Young Avengers Appreciation - 2021

[Journey]

I'm sorry just don't want the YA brand or name anywhere near the Champions it's beneath them. Why can't they be like the runaways 30 plus issues and the team has hardly changed at all they just evolved YA can be the same.

[Chris0013]

I'm sorry just don't want the YA brand or name anywhere near the Champions it's beneath them. Why can't they be like the runaways 30 plus issues and the team has hardly changed at all they just evolved YA can be the same.

Because Teddy and Billy are on the other side of the universe, Iron Lad is going all Kang, Jonas/Vision is dead...

And the Champs have moved on as well...they are not the original 6. Kamala built them into a much larger group able to handle multiple issues at once.

[Noek]

How would you bring him back? He was basically just the AI in Kang/Iron Lad's armor and that armor is gone. New body? Same or different powers??

At the end of Children Crusade they were talking about bringing him back, though they didn't because he would only have memory from last save when Cassie was still alive. Not wanting to put that burden on him they chose not to. But she is back, so ya maybe just give him a diferent colour theme.

[Noek]

Agreed. Billy and Teddy are hands-down my favorite Young Avengers, but I feel like they've 'leveled up' (as have Kate, Noh-Varr and America Chavez) and Eli, Cassie and Tommy *really* need a chance to shine without them hogging the spotlight.

Those three, and perhaps a few of the other young heroes already out there, such as some Initiative folk (Komodo?) or Avengers Academy folk (Reptil, Finesse, Striker?), etc. could be neat, or even one or two new characters, from the list of names presented by Vision in Young Avengers 1 (IIRC). Maybe even a Runaway, New X-Man, Future Foundation member, New New Warrior (Sun Girl!), etc. if they aren't currently a thing.

I would still stick with the theme that made the Young Avenger what they are, which is based on. We all know who to matches up to who from the Vol 1 team, as for the ones I mentioned Thunderstike = Thor, Spidergirl = Spiderwoman, and Luna = Mantis (Empath, precognition, and Martial skill and a Kree connection. Mantis I know has telepathic as well). So ya Finesse cause Taskmaster was a Secret Avenger.

[Digifiend]

Because Teddy and Billy are on the other side of the universe, Iron Lad is going all Kang, Jonas/Vision is dead...

And the Champs have moved on as well...they are not the original 6. Kamala built them into a much larger group able to handle multiple issues at once.

Yeah, at the end of Zub's run there was 15 active members. Eve Ewing's first issue showed a few more. There's at least 20 members now, and zero overlap with the Young Avengers (though the two teams do know each other as seen in Unstoppable Wasp). The Champs haven't been stealing members from the YAs, and honestly, the only reason to have one team take members from the other would be MCU synergy, something we probably don't need to worry about for three years or so.

[HipHopAvenger]

I feel for a new YA team you could do: Eli, Tommy, Cassie, Thunderstrike, Spider-Girl, Ultra-Girl (who could be the connection between YA and Teddy & Billy that they'll guest appearance here and there)
Maybe Toni Ho & Aikku, Sun Girl, Finesse, Water Snake, Inferno any other unused characters from X-Men, Inhumans, Avengers, Spider-Man, Cosmic sides of the universe

[Drops Of Venus]

Having finally watched WandaVision and going through social media has honestly been so surreal. I can't believe there's so many people who are getting to meet them for the first time. And that's only gonna get more crazy in the next episodes as they grow older and play a bigger role in the show.

I think another thing to think about when considering Vol. 3 is why they get back together in the first place. Who are they fighting? Why are they fighting? Will they get another Avengers level villain like in vol 1? Or will they get their own villain like vol 2?

And to that, what would the central theme be? Vol 1 was centered around hidden legacies and family, while vol 2 was very much the power of pop culture and youth. I could see vol 3 being about the transition from teen to adult and what that means, where I would specifically focus on Eli and Tommy. Eli left superhero-ing to pursue law, and has essentially "grown up" and gotten a "real" job, while Tommy tried to work and "grow up" but realized it isn't as magical as the world makes it out to be. Even give some love to Cassie, and talk about how she feels seeing ALL her friends grow older, exploring how she feels about her death and how she was essentially left behind while everyone moved on.

I think the OG crop of YA members are the perfect characters to portray that transition, thematically because they're basically the middle children of Marvel, sandwiched between the Runaways who've consistently had a presence, and the Champions, the brand new shiny toys for Marvel, but also literally because they've also very visibly aged vs other characters staying the same, or not having noticeable changes.

I know Marvel will probably try to make them vol 2/Champions 2.0 and have them be all goofy and pop culture-y, but I really want the third volume to match their ages and be a bit more serious. Explore Eli's time away from hero life, Tommy's past, etc. So much story to cover, and hopefully it gets past 12/13 issues.

