After hearing the disheartening news that ‘Young Avengers’ would not continue on after issue fifteen earlier this week, we have the latest chapter in the fan-favorite book from Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie.
While we haven’t been talking about the book itself in reviews for a while, make no mistake that we have been reading and loving it. Some big stuff has happened since our last review of the series. For instance, Teddy started hanging with some of the teams exes in an effort to find himself and figure some things out. However, it turns out that Leah, Loki’s former beau from Gillen’s run on ‘Journey Into Mystery’, is actually working with Mother to take down the Young Avengers. Now, with Hulkling as their prisoner, they can now enter the 616 universe freely. Meanwhile, Wiccan helped Loki age up a bit so that he could have the necessary power to prepare for the upcoming battle. Also, Prodigy activated his totally awesome phone tree and called in the cavalry (aka every teen hero that he knows) to act as back up for the team since all the adult heroes are currently compromised thanks to Mother’s presence in their dimension.
As I said, I’ve been loving this run and have found myself getting excited to read the next issue after I finish the current one, but issue twelve made me realize a few things that were a little off. The biggest thing is that Speed is still nowhere to be found. Looking back, after Tommy disappeared, it seems like the team just completely forgot that they were meant to be tracking him down in addition to dealing with Mother. I understand that she’s a huge threat and that their hands are a little full, but it seems like there’s no concern whatsoever about their former teammate, friend, and (in Billy’s case) brother. At this point, we have absolutely no idea what Not-Patriot has done with him. In the coming issues, I hope that this comes up at some point. I mean, there’s only three more issues of the series left, but we can’t just leave Speed completely disintegrated in another dimension. Or even worse, he could be dead!? But let’s not jump to that conclusion just yet.
Despite that fairly huge problem with the story so far, there was a ton of extremely enjoyable things in this issue. I particularly liked the part where Loki was trying to tell the truth, but Miss America called him out on it like he wasn’t. Despite having villainous tendencies and always utilizing tricks to get what he wants, I feel like he really is trying to good these days. That’s the vibe that I got from this scene at least. And then there’s the bit where he shrugs off America’s threats of violence since it’s become such a regular occurrence between them. It’s almost like that’s how they show that they care about each other in a really weird way.
And there was an awesome Scott Pilgrim reference in this week’s issue.Finally, I’m a huge sucker for cameos and this issue was bursting at the seams with them. And even better, they were all teen heroes (and Captain America)! We got Young X-Men, Avengers Academy, Runaways, and more. There were even a couple of Hulks! Because we don’t see it too often, I enjoy it when writers roll out these under-utilized characters every so often.
OH! And I can’t forget to mention this. McKelvie does it again and delivers some more brilliant scenes and panel layouts that have turned into a trademark of this book. These new and creative ways to show action are simply amazing and I never get tired of them. Also, the artist’s work on the new Loki is pretty sick as well.
As things heat up in this all out brawl, the end is certainly in sight. While it means that it’s one step closer to ending, I can’t wait to get my hands on the next issue of ‘Young Avengers’.
Final Score:
YOUNG AVENGERS #12
Written by Kieron Gillen
Art by Jamie McKelvie, Mike Norton, Stephen Thompson, & Matthew Wilson
