"Young Avengers: Not What You Think"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Young Avengers: Not What You Think” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Following the disbanding of the Avengers, four teenagers took to the streets in the fashion of their icons: Nathaniel Ricards/Iron Lad, with a suit of advanced technological armor; Elijah “Eli” Bradley/Patriot, super soldier; William “Billy” Kaplan/Asgardian, able to generate lightning and spellcasting; and Theodore “Teddy” Altman/Hulkling, shapeshifter with super strength. The New York newspaper dubbed them the “Young Avengers.” Editor in Chief J. Jonah Jameson tasked reporter Kat Farrell and private investigator and former teenage superhero Jessica Jones with finding out everything they could about these young “heroes.” Former Avengers Steve Rogers/Captain America and Tony Stark/Iron Man decided that they couldn’t endanger any young children and intended to shut the teenagers’ team down. A hostage situation occurred at a wedding at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, and the young heroes crashed into the rescue. One of the hostages, Kate Bishop, assisted the team in stopping the crisis, but the teenagers almost burned the Cathedral down in the process of taking down the bad guys. Following this, the team retreated to the destroyed Avengers Mansion to discuss the goal of the founding of the team: to stop Kang the Conqueror when he returned, since there were no adult Avengers to combat him. After Asgardian, Hulkling and Patriot left, Iron Lad was discovered by Captain America, Iron Man, and Jessica Jones. Iron Lad revealed to the adult heroes that he himself was actually the person destined to become Kang the Conqueror and that he had travelled back from the thirtieth century to prevent himself from the fate of becoming the villain. He had tried to contact the former Avengers so they could unite against Kang when he came looking for Iron Lad, but his attempts failed, so he found the one Avenger who could help, one who had perished during the ending of the original Avengers: the synthezoid the Vision. Iron Lad download the Vision’s operating system and data files into his armor, which activated the failsafe, informing Iron Lad of just whom he had to contact and unite should the Avengers ever become unavailable. Meanwhile, Cassie Lang, daughter of deceased Avenger Scott Lang/Ant-Man, wanted to look for the Young Avengers with the intention of joining. She wished to use the Pym Particles that powered her father to aid the team, so she and Kate Bishop both went looking for the heroes. Kate and Cassie took their search to Avengers Mansion, where they were confronted by Asgardian, Hulkling and Patriot. During the confrontation, Cassie got angry and discovered her previous exposure to the Pym Particles had actually given her size changing powers, but the shock of using her powers caused her to pass out, and her crashing from giant form alerted Captain America, Iron Man and Jessica Jones to the presence of the teenagers on the grounds of Avengers Mansion. The teenagers introduced themselves to the adults, then the gathering of heroes was attacked by the Growing Man, who had come looking for his master, Kang. The heroes battled Growing Man, who multiplied into smaller versions of himself, but they Growing Men sent a signal to alert Kang they had found his young counterpart. For their safety, the adults locked the teenagers in the Avengers Mansion’s training room with the intention of contacting the teenagers’ parents. The adult Kang arrived from the future and revealed that if Iron Lad did not come back with him and fulfil his destiny of becoming Kang the Conqueror, reality as it currently was would cease to exist. As reality began to change, the adults realized that Kang was correct, and that Iron Lad would have to go forward in time with the adult Kang. The teenagers escaped from the training room, and wanted to protect their friend. During the conflict between the teenagers and Kang, Iron Lad slew his adult counterpart. As reality began to change, Iron Lad realized that he had no choice but to go back to the future to set everything right. Following this, the adults informed the teenagers that if they ever put their uniforms on again, the adults would shut the teenagers down, unless they had parental consent and training. The teenagers refused the parental consent request, got new uniforms, and decided to embrace the name “Young Avengers.” Cassie decided to be called Stature, and Asgardian changed his codename to Wiccan, while the others tried to get Kate to be either Hawkeye or Hawkingbird.

            As the Young Avengers decided not to come out to their parents, Patriot investigated a Mutant Growth Hormone operating ring. He discovered it was being operated by supervillain Calvin Zabo/Mister Hyde. Meanwhile, Captain America went to Eli’s grandparents and Jessica Jones went to Cassie’s mother to inform them of the teenagers’ activities as superheroes. Both the Young Avengers and Captain America discovered that Eli’s powers didn’t come from a Super Soldier Serum blood transfusion from his grandfather Isiah Bradley like he claimed, but rather that Eli was taking MGH. The Young Avengers defeated Mister Hyde, but Patriot quit the team.

            Jessica Jones investigated the histories of each of the Young Avengers and encouraged them to give an exclusive to Kat Farrell.