I'm not entirely sure why they would return, but honestly, I think that's the least important part. Any writer can come up with any explanation they want. It took Allan Heinberg exactly one page to get the team back together in Marvel Comics #1000. So... it's really not that hard, is it? As for villains, I would like a little bit of everything. I would like to see them going up against an already established big bad just to show how good the team is (someone like Mephisto, so I can already cross off the Wiccan/Speed origin story from my list). But it would also be nice to see some original villains like Mother. I would also like to see the return of some underdeveloped villains, like the Young Masters. They were created to be the foes of the Young Avengers, but that was barely explored after the Dark Reign mini. I would like to see the team returning and continuing their concept of being the anti-Young Avengers, and how both of them would clash with their ideals.

Yeah, I think the ''coming of age'' trope is perfect for the Young Avengers now. Both in their personal lives, but also on their professional/superhero lives. They started out desperately wanting approval and recognition from the Avengers, and then at the end of The Children's Crusade they finally got that, but we barely got to see how they dealt with the status of being ''real'' Avengers ever since. What does it mean to them? Is it everything they wanted it to be, or was it one of those ''careful what you wish for'' situations? How does the civilian world see the Young Avengers? Are they beloved, ''celebrity'' superheroes like the Avengers are usually portrayed as? And if yes, how does that affect them?

I also want something that really sells them as the definitive Avengers legacy team. Like, let them inherit the Avengers Mansion and turn it into their official HQ. Let them get paid an actual salary for being Young Avengers the same way the Avengers get paid. Like an official subsidiary, sponsored team. Their brand to reach a new, younger public. In a way, it can be pretty meta. And now with a world post-Outlawed, with the younger superheroes getting a bad reputation again, could the Young Avengers be a tool to restore the public opinion on young heroes? Could they restart the Avengers Academy, for example, as a way to help young heroes train to become better prepared for the hero life, and maybe even as a tool to recruit new members for the Young Avengers in the future? That could be an interesting concept to explore. And there's also the Avengers Failsafe Program, which was how we got the original team in the first place. I would love to see that returning somehow and playing a role in the recruitment of new members.

And I want a book that really represent current times. Like, volume 1 was so clearly an early 2000s comic, and volume 2 was so clearly a 2010s comic. Since we'd be getting volume 3 in the 2020s, I want the new book to kind of sell what the current generation of comic books, social media (would any of the YA have a TikTok? Or *GASP* an OnlyFans?), pop culture, etc looks like. I think the book can have a more serious/dramatic tone, but I don't think they need to lose the fun factor (otherwise you might end up with stuff like the live action Titans show, trying too hard to be dark and edgy). 'Cause those characters are still young, and they should still have fun like young people do. But since they're older than before, I would like a more desensitized humor. Like, don't be afraid of making dirty jokes every now and then, you know? Don't treat them with kiddie gloves.

And like you said before, we definitely need to keep the YA as queer as possible. People love to joke that ''Young Avengers is just Avengers for queer people'', but I think that should absolutely be what the team ''officially'' is. I'm not saying every member needs to be queer (we need our token cis-hets every now and then), but we should definitely be striving to have more queer identities added to the book. And by more identities, I mean more than just your usual gay/bi characters. Let's have some trans, non-binary, intersex, ace/aro, etc representation as well. I would love for editorial to see the YA as a book in which they can try out this kind of representation. And like, in-universe too, I would love to know what the queer people of the Marvel Universe think. Are Wiccan and Hulkling considered the Neil Patrick Harris/David Burtka of the superhero community? Are they considered role models to queer people out there? Are they invited to do cover shoots for LGBTQ-themed magazines or invited to Pride Parades? I would love to know stuff like that.

And yes, last but not least, definitely longer runs. Replace writers if needed, but don't shelf them just to relaunch several years later like how they've been doing. And in times when we don't have an ongoing, give us miniseries like they used to do between volume 1 and The Children's Crusade. Anything that gives us more YA content, really.

At the end of Children Crusade they were talking about bringing him back, though they didn't because he would only have memory from last save when Cassie was still alive. Not wanting to put that burden on him they chose not to. But she is back, so ya maybe just give him a diferent colour theme.

I think the real reason why Jonas had to go was for editorial reasons. He was created to basically replace the original Vision, to the point where his design was VERY similar to the original one. For people who didn't know his backstory, they could just assume that was the OG one. But since they brought the original Vision back around that time, maybe they felt Jonas was redundant. Of course, that doesn't explain why the Young Avengers haven't brought him back in-story after Cassie was resurrected. Jonas basically became to the YA what Xavin is to the Runaways; a team member who is a big elephant in the room that needs to be addressed, but writers just won't bother to do that. It really takes a writer with a deep love of continuity to resolve these things, which is why I want Al Ewing to write a Young Avengers book.

