a prelude to this series, The New World, for the Marvel NOW! Point One anthology, centring around Miss America meeting Loki. However this story occurred in Earth-212, not 616. Previously, Miss America and Loki had been featured in Vengeance and Journey Into Mystery respectively.

-        Each of these issues are enhanced for Marvel AR content. Content for #3-5 is available on YouTube.

 #1 "Style > Substance

Continuity Notes

-        During his conversation with Billy in their apartment, Hulkling refers to himself as seventeen.

-        Hulkling says to Billy "the only mom I ever knew got burned alive in front of me. And for the last year, I've been stroking your hair and saying it's going to be okay." It's pretty clear Billy and Teddy have been together for at least a year at this point.

-        Around the same time, Billy also appears briefly in Avengers Assemble Annual #1, which centres around the newly-rebuilt Vision and his quest to reconcile himself in the post-Disassembled, post-Civil War world. In the final scene, the Vision meets Billy at his apartment. As Billy appears in full costume, the implication is this occurs after he has retaken the mantle, however it's also possible that the costume is a formality for meeting the Vision, and actually occurs before this. Gillen's response on Tumblr indicates that this appearance occurs before #1, noting "Wiccan is basically past the completely immobile part of his depression. He's almost always fine. The problem is when anything about doing superheroing again comes up, when he explodes. Which is basically what happened in YA1."

-        Hulkling shapeshifts into the guise of the Superior Spider-Man, indicating that this is within a month or two of Dying Wish/My Own Worst Enemy, and the initial titles in the Marvel NOW! relaunch. Peter/Octavius adopts a new costume in The Superior Spider-Man #14.

-        Hawkeye also appears in the Hawkeye series by Matt Fraction, alongside Clint Barton. How exactly these two series link with each other has been a repeated joke between Gillen and Fraction when asked by fans, but how exactly they do link will be (attempted to be) detailed in the sections on Hawkeye.

-        Marvel Boy last appeared as The Protector in the Avengers vs. X-Men arc of Avengers vol. 5. Noh-Varr explains "My people ordered me to stay away from Earth. The Avengers felt similarly. Which was fair. I didn't exactly do myself proud."

-        The core character link to the previous incarnation of the title, Wiccan and Hulkling, both previously appeared in Avengers: The Children's Crusade. Both were likely 17 by the end of that story, indicating this is some months after the conclusion of Children's Crusade. At the end of Children's Crusade, Teddy proposes to Billy; an apartment together is only a logical next step.

-        As for Tommy's presence (a theme throughout the overall 15 issue arc), Hulkling explains that because the Kaplans "were so understanding" about Billy and Teddy getting an apartment together, "they drove Speed so crazy he had to move out!" We see Tommy at his new job in #6.

-        This issue occurs entirely at night.

       Pop Culture

-        Noh-Varr's room features posters for the films Metropolis (1927), Spirited Away (2001) and Blow-Up (1966).

-        Noh-Varr plays 'Be My Baby' for Kate, a 1963 song by The Ronettes. He will play this track for her again in #15.

-        The waiter at Joe's Diner refers to Loki as "cosplay boy."

       #2 "DYS"

      Continuity Notes

-        This issue picks up from #1 in the next morning.

 -   A flashback in #10 bridges the gap between #1 and #2, showing Loki manipulating Billy overnight. The captions indicate this was "half a year ago." The flashbacks in #7 indicate that the first story arc occurs in February.

-        The Uncanny Avengers (or, formally, the Unity Squad) cameo in this issue.

       #3 "Parent Teacher Disorganisation"

      Continuity Notes

-        The Young Avengers go to MJ's Bar in New York, introduced in Amazing Spider-Man #686. This has been decimated by Superior Spider-Man #15, but is rebuilt in subsequent issues.

      Pop Culture

-        Wiccan says "This looked more fun in Fellowship," a reference to the first Lord of the Rings film, based on J.R.R. Tolkien's book.

-        Loki compares himself to Tyrion from Game of Thrones. "You watch and/or read it?" Based on George R. R. Martin's epic novel series, the acclaimed HBO adaptation began in 2011. As well as being roughly the same height as Loki and steeped in mythical history, the man who portrays Tyrion in the series, Peter Dinklage, would go on to portray Boliviar Trask, the creator of the Sentinel project, in 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past.

