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Dark Reign: Young Avengers #1-5
Dark Reign: Young Avengers
The Melter, The Executioner, The Enchantress, Egghead, Big Zero, and Coat of Arms: they call themselves the Young Avengers, teenage rebels, on the run from the authorities, hated and feared by a world they've sworn to protect. Their interests include interspecies romance, modern art, and bloody murder. Everything is permitted, and so are they. Until they meet the original Young Avengers. And then their grey areas will come home to roost.
Collecting: Dark Reign: Young Avengers 1-5
Collecting: Dark Reign: Young Avengers 1-5
120 pages, Paperback
First published January 6, 2010
About the author
Paul Cornell
596 books1,480 followersPaul Cornell is a British writer of science fiction and fantasy prose, comics and television. He's been Hugo Award-nominated for all three media, and has won the BSFA Award for his short fiction, and the Eagle Award for his comics. He's the writer of Saucer Country for Vertigo, Demon Knights for DC, and has written for the Doctor Who TV series. His new urban fantasy novel is London Falling, out from Tor on December 6th.
via Wikipedia @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cor...
via Wikipedia @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cor...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews
October 15, 2013
I am not a fan of the Dark Reign stuff. Not at all. I only read this because I've gotten absurdly attached to the Young Avengers team. It wasn't terrible, which is what I'd been afraid of. But the majority of the book focuses on the new "Young Avengers" (who aren't exactly Osborn certified, so I don't know what they were thinking) that pretty much show up out of nowhere. Naturally, like with other Dark Reign imposter teams, most of the new, fake Young Avengers mirror the real Young Avengers. The difference being, of course, that the originals are actually interesting characters. Aside from the fact that many of the new characters are moral vacuums, they just aren't terribly interesting. And because the majority of the story is focused on these new characters, for me it just wasn't as satisfying.
And that cover... Sigh. It doesn't reflect anything that happens in the story at all, so I don't get what the point of it was. Teasing that they might de-gay one of the very few openly gay and happily attached characters in mainstream comics? Yeah, not exactly something that I would expect to be an exciting prospect to fans of Young Avengers, including me.
And that cover... Sigh. It doesn't reflect anything that happens in the story at all, so I don't get what the point of it was. Teasing that they might de-gay one of the very few openly gay and happily attached characters in mainstream comics? Yeah, not exactly something that I would expect to be an exciting prospect to fans of Young Avengers, including me.
July 18, 2010
I love the Young Avengers. I love them as much as I loved the early issues of Geoff Johns' Teen Titans, and that's saying something. Great characters and some great team interactions. Characters who obviously care about each other.
That said, this one.. had its problems. It's part of Dark Reign, so that's one of the reasons. There's a new group of young superheroes calling themselves Young Avengers, but they're not all that heroic. That, of course, means conflict with the original Young Avengers.
At first, it seems that this conflict is going to be dealt with in a way that's not so typical, but in the end it all follows the old and boring pattern. Still, what I love about the (original) Young Avengers is that they really want to be heroes and be good, which is something you can't say is true for all of the grown-up 'heroes'.
And another thing that really bugged me - it's bad enough that Wiccan and Hulking Must Not Kiss Because Then The Universe Would End Or Something, but seriously, please stop suggesting they're flirting with other people or going to be "de-gayed". I mean, what's with that Wiccan/Enchantress cover? Yes, bisexuality exists, and yes, sometimes straight girls flirt with gay boys, but considering the way Wiccan and Hulkling are portrayed (great relationship, but no on-panel actual-boyfriend/boyfriend-touching), it's just a bit.. iffy. Annoying. I realize this sounds like I just want to see some action, but that's not it. I just think that it really shouldn't matter if someone's gay or straight, and that all couples should be treated and portrayed in a similar manner (meaning if m/f pairings get to kiss, so should m/m or f/f ones). *Then* you can have evil guys trying to steal someone's boyfriend or girlfriend.
That said, this one.. had its problems. It's part of Dark Reign, so that's one of the reasons. There's a new group of young superheroes calling themselves Young Avengers, but they're not all that heroic. That, of course, means conflict with the original Young Avengers.