[walk]

It's highly likely a Vol. 3 of Young Justice will coincide with the MCU so expect any potential roster to reflect whatever that ends up being.

That might be a mixture of YA/Champions which includes Kamala, Riri and whomever but there's talk of the MCU YA being closer to the OG team of the comics which I'm starting to believe is a possiblity as when you consider all the new characters confrimed or semi-confirmed at this point a team starting with all of them is simply too big and given we know Miles exists in the MCU, Feige recently talked about Sam Alexander and Amadeus is rumored to show up in She-Hulk it could be a simple matter of both groups debuting in MCU together as two separte teams of next-gen heroes.

Personally I wouldn't mind as compared to other superhero teams we got relatively little of the original team together and realistically I don't expect a Vol.3 to last much longer than the previous two so if it's more of reunion/catch-up that shows where everyone is now in life with a bit of nostalgia of old friends coming together again I wouldn't be mad.

[Journey]

I don't need any of those relatively new scrubs anywhere near a YA book cause their attention hogs, put Kamala in YA she'll probably end up running the team which makes no sense but because she's a fan favorite writers will push her like that the Champions and YA need to be seperate.

[Waking Replica]

I'm not entirely sure why they would return, but honestly, I think that's the least important part. Any writer can come up with any explanation they want. It took Allan Heinberg exactly one page to get the team back together in Marvel Comics #1000. So... it's really not that hard, is it? As for villains, I would like a little bit of everything. I would like to see them going up against an already established big bad just to show how good the team is (someone like Mephisto, so I can already cross off the Wiccan/Speed origin story from my list). But it would also be nice to see some original villains like Mother. I would also like to see the return of some underdeveloped villains, like the Young Masters. They were created to be the foes of the Young Avengers, but that was barely explored after the Dark Reign mini. I would like to see the team returning and continuing their concept of being the anti-Young Avengers, and how both of them would clash with their ideals.

I feel like Mephisto would be cool, although that puts BillyTeddy dangerously close to their own OMD. All it would take is a directive from Marvel to make them more relatable and we say goodbye to the marriage. And the Young Masters would be interesting, although idk if giving a Nazi panel time is worth it, especially with the current political situation in the US.

I also want something that really sells them as the definitive Avengers legacy team. Like, let them inherit the Avengers Mansion and turn it into their official HQ. Let them get paid an actual salary for being Young Avengers the same way the Avengers get paid. Like an official subsidiary, sponsored team. Their brand to reach a new, younger public. In a way, it can be pretty meta. And now with a world post-Outlawed, with the younger superheroes getting a bad reputation again, could the Young Avengers be a tool to restore the public opinion on young heroes? Could they restart the Avengers Academy, for example, as a way to help young heroes train to become better prepared for the hero life, and maybe even as a tool to recruit new members for the Young Avengers in the future? That could be an interesting concept to explore. And there's also the Avengers Failsafe Program, which was how we got the original team in the first place. I would love to see that returning somehow and playing a role in the recruitment of new members.

That's definitely an interesting way to frame it, having them deal with a post outlawed universe. Even though Cassie's the only one affected (and I know, sliding time scale blah blah blah, they're only 20 blah blah blah) I could see them being put on the spot as like the youth team that makes the public trust the concept (although the optics of a mainly white team being beloved while a team that's mainly POC is scorned is a lil iffy). And the salary thing would be a hilarious plot point given Tommy had to get a job and Billy and Teddy were formally Roberto's sugar babies lmaoo. YA running a new Avengers Academy would be dope, although I hope it ends up less Hunger Games and more like the shield training program from the Ultimate Spiderman animated show.

And I want a book that really represent current times. Like, volume 1 was so clearly an early 2000s comic, and volume 2 was so clearly a 2010s comic. Since we'd be getting volume 3 in the 2020s, I want the new book to kind of sell what the current generation of comic books, social media (would any of the YA have a TikTok? Or *GASP* an OnlyFans?), pop culture, etc looks like. I think the book can have a more serious/dramatic tone, but I don't think they need to lose the fun factor (otherwise you might end up with stuff like the live action Titans show, trying too hard to be dark and edgy). 'Cause those characters are still young, and they should still have fun like young people do. But since they're older than before, I would like a more desensitized humor. Like, don't be afraid of making dirty jokes every now and then, you know? Don't treat them with kiddie gloves.

Yeah, don't get me wrong, I don't want them to be some grimdark angst-fest, I do want them to have fun. But I don't want tiktok/stuff like that, cause as much as it is of the times, it's most likely going to be a 30+ adult writing the book. Too much "hey children, I'm a hip adult that's up to snuff with pop culture" could lead to another New Warriors situation. I think a perfect tone comparison of what I want would be Stranger Things. Even though those kids go through horrible and serious things, they still manage to have moments of levity and fun, which is what I would want. But on a more serious note.... Tommy would absolutely start an onlyfans, if to do nothing but troll around with it. Him or Noh Varr (especially when he's with Herc, mhhm ).