            The Young Avengers tracked down Eli and encouraged him to rejoin the team, saying he was the only one who could lead them. Right after he refused the offer, the team was attacked by the Super-Skrull, who claimed he was there to bring Teddy home to the Skrull Empire. The Young Avengers fought to protect Teddy and retreated to Billy’s parents’ apartment, where Teddy’s mother was waiting. The group was attacked by the Super-Skrull, who revealed to them that Teddy’s mother wasn’t actually his mother, rather a Skrull agent. The Super-Skrull then killed “Mrs. Altman” and abducted Teddy and informed him he was really Dorrek VIII, Heir to the Skrull Empire, and had been sentenced to death as an infant upon the discovery of the identity of his father. Teddy and the Super-Skrull were then attacked by the Kree Imperial Armada. Meanwhile, the Young Avengers decided they needed more help and went to recruit the Vision to find more Young Avengers from the failsafe program. They learned of Thomas “Tommy” Shepherd, who was a speedster and able to blow things up. Unfortunately, he was in a juvenile detention center for enhanced individuals. While the Young Avengers broke him out, they noticed his uncanny resemblance to Billy. As the Young Avengers and their new recruits Vision and Tommy came to rescue Teddy, Teddy learned his father was Kree Imperial Officer Mar-Vell, the original Captain Marvel. The Young Avengers rescued Teddy and the Super-Skrull from the Kree, and the Super-Skrull informed Billy and Tommy they were the sons of Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch and Vision, a possibility Vision confirmed and Billy believed due to Billy and Tommy having the same powers as Wanda and her twin brother Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver. The Young Avengers and adult New Avengers then found themselves caught in the middle of another Kree/Skrull war over the custody of Teddy.

            Okay, now that we have my professional synopsis out of the way, let’s get to the point where I give my personal opinion on this graphic novel. I will say that I found this book to be highly enjoyable. I honestly thought the stories were great. I found them to be engaging, well-written, and exciting, with good plot twists. Right off the bat from issue number one, with the Iron Lad/Kang the Conqueror reveal, I thought it was great. I especially loved the first battle between the Young Avengers and Kang where reality was changing and young Iron Lad had to make the impossible choice of embracing his villainous destiny. I thought that was superb writing. I was shocked when it was revealed that Eli really wasn’t a super soldier and that he was actually getting his powers from a drug. That was just a brilliant surprise. And Teddy being the Skrull Emperor/Kree Imperial Officer and Billy and Tommy being the sons of the Scarlet Witch and Vision were surely great shockers at the time, but twenty years later I already knew all this, but still, I thought that was a great way to tie the Young Avengers to the previous teams of Avengers. And as far as the artwork goes, I thought it was great, excellent work. I was consistently visually pleased the entire time I viewed this graphic novel. I just have to say I thought it was a fantastic job all around, both story and art, and I thoroughly enjoyed perusing this graphic novel.

            Next, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I’ve said this about thirty times by this point, but I know I have to say it again because I know some of you have never read one of my reviews before and don’t know what I mean when I use the word “accessibility” like this. I mean it very simply: how easy is it to just pick up and read this book and understand completely what you are consuming, even if you have absolutely no prior knowledge of the Avengers or Marvel Comics? I am incredibly pleased to say how accessible this book is. I think if you’ve never read a Marvel Comic before and have never seen any Marvel films or television shows or played any Marvel games or have absolutely any kind of prior knowledge of Marvel at all, you could still pick up this book and completely follow the storyline. It has no direct connection to any other Marvel Comic series prior or during it. Yes, there are plenty of other references, obviously, but this introduces a slew of new characters with a new origin story that is told totally independently of any other Marvel series. There are no events or crossovers, so this doesn’t have any missing pieces in the narrative. I feel like if you’re brand new to Marvel and want to start with something and are totally just for some bizarre reason reading this review on a whim because you personally know me and feel a commitment to me and read everything I post regardless of knowing nothing about Marvel, this is actually a perfect pick to start your experience with. And if you do know Marvel, which, if you’re reading this, you probably do, but have never actually touched a comic book before, the same thing applies in this case. In my opinion, it’s not going to be contradictory to what’s established in other Marvel media, such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so if you’re a fan of the MCU and want to get into comics but don’t know where to start, I would definitely say this book is a fantastic choice. I just feel like this book is perfect Marvel Comics entry level. And if you are a lapsed reader of Marvel, say from like any time prior to 2005 when this series started, this book will still be understandable. It’s pretty self-explanatory once you start reading it, so it really shouldn’t give you a problem. And if you’re a regular Marvel reader from any time post 2006 when these issues were originally published, this will be a total breeze to read through and understand and will probably even fill in a lot of gaps.