At first, it seems that this conflict is going to be dealt with in a way that's not so typical, but in the end it all follows the old and boring pattern. Still, what I love about the (original) Young Avengers is that they really want to be heroes and be good, which is something you can't say is true for all of the grown-up 'heroes'.
And another thing that really bugged me - it's bad enough that Wiccan and Hulking Must Not Kiss Because Then The Universe Would End Or Something, but seriously, please stop suggesting they're flirting with other people or going to be "de-gayed". I mean, what's with that Wiccan/Enchantress cover? Yes, bisexuality exists, and yes, sometimes straight girls flirt with gay boys, but considering the way Wiccan and Hulkling are portrayed (great relationship, but no on-panel actual-boyfriend/boyfriend-touching), it's just a bit.. iffy. Annoying. I realize this sounds like I just want to see some action, but that's not it. I just think that it really shouldn't matter if someone's gay or straight, and that all couples should be treated and portrayed in a similar manner (meaning if m/f pairings get to kiss, so should m/m or f/f ones). *Then* you can have evil guys trying to steal someone's boyfriend or girlfriend.
December 15, 2019
What even the hell was this?
Read
June 18, 2020cishet men shouldn’t have anything to do with characters that are queer/women because they prove again, and again, that they don’t know what they’re doing. this contributed less than nothing. that enchantress/wiccan bullshit??? the way all the women are drawn??? and don’t even get me started on egghead and big zero.
May 1, 2019
(I'm doing a Young Avengers reread! See my reading guide to the Young Avengers, which also links to my other Young Avengers reviews, over here.)
I was reluctant to reread this as part of my Young Avengers reread because I remembered it being a. gross and b. incoherent, and I was right on both counts.
The gross: Basically, Norman Osborn (who currently runs the evil version of the Avengers) set up a new Young Avengers team and the actual Young Avengers decide if they have to team up with them. This would be fine, and there are some interesting new characters like Coat of Arms & Melter, but at the cost of putting up with a nazi who programmed her fuckbot (yes, a fuckbot, that's their Vision equivalent) to also be a racist nazi. (For some reason, Teddy tries to defend her to Billy -- who is, you know, gay and jewish -- by saying "Maybe she just really likes Cabaret" and they try to work with her anyway. You know, the team with a black leader, two queer characters, a jewish character, etc?). As well, they have Enchantress hit on Billy and say it doesn't matter that he's gay (which is tolerable as an IC thing, but the narrative summary also teases 'something brewing' between them and has a cover of the two of them in a couple pose), so yeah.
The incoherent: Most single issue crossovers into an ongoing event have a risk of being incoherent, because it's like "Hey, this big event is going on, let's see what impact it has on THIS character/team!". Most, however, give some background to the event. This not only throws you in but fails to resolve the storyline it began to set up WITh the New Young Avengers vs the Young Avengers. So ... I don't know if it got cancelled and was supposed to have six issues or what, but here we are.
I was reluctant to reread this as part of my Young Avengers reread because I remembered it being a. gross and b. incoherent, and I was right on both counts.
The gross: Basically, Norman Osborn (who currently runs the evil version of the Avengers) set up a new Young Avengers team and the actual Young Avengers decide if they have to team up with them. This would be fine, and there are some interesting new characters like Coat of Arms & Melter, but at the cost of putting up with a nazi who programmed her fuckbot (yes, a fuckbot, that's their Vision equivalent) to also be a racist nazi. (For some reason, Teddy tries to defend her to Billy -- who is, you know, gay and jewish -- by saying "Maybe she just really likes Cabaret" and they try to work with her anyway. You know, the team with a black leader, two queer characters, a jewish character, etc?). As well, they have Enchantress hit on Billy and say it doesn't matter that he's gay (which is tolerable as an IC thing, but the narrative summary also teases 'something brewing' between them and has a cover of the two of them in a couple pose), so yeah.
