Who the hell are the Young Avengers?

I've been waiting to do a Young Avengers (The 2005 brainchild of Allan Heinberg and Jimmy Cheung) post for a while, but since the end of Children's Crusade (which is AMAZING by the way...go and read it, like now...whilst you're at it start from Young Avengers #1) it's all gone quiet, and we were all left waiting to know what would be next for our favourite young heroes.
Well today that question was finally answered.

With all the hype around Marvel NOW! starting to build, today Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie broke the silence and have finally brought them back to life! But not as we know it...This is the NEW Young Avengers...and i'm not quite sure how I feel about that to be honest.

The Young Avengers are my favourite characters/team on the Marvel roster, I literally love them, and i've followed their journey pretty much from start to end.

The team (without any spoilers for you YA newbies) of Wiccan (Billy Kaplan), Hulking (Theodore Altman), Iron Lad (Nathaniel), Patriot (Elijah Bradley) and later Hawkeye (Kate Bishop), Vision (Jonas), Stature (Cassie Lang - daughter of Scott Lang, Antman II) and Speed (Thomas Shepherd) are teens aged 15-17, trying to juggle normal, awkward teenage life with the thralls of superherohood. But perhaps the most intriguing bit is that they all have special links to the Avengers of past and present. (dun, dun DUN!)

The amazing artwork of Cheung (whom I had the pleasure of meeting and babbling to at London's Super Comic Convention) and awesome writing of OC guru Heinberg are pretty much perfect. They completely capture the tone of the young teens and manage to balance the humour and trials of teenage-hood with the complications of heroism.

There are tears, tantrums, AWESOME revelations and plenty of sarcasm, making Heinberg's and Cheung's Young Avengers some of the strongest (characterwise), interesting and engaging Marvel characters to date. And I bloody love them. I can't express how strong the story for these guys is, and its definitely something to add to your collection, especially Young Avengers #1-12 and Avengers: Children's Crusade #1-9

Flash forward to 2012 (although only 5 months on from the last issue of the YA) and my favourite squad appear to be making a return...but whilst Wiccan, Hulkling and Hawkeye have remained, Speed, Patriot, Vision and Stature are nowhere to be seen (although readers of YA will know why Vision and Stature are unimportant to this heh). Instead, they are joined by Miss America (basically Patriot with long hair and boobs), Marvel Boy (Nor-Varr...last seen in YA /Runways: Civil War...but basically a Kree version of Speed...even sporting the white hair) and a young Loki.

Now, whilst I am more than excited for the return of the Young Avengers i'm keen to know what this means for the characters that have already been developed...will the same relationships remain? will Patriot be returning and most importantly will Speed play any role in this new line up?! Is there even any room for him now?! He's a personal favourite of mine (and many others) and very integral (kinda) to the story of the YA as well as Wiccan! Only time will tell...and i'm more than willing to give Gillen and McKelvie a chance...but they're really not giving anything away...especially with the reveal of 2 pages from Young Avengers #1...

I felt that this team was strong enough as it was, although the final issue of Childrens Crusade did leave you thinking "what's next...", and with pretty much all the questions answered and mysteries solved (not including obvious plot holes...), was CC #9 the unofficial ending for my favourite team??

So this is the next chapter for the Young Avengers...let's see what you got Gillen and McKelvie...

What Would Doom Do? he'd weep into his pillow ruing the day that he ever crossed the Young Avengers...but maybe he'd give this reboot chance...for a little while atleast.



RIP my Young Avengers?