            Okay, I feel like I’ve gone on about that long enough, you probably want to move on to the single most important part of this review and the reason why we are actually here: my numeric score of this book. I score on a very simple scale: one to ten. One is the lowest score I can give, and that means that this book is a flaming pile of trash that should be avoided at all costs. Ten is the best score I can give, and that means that this book was sheer perfection. Now with me, basically every book starts at a nine and goes lower, I’m really not in the business of giving out tens. It’s just exceedingly rare for me to feel that a book is a perfect ten. Now, we’re looking at this book, which I found to have exceptional stories and astonishing art and no actual complaints from me. But the question is, is this a ten? I would honestly love to say it is, but it’s not what you think. There is just something holding me back from scoring this book at a ten. It’s just not quite perfection. Yes, it’s amazing, the whole book was just a joy to go through, but I can’t claim it to be perfect. I don’t know exactly what’s holding me back, I really just can’t quite say it, I can’t pinpoint it, I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s just something going on here that makes me say that this book just isn’t a ten. Now, this raises another question, of course: is this a nine, instead? So now, I’ll stop teasing you and just give you a numeric score of the book because I feel like I’ve rattled on long enough on how it’s not perfect. So, we’re going to take everything in this book, the stories and the art and throw it in a blender and turn it on to mix out a score. I’ve turned it on… I’m pouring it out… and it’s… yeah, it’s a nine. I honestly can’t find any further reason to deduct points from my score, so if I can’t give it a ten, then no duh, it’s got to be a nine. That’s still really darn good. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of reading the stories and looking at the artwork and I consumed this book and I really have nothing I can complain about here from this graphic novel, so yeah, I give it a solid nine and say that’s about as good a score as it could hope to get.

            Finally, I’m going to tell you two more things: One: do I give this book my personal recommendation? Two: regardless of the answer to question one, to whom do I recommend this book to. So, as you can imagine my answer to question number one, in this case, it is what you think. Yes, I most certainly do, one hundred percent, absolutely, positively, for sure give this book my personal recommendation. As far as to whom do I recommend this book to, that’s actually a very broad group of people. First off, if you’re a teenager interested in Marvel Comics, this book is perfect for you. If you are LGBTQ+ and interested in Marvel Comics, I would absolutely say you would love Wiccan and Hulkling’s relationship. If you’ve watched Marvel movies and shows such as “WandaVision,” “Hawkeye,” or “Agatha All Along,” you already know some of the characters and I feel you would enjoy reading more about them in this graphic novel. And, of course, if you’re a fan of “Young Avengers” from any point or a fan of any of the characters featured in this graphic novel and have yet to read these essential issues, I will tell you this is the perfect book for you. Oh, and if you’re reading this review and are interested in reading this book now, I will tell you to go for it. I found it to be highly enjoyable, and I am a very picky person, so if I can rave about it this much, it probably really is good. And I will say, if you do read this, feel free to leave a comment or a tweet or whatever to tell me what you thought of this book, I would really love to hear your opinion from you. Of course, this entire review is all my opinion, I leave you free to completely have your own opinions, you do not have to agree with me on this, I even welcome dissent, I’m honestly not telling you what to think, I leave everything up to you. That’s the beauty of life; we all have our own opinions on things, and I love that you have yours, so please, if you feel different about anything I said, let me know, again, I’d love to hear from you.

            Well, I think we’re at the point where I’m going to say goodbye to you. I’ve been doing this for a while now, and I’m sure you’re getting bored of me and want to get on with your life, so let’s just move on now. I will say a few more things before I sign off first. I post on this blog very often. I have made over 150 posts on this blog, so there is plenty more content you could see if you liked this. I’ve done about thirty reviews at this point, so if you liked this review, feel free to check out some more. I can tell you that you can expect another review to get posted sometime in the next three weeks, so keep an eye out for it, it’s definitely coming. I actually purchase every single Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection that’s released and try to review it if possible. There are a few I’ve yet to review, hopefully that can change, but at the moment I’ve done almost all of them. I’ve also done other kinds of content on this blog, such as short stories, free verse poetry, articles, essays, and editorials. If you’re looking for a laugh and a pointless read for several minutes, check out my B’ings series, they’re actually quite entertaining. They’re just me rambling on for a few minutes about a topic that really doesn’t mean anything and yet I make a big deal out of it anyway somehow. I hope to post more short stories and poetry in the future, I do have a few ideas in mind, I just need to find the time to get them down on my laptop. Well, I guess I’ve said all I have to say at this point, so I’ll end it with just a few more words, and they are: Tim Cubbin… out!