The incoherent: Most single issue crossovers into an ongoing event have a risk of being incoherent, because it's like "Hey, this big event is going on, let's see what impact it has on THIS character/team!". Most, however, give some background to the event. This not only throws you in but fails to resolve the storyline it began to set up WITh the New Young Avengers vs the Young Avengers. So ... I don't know if it got cancelled and was supposed to have six issues or what, but here we are.
June 27, 2021
Second read 2021: reading because of Sylvie/Enchantress and the Disney+ Loki show. Gave one extra star this time (3 instead of 2). I've read a lot more of the dark reign since then and it makes more sense, still has some shitty slurs and probably needs an extra three issues of backstory alone.
I like the Young Avengers, a lot. But this was just super triply and not all that interesting.
I like the Young Avengers, a lot. But this was just super triply and not all that interesting.
February 24, 2023
A decent look into a new group trying to be the Young Avengers but most of them are fucked up, evil, racist, ect. Very little redeeming factors for them. But still a entertaining arc for the Young Avengers.
January 23, 2022
a hot mess
July 14, 2022
Now what was the reason for the Sylvie/Billy thing like truly?
September 14, 2014
Definitely missed something critical here, because I've definitely never heard of Norman Osborn's Avengers. Interesting story, though. Some nice internal conflict with some of the characters, especially The Melter. Would love to see more of the Young Avengers!
June 1, 2016
This is my least favorite Young Avengers comic so far. I haven't read anything that came out after this yet, obviously, but I doubt anything that happened in here will be important to the team in future issues.
January 24, 2018
This not blew my mind at all.
I kinda liked the new young avengers team (not all members). I don't know if I like Patriot... he's so "im perfect. you are wrong!"
Overall didn't bring much to the table. It was just ok. it was like the previous book i read from the YA: "Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers". The focus of the story its more on other team instead of YA.
I kinda liked the new young avengers team (not all members). I don't know if I like Patriot... he's so "im perfect. you are wrong!"
Overall didn't bring much to the table. It was just ok. it was like the previous book i read from the YA: "Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers". The focus of the story its more on other team instead of YA.
July 4, 2021
This book is batshit, crossing the innocence of the Young Avengers with the casual brutality of The Boys, with startling effect.
Inconsequential of course, but hey we got Sylvie out of the deal so totally worth the price of admission.
Inconsequential of course, but hey we got Sylvie out of the deal so totally worth the price of admission.
April 4, 2022
SYLVIE? STANDING OVATION FOR MY PRINCESS
March 19, 2024
Started slow, got better in the end.
September 28, 2020
First we're introduced to a New Young Avengers team, while interesting characters, not interesting enough to warm up to. Basically the flaws in each character brings a big twist to your normal superhero. Our leader, who questions himself also lets little moral, ethic decisions his team makes, slide on every occasion.
When our Young Avengers team that we all know and love show up, the premise and melodrama of most of the series is about the handling of this rookie team (who look up to the og team, wouldnt mind joining, teaming-up and taking advise from.) Unfortunately, the new rookie team has bigger issues then just small flaws, some of them being damn near psychotic.
In the end this rookie team calls up Osborn (only reason its a tie-in to Dark Reign).
Overall Paul Cornell writes yet another story thats not 'Dark' per say but a little too realistic in character development.
In the overall awesomeness in stories that Young Avengers has brought us, this ranks pretty low as the focus is alot on the new team.
On the other hand as a Dark Reign mini-series, im glad i read it. I thought the new team was interesting enough that I wouldnt mind them popping up again, ..but maybe they'd overstay their welcome after that.
When our Young Avengers team that we all know and love show up, the premise and melodrama of most of the series is about the handling of this rookie team (who look up to the og team, wouldnt mind joining, teaming-up and taking advise from.) Unfortunately, the new rookie team has bigger issues then just small flaws, some of them being damn near psychotic.
In the end this rookie team calls up Osborn (only reason its a tie-in to Dark Reign).
Overall Paul Cornell writes yet another story thats not 'Dark' per say but a little too realistic in character development.
In the overall awesomeness in stories that Young Avengers has brought us, this ranks pretty low as the focus is alot on the new team.
