Young Avengers #5
Written by Kieron Gillen
Art by Jamie McKelvie w/ Mike Norton
Colors by Matthew Wilson
Review by Joey Braccino
The (young) Avengers have Assembled (under mystical, forcible circumstances)!!!
Young Avengers #5 opens with our team—Miss America, Wiccan, Hulkling, Hawkeye (Not Hawkguy), and Noh-Var (Marvel Boy?)—in the absolute direst of dire straits as they face down an army of parasitically-brain-controlled parentals!!! As they take up arms against their sea of troubles, Wiccan slips away back into Noh-Var’s ship and considers a consummation devoutly to be wished. But in that sleep, perchance to dream… what dreams may come?
Dreams of Kid Loki perhaps? Kid Loki who, in Kieron Gillen’s Journey into Mystery, was once a heroic character. Wherefore did he steal Wiccan’s powers last issue and teleport away from his “friends?” Well, answers are offered in a brilliantly stage sequence in which Kid Loki reveals the complexities of his mind of cats. The answer is brilliant and promises some fascinating conflict and characterization down the line.
Needless to say, at issue’s end, the Young Avengers team is solidified and their mission is set. Gillen has built up to this point brilliantly over the course of the last five issues; the separation from the parental figure is an important part of the coming-of-age story, so Gillen takes this to its natural, superheroic extreme—I mean, who didn’t wanted to explode their parent into a bajillion little smudgy bits when they were 17?
McKelvie, Norton, and Wilson have this uncanny ability to be amazing on every panel on every page. Period. I wish I had new things to say, but I could pick out the cinematic naturalism of McKelvie’s aesthetic like nobody’s business. It’s unique and innovative and perfectly suited to Gillen’s post-modernist storytelling.
Verdict
Buy. Ay, buy. Smart and sleek, Kieron Gillen’s Young Avengers is the most innovative Marvel NOW! book on the stands. I could tell you here, but that would be rotten of me; pick up the book yourself and check out all the madness and method therein!
