Young Avengers #3 and #4

(w) Keiron Gillen

(a) Jamie McKelvie and Mike Norton (line art) Matthew Wilson (colors)

In a day and age where the best-selling comics are generally those that feature status-quo altering events, line-wide reboots and enough variant covers to fill a long box, it is nice to read a comic book in which the creators' sole preoccupation is to tell quirky, fun stories rather than make huge waves in the industry, and Young Avengers is just such a book.

Issue #3 has Loki, Wiccan and Hulkling face off against what appears to be Loki's father, frost-giant Laufey, who gets the better of them and is apparently about to kill them when America Chavez flies in and saves the day. She makes a disturbing disclosure to Hulkling and Wiccan about Loki, and the four of them try to figure out how to deal with the problem at hand by hanging out, at all places, at Mary Jane Watson's club. It is clear that Wiccan's spell to summon Hulkling's dead mother has somehow summoned magical facsimiles of all of the parents of the young Avengers. Unfortunately, all of the faux parents track the four of them down to MJ's, and mayhem ensues.

In issue #4, Noh-Varr, a.k.a. Marvel Boy and Kate Bishop join the fray, and are able to help their fellow young Avengers escape the clutches of the fake parents (with Marvel Boy's fake parents joining the fun as well) but it becomes evident that unless they figure out a way to completely undo Wiccan's spell, it's a gift that's just going to keep on giving.

My beef with issue #2 was basically that Wiccan and Hulkling didn't really seem to have a plan for undoing Wiccan's spell, other than to go to Asgardia, and all things considered, it becomes evident that they didn't really have a plan at all, though they apparently are gaining insights into what the problem is. Issue #3 was basically an extended fight sequence and, while entertaining was not that much of an improvement over issue #2, but issue #4 has some really interesting things going for it, the kind of things that had me picking up this series in the first place.

The first thing that really grabbed me about issue #4 was how Gillen and McKelvie staged Noh-Varr's incredible action sequence, which is hilarious and exciting all at once. Having just read Grant Morrison's Marvel Boy miniseries, and having read about his vision for the character, it strikes me that more than any other writer who has handled the character since Morrison (yes, including the vaunted Brian Bendis), Gillen "gets" Noh-Varr.

Another highlight of this issue happened midway through it, when Loki started manipulating Teddy (Hulkling) by suggesting that the only reason he and Billy (Wiccan) were together as boyfriends was that Billy had manipulated reality to make it so. After all, it is Billy's superpower to change reality. Of course, Loki being Loki the odds are good he is basically messing with Teddy big-time but the plausibility of what he tells Teddy is what was really striking, as well as the suggestion that Billy may not even be aware of what he's doing. Loki messing with people's heads is what makes him utterly compelling him to read; THIS is the kind of thing I look forward to in a book starring Loki, and the fact that he's doing to people who are purportedly his allies in this issue makes things all the more intriguing. I can't help but wonder and eagerly anticipate what Gillen plans for this title down the line.

3.5/5 (issue #3)
4.5/5 (issue #4)