Young Avengers #1
“Sidekicks”
Writer: Allan Heinberg
Pencils: Jim Cheung
Inker: John Dell
Letters: VC's Cory Petit
Colors: Justin Ponsor
Cover: Cheung and Dell
Assistant Editors: Nicole Wiley &
Molly Lazer
Associate Editor: Andy Schmidt
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada
Published by: Marvel
Released: Feb. 9, 2005
When I decided to write about comic book counterparts to Super Bowl participants' mascots, I started a list so that when the teams were actually decided, I wouldn't be scrambling to figure out who I was going to use or if I had access to an issue. Some were harder to come up with than others. But the Patriots' was an easy choice – I just didn't expect to be using it so soon.
Yes, after my Washington Redfootmanders fell one game short of the biggest commercial extravaganza of them all then came crashing back to the pack, the New England Patriots dusted off their dynasty and are back in the big game behind a second-year quarterback and a first-year coach.* I'm not jealous, just surprised.
Their comic book comp is Patriot, who debuted in the first issue of “Young Avengers,” which came out... 21 YEARS AGO? Even with the sliding Marvel time scale, I'm not sure they would qualify for the term “young” anymore, but it's yet another entry in the evidence file marking me as old.
Anyhow, Patriot and three other young heroes appear on the opening page on the front page of the Daily Bugle. Someone is shouting to ask just who the “#*&%” they are. That combination of print journalism and profanity leaves little doubt that the man posing the question is J. Jonah Jameson.
He wants Kat Ferrell, who I think at one point was supposed to be the 21st century Ben Urich, and Jessica Jones, who the paper hired for her insights into the superhuman community or something in the short-lived “The Pulse” series, to figure out who these kids are. The trio banters for six pages, leaving me to wonder, even though I've read this, if this was going to be a Jessica Jones story.
As the heroine formerly known as Jewel assures Kat she's not nearly as connected to the super set as Jameson thinks, Captain America and Iron Man drop out of nowhere to ask if she has a line on the kids. They don't know who they are, but they're concerned, especially since one of them is sporting an outfit very similar to Bucky's.
Bucky was still believed dead at this point, I think. The timing is a little iffy to me because Cap and Iron Man note that the Stark Foundation can no longer fund the Avengers, although the New Avengers series had just debuted a couple months earlier. The absence of an Avengers squad will become important later, I think.
Unfortunately for him, that hostage is one Kate Bishop, also making her first appearance in this issue. We don't know at this point, of course, that she's going to become Hawkeye, and keep the name even after Clint Barton comes back and also uses it. But we can see she's tough and confident as she uses one of Patriot's throwing stars to stab the gunman in the leg and allow the team to finish the fight victorious.
Jessica and Kat have arrived on the scene, and Jess manages to give her card to Asgardian and Hulkling. From there, we finally follow the so-called Young Avengers, who regroup at the now abandoned Avengers Mansion and lament the way they nearly bungled this encounter. Iron Lad says it's especially disheartening to almost lose to those guys when they're preparing to take on Kang the Conqueror.
OK. That's a surprise (or it was when I read it the first time). I was only a few years removed from reading Kurt Busiek's more-than-a-year-long “Kang Dynasty” storyline, so I too, was concerned that these guys were supposed to stop that particular big bad.
We get a little insight into some of the team members as Patriot says he has to get home before his grandma notices he's gone and Hulking and Asgardian say they can't train anymore because they've got school the next day.
Iron Lad apparently doesn't have that concern, and he heads into the run-down mansion.** There he finds Jessica Jones, Iron Man and Captain America. Perhaps due to Iron Lad's inexperience, they don't immediately begin fighting but instead talk. And that's when Iron Lad delivers the real twist:
Yep, he's Teen Kang.
I can't remember if buying this issue was my idea or my brother's – or if I made him think it was his idea because I wanted to read it – but that hooked me. It's been a while since I read the series, but I recall it being a mixed bag. That's kind of like the first issue: the setup with Jameson and Jessica Jones is enjoyable, but it takes a while to get to the reason we're here in the first place. I can't say there should have been more of the Young Avengers, though. We get hints about their personalities and the mystery builds nicely. Still, I wouldn't have been as enthusiastic to get the next issue – or have my brother get it – had that swerve at the end not been delivered so well.
We didn't learn a lot about Patriot here except that, like many a red-white-and-blue-clad hero, he has, or at least expects, a leadership role. The friction and banter between him and Kate at the wedding hint at their relationship later.
I was excited to learn later that Patriot was Eli Bradley, grandson of Isaiah Bradley, the Black soldier who was technically the first Captain America, as revealed in the “Truth: Red, White and Black” limited series. I do love me some continuity, even if it's retroactive.
* - First year with them anyway. He
had a pretty successful stint with the Titans,
another team for whom
I have an obvious analogue but no expectation I'll need it anytime
soon.
** - Destroyed when the Scarlet Witch lost it in “Disassembled,” which set up the New Avengers era.
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