Is Young Avengers the massive super-hit best damn comic this year that some at Marvel have been promising since word of the book first leaked out? Or is it, as some (OK, including me) thought, a ludicrous example of how Marvel doesn't seem to "get" what the Avengers are about, at least to many Avengers fans? Turns out, it's neither. Young Avengers has it's problem, including a 10-page "is this going somewhere?" opening sequence that reads like Heinberg desperately emulating Bendis, but once it gets going, it's surprisingly engaging, and the twist ending is enough to ensure I'll at least be back for the second issue. It doesn't hurt that the book looks terrific, and if Jim Cheung elevated his game when he went to Crossgen, he's elevated it another level now that he's returned to Marvel.
So the big question of Young Avengers is: Who are these guys? If the customers at my local store are any indication, this question is often asked with incredulity and a mocking tone, and Heinberg has done himself no favors in this first issue by saddling them with corny names that makes the Legion of Super-Heroes look hip and edgy and by really telling us next to nothing about the characters. It takes literally 12 pages before we see the characters (unless you count a newspaper photo), and most of that time is spent in inane, only occasionally interesting or amusing dialogue between Jonah Jameson, Kat Ferrell and Jessica Jones, all in various states of mis-characterization. Examples include Jonah's low-key, surprisingly superhero sympathetic portrayal or Kat Ferrell's portrayal as a clueless reporter (betraying the potential she showed in Deadline, her introduction), with one minor but important bit of annoyance being that the superhero beat reporter doesn't know who Bucky is, but the superhero outsider Jessica Jones does. It's minor, and easily explained away (Jessica knows Cap, Cap probably talked about Bucky), but it felt wrong, and that wasn't the right foot on which to start the book for me.
The right foot to start the book on, at least from my point of view, comes eleven pages in, as we enter a hostage situation in progress. Enter the Young Avengers, a team of ill-coordinated, powerful but somewhat inept superteens who proceed to muck-up the rescue attempt but still show off a certain admirable enthusiasm for being heroes. We still don't know much about these characters, but Heinberg gives a snapshot of each one: Patriot is a jerk, Iron Lad is the go-getter hero type frustrated with his team's short attention span tendency and Hulkling and Asgardian are superhero fanboys whose relationship may have a gay component, although I may be reading into that. See, I told you the names were pretty bad. Of course, the actual characters are kind of interesting from what little we see of them, even if I can't help noticing that Heinberg has introduced four brand new characters into the Marvel Universe and they're all white (OK, one green) males, with an outside chance that Patriot might represent one of the many under-represented minority groups in comics. Not saying I want "diversity" to be the keyword in every new team, but when you're building ground-up, it doesn't hurt to do it, and Runaways managed to carry it off without being token or obvious about it. Of course, if Patriot is actually not white under that mask and Hulkling and Asgardian are actually gay, I reserve the right to take this complaint back and only note "where are all the women at?" in future. And I reserve the right to withdraw that last comment if, as some are speculating, Hulkling is a girl... but I'll be damned if there's any visual indication on Cheung's part if that's the case.
So the pacing has some problems and the characters aren't instant classics either, but once the book gets going, it gets kind of interesting. The banter between the characters leads me to see the snappy dialogue that all The O.C. watchers I know have talked about, and the action sequence is pretty good. Also, while Heinberg wastes the initial 12 pages on what is essentially three or four pages of story material, he packs a lot into the 10 pages at the end, introducing not just the Young Avengers but a potential love interest for one of the crew and establishing pretty quickly that these guys are wannabes, but their heart is in the right place. In addition, the motivations behind their formation as a team link up nicely with the Avengers that they've taken as their inspiration, and also provide for the last-page twist that I liked quite a bit. It's not as shocking as the Thunderbolts reveal that it has been compared to in some interviews, but it's a neat twist that had me anxious to come back and see what happens next.
What really has me anxious to come back, though, is the artwork. Jim Cheung and John Dell are given a lot of talking heads material to cover early on, and they convey mood and emotion very effectively throughout. Much as I didn't think Jonah's character was as interesting as his more bombastic normal personality, I had to admit that the somber moment he shows when reflecting on Bucky and what he meant to teens during World War II was very effecting. I also really love the detail that Cheung and Dell put into their backgrounds, most notably the crowd scene during the hostage situation but also just in the crowded city room at the Bugle. And while the costume designs are, honestly, kinda lame, they look good in action, particularly those of Patriot and Iron Lad.
In brief, Young Avengers is a book that I had more than a few problems with, but there are also enough interesting hooks, and a really solid visual style, to keep me coming back for more, at least in the short term. 7/10