And like you said before, we definitely need to keep the YA as queer as possible. People love to joke that ''Young Avengers is just Avengers for queer people'', but I think that should absolutely be what the team ''officially'' is. I'm not saying every member needs to be queer (we need our token cis-hets every now and then), but we should definitely be striving to have more queer identities added to the book. And by more identities, I mean more than just your usual gay/bi characters. Let's have some trans, non-binary, intersex, ace/aro, etc representation as well. I would love for editorial to see the YA as a book in which they can try out this kind of representation. And like, in-universe too, I would love to know what the queer people of the Marvel Universe think. Are Wiccan and Hulkling considered the Neil Patrick Harris/David Burtka of the superhero community? Are they considered role models to queer people out there? Are they invited to do cover shoots for LGBTQ-themed magazines or invited to Pride Parades? I would love to know stuff like that.

Xavin would be a perfect member to bring in. If Billy and Teddy are on break from the reunion, have them rescue Xavin and have them work in Teddy's sted on Earth. They know them, and there's a lot of potential for story with Xavin post Empyre, especially if we ever get another YA x Runaway special. Toni ho would be great too, and another connection via Billy and Teddy. She could be the iron legacy since Riri is with the Champions and Nate is who knows where. Both are canon young-ish characters, so they would be perfect. Also, the Watts siblings! Plenty of queer characters to choose from.

I think the real reason why Jonas had to go was for editorial reasons. He was created to basically replace the original Vision, to the point where his design was VERY similar to the original one. For people who didn't know his backstory, they could just assume that was the OG one. But since they brought the original Vision back around that time, maybe they felt Jonas was redundant. Of course, that doesn't explain why the Young Avengers haven't brought him back in-story after Cassie was resurrected. Jonas basically became to the YA what Xavin is to the Runaways; a team member who is a big elephant in the room that needs to be addressed, but writers just won't bother to do that. It really takes a writer with a deep love of continuity to resolve these things, which is why I want Al Ewing to write a Young Avengers book.

I have a hc about Jonas, where when Nate killed him, he somehow was able to latch onto his suit's programming, and has since been acting as Nate's AI (although he is sentient) since he left. I can't remember if Nate had his memories intact post CC, but if he did, I hc that both of them watch over the team through some time thingy machine, and are biding their time until the team needs them. I know they have the save file, but in my hc, it's a Jonas that knows what happened.

[Chris0013]

I don't need any of those relatively new scrubs anywhere near a YA book cause their attention hogs, put Kamala in YA she'll probably end up running the team which makes no sense but because she's a fan favorite writers will push her like that the Champions and YA need to be seperate.

Agree...keep them separate. Yes there will be friendships between the teams but they need to be their own things.

And the characters need to evolve as well. Cassie for example should not just be a teen girl with Pym Particles and such...but between her dad's former criminal life and current security business and her stepfather Blake being a cop we should see her having some more detective-ish skills on top of her powers.

[Digifiend]

It's highly likely a Vol. 3 of Young Justice will coincide with the MCU so expect any potential roster to reflect whatever that ends up being.

Er, I think you got your teams mixed up there - a) Young Justice is DC, and b) Young Justice already has a volume 3.

I don't need any of those relatively new scrubs anywhere near a YA book cause their attention hogs, put Kamala in YA she'll probably end up running the team which makes no sense but because she's a fan favorite writers will push her like that the Champions and YA need to be seperate.

Yeah, if Kamala is leading the team, it's the Champions, and should be called that. The two teams can be and should be separate.

Also, the Watts siblings! Plenty of queer characters to choose from.

Well, in Empyre Aftermath, they were shown alongside the Young Avengers at the wedding reception. Which is kind of odd, considering they don't even know Billy and Teddy and must've been brought along by Kate. But it means they've met the team already.

[Ibara]

I'd like the core cast to continue as the Young or New Avengers (i.e. Billy, Teddy, Eli, Kate, Cassie, Tommy, America, etc.). There's plenty of story to tell with them still. Honestly when people request for the YA to return, they want THE team - Kamala, Riri, Miles have books already and there is enough space for the Champions, Runaways, and Young Avengers. Have the narrative spotlight Eli, Cassie, and/or Tommy. Bring in a new character to the team and use some guest characters in different arcs.

[Chris0013]

One of the reasons I want new characters is the the YA never really had their super-genius science types. A couple characters of that type would be interesting to me.

[Ticomat]

One of the reasons I want new characters is the the YA never really had their super-genius science types. A couple characters of that type would be interesting to me.

I mean, there was David. He certainly fills the super-genius archetype, I'd say.