On the other hand as a Dark Reign mini-series, im glad i read it. I thought the new team was interesting enough that I wouldnt mind them popping up again, ..but maybe they'd overstay their welcome after that.
January 31, 2021
What a weird time to be in the MCU! Norman Osborn is the Trump figure no one wanted but yet was still put in charge. To horrific results.
This series showed the real Young Avengers as both legitimate heroes trying to be adults and stop a fake team from using their name to do wrong, and also, showed them as naive enough to buy obvious lies.
The fake team was obviously full of violent offenders. The best part was Patriot punching Osborn’s Iron Patriot to the ground. The YA held their own against major level fighters in Osborn’s team as well as the fake YA.
Overall, it was pretty good and showed some good action and let us see how the team wants to help and to connect with heroes. Too bad they let them cloud their judgment and get too close to one of Loki’s schemes and the Green Goblin’s craziness. The problem, is in how nothing was solved other than the YA took back their name. I guess that’s something at least.
This series showed the real Young Avengers as both legitimate heroes trying to be adults and stop a fake team from using their name to do wrong, and also, showed them as naive enough to buy obvious lies.
The fake team was obviously full of violent offenders. The best part was Patriot punching Osborn’s Iron Patriot to the ground. The YA held their own against major level fighters in Osborn’s team as well as the fake YA.
Overall, it was pretty good and showed some good action and let us see how the team wants to help and to connect with heroes. Too bad they let them cloud their judgment and get too close to one of Loki’s schemes and the Green Goblin’s craziness. The problem, is in how nothing was solved other than the YA took back their name. I guess that’s something at least.
February 21, 2021
The young avengers go up against the new (but not improved) young avengers. The Dark young avengers were really really flawed (melting man, the robot, and the neo-nazi girl were the worst). Despite that this was fun to read and having the young avengers go up against other teenagers makes for a more interesting comic book than the usual young avenger' tie-ins. But the plot doesn't really go anywhere. After the final battle between the young avengers and the dark young avengers, they just disappear, and it's left at that. No, follow up about the ending or anything. Which does make reading it feel pointless. But overall it was fun to read but nothing worth re-reading.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 24, 2014
Dark Reign was pretty awful, often cringe worthy, and failed to accomplish whatever it is they were hoping to do with it. Maybe if the series was longer and spent more time on how the Young Avengers felt about the new team and themselves it would have been much better. Over all it fell flat and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that enjoys Young Avengers.
September 24, 2021
It's a really interesting experience when you very much do not like something you read and then come on Goodreads and realize that you've actually read the thing before (no memory of this) and you apparently absolutely loved it at the time (I'm sorry what). Idek.
July 31, 2017
Lost and confused, which is kind of what you get with a Marvel Universe event like Dark Reign when it falls on a book like Young Avengers. It is still a Young Avengers story, character and backstory driven. But these other Young Avengers come out of nowhere and they just aren't very interesting.
June 7, 2019
I feel like this is under appreciated, not great but pretty good. It had a lot to say without trying to get too stuck in the minutiae. I wish more had been done with these characters than the few spotty appearances they got.
April 9, 2022
I'm going through a list of Kate Bishop's essential readings and this was on it so, yeah... I have no idea what I just read tbh 😅
February 27, 2020
Soy un gran fan de los Jóvenes Vengadores, su primer cómic es uno de los responsables de que empezara leer más historias de Marvel fuera de Spider-Man y aventuras autoconclusivas. Por eso, cuando leí que este cómic narraría una historia similar, pero centrándose en un grupo de jóvenes supervillanos quise leerlo al momento. Sin embargo, este cómic no ha sido lo que esperaba.
La historia parece que quiere tener un desarrollo similar a la primera aventura de los Jóvenes Vengadores de Allan Heinberg, mostrando a un equipo novato pero ya formado y poco a poco ir explicando quiénes son y cómo se formaron. Pero mientras que los Jóvenes Vengadores se formaron para tener a alguien que se enfrentara a Kang cuando los verdaderos Vengadores estaban separados, este nuevo grupo se formó solo porque una chica que encontró una chaqueta mágica quería impresionar a Norman Osborn.
