After 5: Young Avengers

I want to do a run on reviewing different comic book series but as a package kind of deal, that's were this idea comes from; After 5 will be me taking a current ongoing series and breaking it down and letting you know how it is, tell you all the great things and bad things with the series so far, and if its worth getting the series, staying with the series or simply skip it all together. Think of it like a super review or something. And if you are curious about any current series and would like me to take a look, by all means let me know and I will look into it for you. For the first one in this series of reviews, I wanted to expand on my feelings that I have for this series from episode 3 of Time Well Spent, if you have yet to see the episode, you can see it by clicking the link. I suggest to watch the video first, but if you prefer to just read then by all means continue on.
Fresh from the big Marvel Now franchise relaunch that has been going on with most of the Marvel books, the Young Avengers book picks up with new and old characters running into one and other, we have Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) and Marvel Boy hooking up and battling Skrulls out in space, back on Earth we see Hulkling (Teddy) and Wiccan (Billy) arguing about what's been going on in the last few months, vowing to never return to the super hero life after the events of Children's Crusade (look it up, really good story arc). But when you have the power to make a difference, you probably should. And when you have the power to warp reality and save your boyfriend's mother before she's executed...well you probably shouldn't. Especially when a young God of mischief, Loki, is looking to steal some power. But with Miss Americas timely interference on Loki, things turn upside down really fast. And whatever Wiccan pulled out of that reality is now taking control over parents minds and recreating the world in its vision. And the best part, all six of these heroes need to work together to set things right. Easier said then done, especially with a wild card like Loki in the ranks. But after a few bumps and crashes, the team manages to hold of the alien parasite just enough for them to decide to head off into space and try and finish the job once and for all. Also Wiccan gets a pretty cool update on his costume, reminds me a little bit of Quasar from the early 90's days of Marvel. It looks good.

That's pretty much the story so far, without mentioning some of the awesome panel by panel battle scenes, with interesting and unique ways of laying out the battles, especially in issue 4 and 5. Then there's the back and forth banter among the characters, the best ones being with Loki, as he attempts to convince them to lend him some help. I really love Miss America being the one who is keeping Loki in line, ready to smack him three ways from Sunday if she needs to. Although I still think she needs to cut back on the random Hispanic slang that's thrown in every now and then. Just keep her to speaking all English or all Spanish, other wise it just seems to be a very unrealistic, and dated form of letting the reader know her background. Besides she looks Latina, so it's really not necessary at all. I also wasn't too happy with making Wiccan so whiny and weak at first, it was only until half way through the fifth book that we started to see the Wiccan we know and love. But before hand we see a young hero who is filled with doubt and fear of his own powers, fear of being who he is supposed to be. And it's strange cause Hulking seemed fine, maybe nursing and taking care of Billy a bit more then usual, but for the most part he was great. I am curious to see what rift if any will get between Kate and Noh-var, so far they seem to be really in love and all seem to be going well, interested to see if they dig up some dirt from Marvel Boy's Dark Avenger days. Even still this story is fantastic, if not for the brave creative choice in the story approach, but also for these fresh new heroes that we love to know more about and the one we would like to meet. Young Avengers is able to be different and change conventional systems that are a staple in comics and makes it one of the most enjoyable series in comic today. So yeah, right now it's not perfect (but this compared to some of the previous story arcs in Young Avengers history) but it still stands as one the most enjoyable reads today, I highly recommend this series as part of your collection.

That's all the time I got right now, thanks for reading and remember to subscribe to this blog to follow all kinds of comics news and reviews and inside look at the world of comic books. Also be sure to follow me on Twitter and Instagram, by following @ChileanStorm. I am also on YouTube, doing Time Well Spent on the Maddsketch channel and also doing my own Storm VLOG videos, so be sure to subscribe to both channels. And be sure to like the Spent Pencils page on Facebook, one like goes a long way. I am ChileanStorm, and remember to embrace the storm and keep running forward.

Also all the art on today's blog is from one the most creative and talented people I have the privilege of working with, the amazing Tiffany Medeiros! Also be sure to check out her super cool out this world manatee infused web comic, Tales of Lost.