Young Avengers Presents: Hawkeye #6 Review

YOUNG AVENGERS PRESENTS: HAWKEYE #6
Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Alan Davis

This! This is what these Young Avengers Presents one-shots should have been like! This issue was absolutely amazing and Marvel needs to tell Heinberg to go back to television and give Fraction a Young Avengers on-going because this is an absolute Must Read issue.

It had it all - character development, passing of the torch moments with Hawkeye and Ronin, the entire Young Avengers team featured and acting like a group and managed to still keep the focus on Hawkeye. It was like the perfect team book member spotlight issue and one of the best issues I read this week.

To open up, we had Hawkeye and Patriot on a date, but Hawkeye's stubborn personality causing friction and her not wanting to call this an actual "date" that ended up causing a big fight between the two.

This! This is what these Young Avengers Presents one-shots should have been like!   

Before anything could happen, though, Ronin, aka the former Hawkeye, Clint Barton, reveals himself as the horse driven carriage driver and quickly knocks out Patriot while he toys with Hawkeye, obviously testing her. There's some fun dialogue and Ronin gives her an invitation to come alone to see him the next night at the New Avengers' hideout.

When she arrives at their base the next night, there's a great scene with Spider-Man and Luke Cage playing Gears of War and Luke screaming, "Chainsaw! Chainsaw! Chainsaw!", as Spidey moans, "I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!". The scene was repeated later with Patriot and Hulkling doing the same thing back at the Young Avengers base near the end of the issue.

The confrontation with Clint eventually leads to Hawkeye losing her (well, technically it's Clint's) bow and the name Hawkeye to Ronin in a simple bet and it leads to a funny Hawkingbird joke, referencing her original codename and costume from the Young Avengers series.

To keep this short, there's some fun team interplay with them finding out she lost her name and bow and some more conflict with Patriot that has Hawkeye rushing off with Speed, who eventually talks her in to stealing her bow back while the Avengers are off on a mission.

They recover the bow, Ronin gives Hawkeye a nice pep talk and his approval and, in the end, she patches things up with Patriot, simply asking him to give her time to come to terms with herself.

Verdict - Must Read. Like I said, it has everything a Young Avengers or any comic fan would want in a book with great writing, beautiful art and lots of character moments.

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Young Avengers Presents - The Vision #4 Review

YOUNG AVENGERS PRESENTS - THE VISION #4
Written by Paul Cornell
Art by Mark Brooks

I honestly forgot all about the Vision / Iron Lad / Cassie love triangle post Vision acquiring Iron Lad's thought patterns. It's just been so freaking long since the Young Avengers have been anything but background or cannonfodder for events.

Also, I've never really ever bought into the whole human loving a machine deal in science fiction / comics. Love is very much a biological reaction with little rational process and I just don't see a human falling in love with a machine that has no pheromones or what have you. I guess bias should also apply to aliens, but chicks with three boobs are hot (yes, that's a joke from Total Recall).

Another problem I have with this issue deals with the convenient loss of powers for each Cassie and Vision from one "special" gun from the AIM guys. If you can ignore such contrived plot devices and don't have any qualms about suspension of disblief concerning manbot love, I think this issue actually does a decent job with how little it had to work with.

I liked Cassie's attempt at defending the pro-Reg heroes' stance to Vision, but, considering she's in the Initiative and what's gone on in that title, I find it hard to believe she can still side with them after all the MVP madness and other shady things going on at Camp Hammond. It was just nice to see the whole team divided on registration addressed here. All-in-all, it was a decent one-shot that most YA fans will enjoy.

Verdict - Check It

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Young Avengers Presents - Wiccan and Speed #3 Review

YOUNG AVENGERS PRESENTS - WICCAN AND SPEED #3
Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Art by Alina Urusov

Considering absolutely nothing happens in this issue, I actually liked it, for the most part. Speed, who desparately needs a new name, and Wiccan set out to find Scarlet Witch, their mother, because they've been having weird dreams about her. They check out Genosha and Wundagore Mountain and, finally, Scarlet Witch and Vision's old home in New Jersey.

There, they run into Master Pandemonium, who, after a brief confrontation, basically explains their origin, which we and they already knew, and then gives them some pep talk about enjoying their lives in the now, as the future is never certain.

To be honest, it was good seeing these characters, but I don't know how essential this issue is. There is no new material and only a brief search for Wanda. I did like the story, but I can't think of any truely high points in it that would be worth mentioning. The art was serviceable, but I'm not sure when Hulkling took the steroids and is now as big as a room.

Verdict - Check It

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Young Avengers Presents - Hulkling #2 Review

YOUNG AVENGERS PRESENTS - HULKLING #2
Written by Brian Reed
Art by Harvey Talibao

I really liked this issue. Reed, who's writing the Captain Marvel mini, does a great job with him and Hulkling's complicated love child situation and the entire issue was an enjoyable read from start to finish.