Coat of arms de hecho es el personaje menos interesante del grupo, pero es a la que más tiempo le dedican, y nunca consiguen que me interese con ella, solo que parezca que quiere ir de profunda con todos sus sin sentidos y discursos sobre arte y superhéroes. Su relación con Tommy parece salida de la nada, y parece que no me equivoco porque, pese a todo lo que se comenta que hizo antes, esta fue su primera aparición.
Melter, el líder y el segundo personaje del grupo con más protagonismo, sí que me parece interesante, entiendes sus inseguridades no solo con su propio liderazgo, sino también con sus propios poderes, dándonos algunas escenas sorprendentemente gore para este cómic con la palabra "jóvenes" en el título.
La nueva Encantadora podría ser interesante, pero no creo que se llegue a desarrollar del todo su personalidad, y la información de que Loki fue el responsable de su creación no es algo que los personajes descubran, es algo que se les dice. Además, puede que su forma de hablar fuera molesta a posta, pero eso no hace que sea menos molesta, y la insinuación de que quizás Billy podría sentir algo por ella, incluso delante de Teddy, no me parece correcto. No sé si será un intento de "heterosexualizar" a Wiccan, como algunos han dicho, pero incluso si no es así, no soy fan de lo que aquí se insinua, incluso si es por los poderes "asgardianos". Teddy pudo rechazar el control de Daken sin problemas.
Fuera de Melter, diría que los personajes que más me llamaron la atención fueron Big Zero, Robot EggHead y Ejecutor. Me pareció muy interesante la idea de ver a jóvenes héroes no inspirados por los más puros ideales, ya sea una joven neonazi, alguien tan inocente que se deja influenciar por la anterior, y alguien inspirado por el heroísmo, o terrorísmo, del Castigador. Pero, al igual que con otros conceptos del cómic, como la interesante idea de que "legalidad" hay en que alguien le robe el nombre a otro grupo de superhéroes que en verdad tampoco tiene "derecho" a usar ese nombre, nunca hace más que mostrar la idea y no la desarrolla.
Confieso que originalmente le iba a dar más nota a este cómic, pero según iba pensando en él, menos cosas me gustaban.
La historia parece que quiere tener un desarrollo similar a la primera aventura de los Jóvenes Vengadores de Allan Heinberg, mostrando a un equipo novato pero ya formado y poco a poco ir explicando quiénes son y cómo se formaron. Pero mientras que los Jóvenes Vengadores se formaron para tener a alguien que se enfrentara a Kang cuando los verdaderos Vengadores estaban separados, este nuevo grupo se formó solo porque una chica que encontró una chaqueta mágica quería impresionar a Norman Osborn.
Coat of arms de hecho es el personaje menos interesante del grupo, pero es a la que más tiempo le dedican, y nunca consiguen que me interese con ella, solo que parezca que quiere ir de profunda con todos sus sin sentidos y discursos sobre arte y superhéroes. Su relación con Tommy parece salida de la nada, y parece que no me equivoco porque, pese a todo lo que se comenta que hizo antes, esta fue su primera aparición.
Melter, el líder y el segundo personaje del grupo con más protagonismo, sí que me parece interesante, entiendes sus inseguridades no solo con su propio liderazgo, sino también con sus propios poderes, dándonos algunas escenas sorprendentemente gore para este cómic con la palabra "jóvenes" en el título.
La nueva Encantadora podría ser interesante, pero no creo que se llegue a desarrollar del todo su personalidad, y la información de que Loki fue el responsable de su creación no es algo que los personajes descubran, es algo que se les dice. Además, puede que su forma de hablar fuera molesta a posta, pero eso no hace que sea menos molesta, y la insinuación de que quizás Billy podría sentir algo por ella, incluso delante de Teddy, no me parece correcto. No sé si será un intento de "heterosexualizar" a Wiccan, como algunos han dicho, pero incluso si no es así, no soy fan de lo que aquí se insinua, incluso si es por los poderes "asgardianos". Teddy pudo rechazar el control de Daken sin problemas.
