By: Allan Heinberg (writer), Jim Cheung (pencils), Mark Morales & Cheung (inks), Justin Ponsor (colors), Cory Petit (letters), Lauren Sankovitch (associate editor) & Tom Brevoort (editor)
The Story: The aftermath of the battle between the Young Avengers are Dr. Doom.
A few things:
1. A very nice Young Avengers story. – It took a while for this to come out, but now that it is over, this is a very nice Young Avengers tale. It has a beginning, middle and end as well as a compelling hook: the search for the Scarlet Witch. Now that everything is finished, it feels like the YA are more tightly integrated into the Marvel Universe and….of course…..the Scarlet Witch is back. So, we get character development for our young heroes and events of import to the Avengers-proper and the X-Men.
2. But not quite the story it could have been. – Even though this was a nice story, it’s hard to not be a little disappointed. Around issue #6 or so, it seemed like we might be getting a story that would undo M-Day (when Scarlet Witch stripped most mutants of their powers), but it was not to be. It also seemed like the timing was working out such that this finale could have factored into the upcoming Avengers vs. X-Men event, but that didn’t happen either. Even though this was a good series, it could have been great. It also didn’t help to hear Tom Brevoort saying, “Keep an eye on this series, because it’s going to be BIG.” It simply isn’t that big of a deal.
3. Strong art. – It’s hard to say much negative about a Jim Cheung drawn issue. This is beautiful work and better than 99% of the comics you’ll see out there. Two things really stand out to me about Cheung’s work. One is how well he composes group scenes. It isn’t easy to draw all these panels with 5+ characters and have them look great, time after time. I also love how Cheung draws women’s faces. His Scarlet Witch is beautiful! A big tip of the cap to Justin Ponsor too. I’m usually not a fan of highlighted colors, but this is some beautiful work. The only negative is that a few panels in this issue looked a bit rushed, like there might have been a push to get this done before AvX kicks off?
4. Wish Marvel would do more with the Young Avengers. – Every time I read a Young Avengers story, I really enjoy them. So, why do I only get one YA story every few years? They’re neat characters and they’re new! They’re just what the Marvel U. needs to spice things up a bit! I appreciate that they’re Heinberg’s kind of characters, but if he’s too busy writing TV shows, let’s get someone else to explore his nifty creations.
5. The antithesis of Marvel’s double-shipping policy. – You know what would have made this series AWESOME? What if this was instead a 20 issue series. The spine could have been the same Heinberg/Cheung story, but in between we could have had little 2-issue diversions that had nothing to do with the main story. And have those diversionary arcs drawn by some of Marvel’s C-list artists. Wouldn’t that be awesome!??! Of course, I am kidding! The worst thing about Marvel’s practice of double-shipping their titles is that they simply don’t have enough good artists. I’d rather have fewer comics that look nice than more comics and have 50% of them look like hell. Sometimes it’s nice to just let talented artists do their thing!
Conclusion: A very nice miniseries comes to an end. It turned out to be a very good and beautiful Young Avengers story. I’m a little disappointed that it didn’t become a great Marvel Universe story, but I probably got my expectations too high. Well worth checking out!
Grade: B+
-Dean Stell
Follow Dean on Twitter.
Grade
Conclusion