It basically consisted of Teddy seeing his father back alive and confronting him and revealing he is his son. Captain Marvel is freaked out and we get to see Teddy blow some steam with the other Young Avengers and eventually the two meet up again and have a nice father-son chat. Reed really did a great job on this one.

The only thing I can really complain about is the art. It's not bad, but it's definitely doesn't suit my tastes. It's a small nitpick and probably only a matter of opinion, like how some like Yu or Ramos and others hate their styles.

Verdict - Must Read

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Young Avengers Presents - Patriot #1 Review

YOUNG AVENGERS PRESENTS - PATRIOT #1
Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Paco Medina

I was really disappointed with this issue. I think I just built it up too much. Young Avengers, Ed Brubaker, Bucky and the Cap-like Patriot all in one issue? How awesome would that be? Well, turns out, not so much.

The book, itself, is not bad in the general sense of the word. This isn't something written by Daniel Way or anything, but Brubaker chose to go in a direction that I just can't understand. The entire issue was about racism and how a character, like Patriot, who is a victim of it can possibly be patriotic towards the country that discriminates against them.

Sounds good on paper, right? Well, the opening pages feature a classroom setting where Patriot is giving a speech on racism and black civil rights as an entire room full of hillbilly hicks make racist comments and mock his paper, tell him to go live in Iraq if he hates America and generally act like they came out of the early days of the black civil rights movements. The teacher is even sitting there with them listening to the paper and just laughs off the kids comments. I'm not from America, but I seriously hope this isn't the typical classroom environment. I see this in a comic and I can't honestly see how this is a realistic or even a characature of modern times.

Thankfully, that was only a brief scene in the book and I can actually forgive and forget that. However, the rest of the book consists of Patriot and Hawkeye seeking out Bucky. They catch up with him once, lose him and Patriot follows a tracking device they placed on his bike. Once he catches up to Bucky, they just have a chat about patriotism and what it means. I like how they discredit that Sally Floyd article with the America needing to find Cap line, but overall, nothing was gained from this issue.

A story typically wants to tell us something. It could advance a plot or develop a character, give them new incites or exploit a character flaw and so on. This story does nothing from start to finish. Patriot experiences racism, he goes home, he tracks down Bucky, The End. It was nice seeing these Young Avengers again, but I at least expect something to happen. The Runaways/YA Civil War mini wasn't great and probably not written as well as this is, but the story had a purpose and through character interactions, it felt like we got to know each character and their personalities better. This issue, while technically sound, goes no where and I don't feel like I gained anything by having read it.

Verdict - Check It. I'd seriously recommend flipping through it and seeing what you think first. I don't think it's so bad that you should never read this, but I don't wholeheartedly recommend this either. Of course, your mileage may vary.

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Young Avengers Presents Archvies

Archives - Back Issue Bins - Marvel - Young Avengers Presents

Young Avengers Presents

Young Avengers Presents #1 - Patriot - Verdict - Check It
Young Avengers Presents #2 - Hulkling - Verdict - Must Read
Young Avengers Presents #3 - Wiccan & Speed - Verdict - Check It
Young Avengers Presents #4 - Vision - Verdict - Check It
Young Avengers Presents #5 - Stature - Verdict - Avoid It
Young Avengers Presents #6 - Hawkeye - Verdict - Check It

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Young Avengers Presents - Stature #5 Review

YOUNG AVENGERS PRESENTS - STATURE #5
Written by Kevin Grevioux
Art by Mitch Breitweiser

While most of these Young Avengers Presents have been enjoyable in that they let me read stories about relatively new characters that I came to care a lot about when they were first introduced, very few of them have managed to capture what made those early YA stories so special. Maybe it's the format of the books or the lack of the team dynamics that is plaguing this series.

Whatever it is, this issue continues the disheartening trend of lackluster Young Avengers specials. Stature is shrinking and no one knows why. The team elects to shrink Patriot with Wiccan's magic (where's Teddy in all this?) and he gets on the microscope slide that they are currently using to see Stature. They have a chat, we find out Stature had a fight with her step dad, got in a super hero battle with the Growing Man, defeated him and the giant robot fell on top of her step dad, nearly killing him. Her mother yelled at her, there were daddy issues with references to Scott Lang and, in the end, it ended up all being psychological and she was shrinking because she was upset. Damn, I hope her puppy doesn't die or something.

It was a very pedestrian read and I felt little emotion and cared even less about the story. It's sad, too, because I love the characters and was so pysched when I first heard about this series and I don't think I've been overly impressed or happy with any of the issues to date.

Verdict - Avoid It

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