Fuera de Melter, diría que los personajes que más me llamaron la atención fueron Big Zero, Robot EggHead y Ejecutor. Me pareció muy interesante la idea de ver a jóvenes héroes no inspirados por los más puros ideales, ya sea una joven neonazi, alguien tan inocente que se deja influenciar por la anterior, y alguien inspirado por el heroísmo, o terrorísmo, del Castigador. Pero, al igual que con otros conceptos del cómic, como la interesante idea de que "legalidad" hay en que alguien le robe el nombre a otro grupo de superhéroes que en verdad tampoco tiene "derecho" a usar ese nombre, nunca hace más que mostrar la idea y no la desarrolla.
Confieso que originalmente le iba a dar más nota a este cómic, pero según iba pensando en él, menos cosas me gustaban.
September 7, 2022
If you've been making your way through the Young Avengers books like I have, I'd say you could probably skip this. If you just randomly picked up this book, I'd say it was okay but you might be a bit confused about who all these characters are. If you're trying to read all the Dark Reign tie-ins, I'm not sure how this fits. I haven't read anything else from that event.
This book is mostly about a different group of young superheroes that I'll call the Dark Young Avengers, not the Young Avengers from previous volumes. Although they do show up in the story, most of it is told from the Dark Young Avengers' perspective. I didn't recognize any of these new kids and this story wasn't particularly effective in getting me to care about what happened to them. But I did like seeing how they interacted with the Young Avengers.
This book is mostly about a different group of young superheroes that I'll call the Dark Young Avengers, not the Young Avengers from previous volumes. Although they do show up in the story, most of it is told from the Dark Young Avengers' perspective. I didn't recognize any of these new kids and this story wasn't particularly effective in getting me to care about what happened to them. But I did like seeing how they interacted with the Young Avengers.
January 8, 2018
Skippable. Very little here about the Young Avengers; as part of the "Dark Reign" story-line where various villains took the place of hero teams, this volume focuses on a group of morally questionable variations on the hero team formula (robot, magician, badass normal, etc.) with their own agendas and claiming the "Young Avengers" name. The plot doesn't make much sense, and worse, it builds up to what could be some interesting moral conflicts... only to end with a big, pointless fight that isn't necessary nor entertaining. For me, just a necessary step in my goal of reading the whole run of Young Avengers, and a forgettable one.
April 11, 2022
2.5/5
Se me hizo tan random, o sea, que introducen a estos personajes de la nada, y luego se van, y al parecer solo algunos de ellos tienen continuación en su historia. Así que realmente es medio random que todo se resuelva tan rápido, y ese final de Coat of Arms, que es una psicópata total...idk, la mitad de los "Young Masters" deberían estar presos fijo. Realmente no me importaban, y no llegué a entender lo que pasaba con Daniel aka The Executioner, pero bueno, siempre es lindo leer a los YA, so 2.5 estrellas solo por ellos tbh.
Se me hizo tan random, o sea, que introducen a estos personajes de la nada, y luego se van, y al parecer solo algunos de ellos tienen continuación en su historia. Así que realmente es medio random que todo se resuelva tan rápido, y ese final de Coat of Arms, que es una psicópata total...idk, la mitad de los "Young Masters" deberían estar presos fijo. Realmente no me importaban, y no llegué a entender lo que pasaba con Daniel aka The Executioner, pero bueno, siempre es lindo leer a los YA, so 2.5 estrellas solo por ellos tbh.
June 28, 2023
This was...okay. I love the Young Avengers for their idealism, young love, and emphasis on queer superheroes. It felt weird that all of a sudden that was so lacking. This focused more on a completely different team which was basically an evil version of the original team...what was the point of that? It would have been more interesting to me if they have spent more time using the evil counterparts to explore the dynamics within the OG Young Avengers but this just didn't have that depth IMO. This was still clever enough that I finished it, but definitely not a standout Young Avengers.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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