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.