      #4 "Deus Ex Machine Gunner"

      #5 "The Art of Saving the World"

      Continuity Notes

-        It's in this issue that the Young Avengers officially, officially reform, along with the debut of Wiccan's new 'cosmic' costume, designed by McKelvie. The design and some commentary is available on his blog.

-        Hawkeye says "In addition to the accidental Skrull thing? I've been with Clint. You know, the original Hawkeye...", clarifying that this is at least some point during Fraction's run, be it before her move to L.A. or after.

Young Avengers for Free!

Each week the Marvel Unlimited app has a selection of free issues available. Amongst them this week is Young Avengers #9, so if you want to sample an issue before reading the trades, or simply reread, then you have a good chance to do so.

You know, the issue with Prodigy, interdimensional butt-kicking and that ending.

Be warned: This issue may result in tissues.

Also available on the app are some cosmic related issues, featuring the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Silver Surfer. Also, the first issue of Matt Fraction's Defenders run from 2011.

Young Avengers by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie (v2 #1-15)

To start out the blog, this week I'm looking at one of Marvel's most recent series, a part of the Marvel NOW! initiative. In fact, it was one of five series to end last month, with its final #15 after a solid year of issues (or, more specifically, 11 months and 2 weeks.) Its writer, Kieron Gillen, always intended it to remain current to 2013. It picked up on pop culture, introduced new storytelling methods - telling a single, extended narrative of the battle against the parasitic Mother through several short arcs, with particular focus on the characters rather than solely situation - and gave the series a musical background similar to what the team had previously employed on the Image series Phonogram. 

Young Avengers has had an interesting history with Marvel. Having begun in early 2005, it picked up on strands from the Avengers-shattering Avengers Disassembled and formed a new group of teen heroes. Since the initial 12 issue ongoing, it has spawned limited series, such as Young Avengers Presents and The Children's Crusade, crossovers with events Civil War, Secret Invasion and Dark Reign, but has largely been left to its original creators, Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung. 

After 22 issues by Heinberg and Cheung, and only a few character cameos in other books, Gillen and McKelvie represent a radical change in the story of the Young Avengers. Key characters - Wiccan, Hulking and Hawkeye - are brought over from the previous book, but Gillen adds Kid Loki from his acclaimed Journey Into Mystery series, Miss America from the limited series Vengeance, Marvel Boy from Grant Morrison's series of the same name and Bendis' work on Dark Avengers and depowered mutant Prodigy from New X-Men: Academy X. Characters have grown, a year or two having passed since the original series; as Gillen describes it, volume 1 was about "being 16," whilst volume 2 is about "being 18." But this doesn't leave out further development, with growth in relationships, sexuality, places on the team, etc. Wiccan, Hulkling, Prodigy, Loki, Marvel Boy, Hawkeye and Miss America all leave the series as different characters than they were when they were introduced. Maybe some don't change as much as others (Loki's change into physical adulthood is the most obvious), but there is still some sort of identifiable change in them.

Oh, and a British creative team. That's a pretty big difference to Heinberg and Cheung, right?

It's been the most enjoyable series I've read in the past year. It's the series which made me try to get to my comic shop as close to Wednesday as possible; an afterschool trip to buy Young Avengers became a repeated thing. Perhaps it isn't fitting with social protocol to do so, but there was an instance where I briefly forsook the boy I was with on a date - a non-comics fan - to read #9 because I really couldn't wait any longer to do so. It's that good of a series.

Along with Hawkeye, Young Avengers shows just how original Marvel can be. Even after 50 years of comics, and the darker storylines of the 2000s, Marvel can still show a whole lot of originality in what it produces. Marvel hasn't been stagnated; if anything it has grown stronger, at least in quality of content. Heroes Reborn/Return, this is not.

For those who haven't read the individual issues, it's collected in three trade paperbacks: Style > Substance, which was released last September, Alternative Culture, released this month, and a final volume, Mic-Drop at the Edge of Time and Space, which is released later this year. (And damn do I recommend you check it out!) It's not split into three storylines per se, and actually comprises seven different stories, although each issue works on its own. If you want to get the most out of it, though, read the whole three volume/15 issue series, because it really is worth it.