Last night I re-read the latest issue of Young Avengers (issue #7 to be specific), and something occurred to me: Howard Chaykin (famed comic book writer / artist I got a chance to meet at this past DragonCon) was right about something: Marvel Comics may still very well be the "House of Ideas" (a label it has hoarded away to itself for many years now).
So to Mr. Howard Chaykin. You can count yourself among the honored number of 26 people I have ever admited this to. If I ever run into you again, the drinks are on me!
You were right.
I was wrong.
Kind of.
Specifically, Marvel Comics still does occassionally let new and great ideas burst through the slew of X-Books we have to wade through month after month.
The Young Avengers (as well as their New Avengers counterpart) is a very fresh and interesting title that I've got to encourage everyone to read. In the current 7 issues to date, they have picked up the tatters left from the Avengers Dissassembled storyline of last year and strove to help pick up the slack of the heroes they thought lost to the world. Gathered by Iron Lad (who was revealed to be a young version of Kang the Conqueror), the first few members known as Patriot, Asgardian, and Hulkling were all supposed to have some sort of ties to the Avengers of old (just not in the obvious ways as some would think). Patriot was revealed to be the Grandson of the ORIGINAL BLACK Captain America who recieved an infusion of blood from his grandfather and apparently some of the super-soldier serum along with it. No connection has really been revealed about Hulkling and Asgardian other than the fact that Asgardian has absolutely nothing to do with Thor or the gods of Asgard. His powers are magic of some sort.
Their first mission led them to break up a hostage situation at a church where they ran into the girl who would end up becoming their next member, "Hawkingbird." Now the adult Avengers track down the teens and try and dissuade them from persuing their course of action and Scott Lang's daughter shows up to reclain some of her father's possessions, and it is revealed that she has developed growing / shrinking powers from the Pym Particles she had been "borrowing" from her father (without his knowledge) over the course of his career. Kang shows up, intent on reclaiming his younger self and his armor, neither of which the Young Avengers seem intent on giving up. Engaging in a battle during which the older Avengers become incapacitated, its up to the young new heroes to stop Kang and set things right. The do succeed in ultimately killing the older Kang, but they do have to send their friend Iron Lad back to his home in the future to become the man he despised and sought to flee from. The armor, however remains in our time inhabited by essentially a teen-version of the Vision, since the young Kang used his OS to help run his armor and information to gather up the Young Avengers to begin with.
Still, once the old Avengers revive, they continue to threaten the teens to abandon their costumes and gear and return home or they were going to out the children to their relatives. They leave the outfits, but thanks to the resources of "Hawkingbird's" father's fortune, they soon have an abandoned warehouse HQ of their own as well as new gear. Once they re-emerge, they decide to try and "come out to their parents," in hopes of beating Captain America to the punch. This ends in Giant-Girl leaving her house to meet her friends in a fit of rage after hearing her step-father speak very poorly of her, and Hulkling and Warlock (formerly Asgardian) come out to Warlock's parents and are officially accepted... as a gay couple. Not a bad thing, but not what they were going for. There is also the tragic and yet very emotional moment between Patriot and his grandfather. No words said, just a tear of joy and a smile on his face as he thinks his grandson might be following in a set of steps to help make the world a better place for mankind.
With Patriot running very late for his meeting with the others, Warlock uses a spell to locate him where he has apparently tracked down a group of drug dealers led by Mr. Hyde. This goes back earlier to an encounter Patriot had with several sellers of MGH (Mutant Growth Hormone), a drug that temporarily induces super-powers in normal humans. Everyone engages in battle with Mr. Hyde while Warlock tends to Patriot, noticing his wounds are not closing and wondering what happend to his powers. In a fit of rage, Patriot runs off with Warlock in persuit. When he finds his friend, however, he's shooting up like a junkie. (Shades of 70's Speedy, no?)
End issue 7.
In 7 issues, they have managed to have a better witten, better managed, and less confusing storyline than most other mainstream superhero comics over the last 5 or 6 years, while still referencing a great amount of untapped background story not really used before. Don't get me wrong. Marvel still has more X-Titles than there probably should be in circulation, and Iron Man has been outed and gone back into the closet (in an open-secret identity sense) over the last few years than I would care to remember, and let's not even talk about Spider-Man. Its kind of like what caused the formation of Image Comics years ago. No matter how great writers and artist may be, there is only so much they can do with characters with far too much back-story and continuity issues. But if this shows nothing else, it shows that maybe if Marvel can step away from the same old stale characters and stories being repeated ad infinitum over the last 20+ years, they really can become the "House of Ideas" once again.
Excelsior, true believer!
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