Young Avengers Presents TP

By Various

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The Young Avengers Presents collection includes all six issues of the comic mini-series, each featuring a different character (or characters, often with a supporting cast), and each by a different creative team. The quality of each of the issues is pretty strong in the end. These are just great characters and I think the writers conveyed the voices of each of them pretty well.

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The first issue concentrates on Patriot as he has some doubts about himself as a hero and what it means to be a hero. Bucky guest stars and offers some sage advice in a sweet, kind of sappy story by Ed Brubaker and Paco Medina.

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Next we have Brian Reed and Harvey Tolibao focusing on Hulkling. This had the most interesting art of the issues, pretty nice with a fun fight at the beginning. Here we see Hulkling confront Captain Marvel about possibly being his father.

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Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Alina Urusov spin a yarn featuring brothers Wiccan and Speed as they attempt to locate their mother to get some closure on some things. This was probably my favorite art of the bunch. Cartoony and clean. And Wiccan is my favorite Young Avenger, so I really enjoyed this story.

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Vision tries to get across who he is to Cassie (Stature) in the fourth story by Paul Cornell and Mark Brooks. I guess he has the brain of Cassie's dead boyfriend, Iron Lad, a former teammate, but has Vision's body...yet he's his own person. He has some identity issues, but it was a fun read, though a lot of talking heads.

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The focus remained on Stature in the next issue as she needs her friends' help when she can't stop from shrinking. She's caused a pretty big accident at the same time as a rift is opening between herself and her family. Stature's a neat character - she's the only Young Avenger on Tony's side of Civil War, yet she still considers her former renegade teammates her family. And while she's pretty miserable with the Initiative, she really believes in what she's doing and can hold a competent argument about her choice. This one's by Kevin Grevioux and Mitch Breitweiser.

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Last but not least we have another really cool character who's kind of neck-and-neck with Wiccan for my favorite of the bunch. Hawkeye. One of my favorite artists, Alan Davis, illustrates this issue with the fantastic Matt Fraction writing. This is easily the best issue of the six included in the collection, featuring Hawkeye having some face-time with the original Hawkeye, Clint Barton (who is currently going by codename Ronin).

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Overall, a fun collection. Usually with so many creators on a project, there's going to be a dud, but I have to say that the talent involved here got it right and it's all pretty good material. I had a great time with this book and it didn't feel like filler until the next Young Avengers series comes along - there was some really neat, vital material in these pages. If anyone out there is a fan of the regular series, I recommend picking this up.