Young Avengers #8

Writer:  Kieron Gillen

Art:  Jaime McKelvie, Mike Norton, Matthew Wilson

 

Get Caught Up...

Patriot (or someone impersonating him) has taken Tommy/Speed into the multiverse.  Our intrepid heroes (plus a de-powered Prodigy) have followed them.

What’s Good?

 

Loki.  I was a huge fan of Gillen’s run on Journey Into Mystery.  The ending broke my heart.  That Loki has planted a seed of doubt into Teddy’s mind about his own feelings is just ridiculously good storytelling.  I haven’t been this intrigued about character development in a long time.  The ending to this issue had a pair of stingers, both of which are pretty heavy.  

Gillen walks the line between humor and gravity very well.  His characterization of Noh-Varr is great.  This is a pretty intense situation the young heroes are in, and there’s enough lightheartedness that you believe they are aware of the direness of their calamity and they are working through it the only way they know.

The art is amazing.  This is probably one of the best  drawn titles Marvel  has in their stable.  Hopefully the creative team stays together for some time to keep pumping out stories.  The art team on this book is known for their creative set pieces.  Our introduction to Mother’s universe is no exception.  While it doesn’t rival the Noh-Varr fight scene from several issues ago, it is a great design.

 

What’s Not So Good?

Gillen glossed over a lot to further the plot.  On one hand, this is great.  No need to get tied down with pointless exposition, but on the other, how cool is this book?  I just want more.  However, I must say I’m not a huge fan of the Mother storyline.  Everything else around it is golden, but as an actual evil entity I’m not that drawn into its story.  She/It fits really well into the narrative, but it is just something  that is not for me.  I’d like this aspect of the story to get wrapped up so we can move on to whatever’s next.

 

There’s a lot of quirky humor and storytelling methods in this book.  They aren’t for everyone.  I enjoy them personally, but I can see how people might get tired of them.  I’m hoping they can balance these out in the long run so people keep buying this book.  I’d hate for it to go away because I know the team is capable of telling really great stories.

The Verdict...

I’ll keep coming back for more.  A great combination of storytelling with killer art.  I just hope the story starts winding up with Mother.

Oh, Yeah, And...

Hit up Gillen on Twitter.  @kierongillen.  Tons of insight into his work, and he likes to interact with fans.