Graphic Novel Review: Young Avengers: Style > Substance

The coolest superheroes in comics are back...

(Panini Books)

THIS comic is so cool it practically sticks to your fingers like a frozen railing, and it’s just as hard to tear yourself away once you’ve immersed yourself in Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s zeitgeist-chasing superhero teen drama.

Picking up a year or so after the original Young Avengers disbanded, this initial collection finds “Kid” Loki (the youthful reincarnation of the original Asgardian god of mischief) forming a new alliance which also includes former YA members Wiccan and Hulkling, the Kree champion Marvel Boy, rich girl turned superhero Hawkeye, and the new Miss America.

It’s a nod to the birth of the actual Avengers at Loki’s hands way back in 1963, only this time round the Asgardian is pretending to be on the side of good, although his ultimate intentions remain unclear…

When a miscast spell by Wiccan to resurrect his boyfriend’s dead mother has devastating consequences, the Young Avengers reunite in order to prevent the end of the world, again…

Make no mistake, this is a great story, but it’s the characters here which really shine. Gillen and McKelvie have brought together a cast who act and think like real teenagers/young adults, and included some lovely little touches which reward the reader in spades, not least of all perhaps the most innovative artwork seen in a superhero book for years. Unfortunately the Facebook/Twitter-style recap pages seen in the original comics are not included, but you can’t have everything!

One of the stand-out new titles from the House of Ideas, and hopefully one which will run and run, you really cannot afford to miss Young Avengers, even if it is just so in touch with today’s youth culture that it will make more mature readers feel old!