Ten Year Anniversary of Young Avengers...So where are they now?

[Darkspellmaster]

So back in April of 2005 a small book came out titled Young Avengers, Created by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung. At the time it was a suprise hit, given that there was backlash over characters in the series. Not only did we get a very unique and diverse cast, but we also got a number of connections to the Marvel universe through some legacy characters, some of whom are now being used in the grown up leagues and have paved the way for other newer characters to come in and be accepted on their own two feet.

It's been ten years since the series first showed up in comic shops, so where are the lead characters now ten years later after Marvel first introduced us to Patriot, Hawkeye (Hawkingbird), Wiccan (Asgardian), Hulkling, Stature, Iron Lad, Vision, and Speed....

Well Let's start with the good:

Kate Bishop, Teddy Altman, Billy Kaplin, all were used in a second version of Young Avengers.

Billy and Teddy have become the poster children for teen gay couples in Marvel.

Both Billy and Teddy are now on a full scale Avengers Team.

Kate is now part of Hawkeyes books and pretty much could stand on her own.

Cassie Lang is now alive and being used in Ant-man with her father.

The Not so good:

Cassie seems to be de-powered right now, is younger then when she first appeared in YA, and doesn't remember anything. (Nor do we know if the others have contacted her.)

Speed, Billy's twin, has since been relegated sort of to the sidelines, and at times it feels like people forget that Tommy and Billy are twins. Last time we saw him he was an intern with Prodigy and got stuck in a bind.

Iron Lad, who turned out to be a young Kang, is now Kang I think, and was last seen in Uncanny Avengers planning something to do with the other universes.

Vision, got destroyed at the end of Children's crusades, and was rebuilt as the older version of himself with no memory of what happened during his time as a Young Avenger.

And Eli....

Eli has pretty much been taken off the board with Marvel saying that Gillian couldn't use him for the second run of Avengers for some unspecified reason. No one talks about him at all, it's like he doesn't exist.

So question: What do you think should be done to celebrate the ten years of this book? What can be done with the members that seem to be short changed, and what sort of future can you see for the title and possible future incarnation now that most of the cast is seen as Adults? Can there be another Young Avengers that hits the same notes?

[Marvel/DC Fan]

I loved the Heinberg series. To me it was a very well done Marvel version of the Teen Titans with a great,diverse cast. Unfortunately it later spiraled into look-how-witty-we-are hipster tripe under different writers. I would say quit shoehorning them on the main Avengers teams and get Heinberg back to do a new series.

[Darkspellmaster]

I loved the Heinberg series. To me it was a very well done Marvel version of the Teen Titans with a great,diverse cast. Unfortunately it later spiraled into look-how-witty-we-are hipster tripe under different writers. I would say quit shoehorning them on the main Avengers teams and get Heinberg back to do a new series.

Agreed! I loved the Teen titans to Young Justice vibe the first series had going. We got the sense of adventure and they still felt like teens that were living in the time period. Plus sides of the new team was some of the additions, minus sides was the villain and the fact that it didn't seem like they were the ones that solved anything in the end. I would love to see Heinburg come back and do a sequel, if not him scripting then do a quick treatment that they can use for another writer to script, or have him be the producer or writer for a TV adaptation of the series. Young Avengers the Tv series would give me a reason to get Netflix at least. If they are going to use the characters in other series, at least do us the favor of using all of them, don't hide Eli, Tommy or Cassie. It's not like they're bad characters at all.

[neohuey89]

I loved the original series and all the characters that were apart. It sucked to wait all that time to see if they would get together just for the original creators to return and completely dismantle the team. I was a big Captain America, so for there to be a young black version of Cap that had a relevant connection to dark American history was always important to me. So I was also disappointed in how he was treated (by writers and fans). I do hope that one day alternate or not we would be able to see the original team once again.

[Byakko]

Tommy's so forgotten that his only appearance in Secret Wars so far is in House of M next to Billy; whereas Billy has had at least two other incarnations pop up in Inferno and the medieval Battleworld that Lady Kate comes from. And he doesn't have any slated appearances in the all-new universe, while Billy and Teddy both get to be on New Avengers.

I don't need them joined at the hip, but that's kinda sad. Tommy gets shafted a lot if you compare him to Billy's presence in just about anything. It doesn't help that visually, personality-wise, and power-set wise, he's basically mini-Quicksilver. Give me a panel where Tommy's drawn a little older than teen, and I can't tell if I'm looking at him or his uncle. That's just not a future-proof concept design!

Tommy's the Danny De Vito twin to Billy's Arnold Schwarzenegger. Even in the reincarnation lottery Tommy got the worst traits of their past lives (divorced parents, locked up and experimented on...)

It's like the cosmic universe wants to give him a supervillain origin or something. Cain and Abel and all that.

[Kevinroc]

With the post-Secret Wars Ant-Man finally acknowledging Darla Deering, I wouldn't be surprised if they started clarifying what Cassie's situation is post-revival. There have been hints about certain things, and Scott did acknowledge that he already lost her once before.