Young Avengers 4, Avengers Arena 8

Young Avengers 4
Gillen (w) and McKelvie w/ Norton (a) and Wilson (c)

This is the most noise I've ever made reading a comic. I feel pretty confident about that. Between the laughs (both sustained and in short barks) and the gasps and the "whoa"s, I heard myself being an audience for about the first time in my comic reading life. I've made noises at other books (actually, Avengers Arena has often elicited some sort of response out of me after particularly shocking endings) and I'm impressed by plenty of books, but this was a different sort of "making noise." I've talked already about how Young Avengers likes to take the whole comic genre and tilt it onto its side occasionally to see how things look over there. YA four is no different, dedicating nearly a whole page to a small map, with reading key, showing Noh-Varr's attack on the parents in the nightclub. On the edges of the page we get close-ups of a couple of his actions (still corresponding to the key that's been laid out) and we get details (some small, but certainly large enough) into what he's thinking throughout. Noh-Varr, who has appeared in this series for only a couple pages in issue one previous to this, is almost instantly defined. Is it a full definition of the character? No, of course not, that would be ridiculous in just a couple pages. But it's more than enough for now. It encompasses his brash and show-off kind of attitude, his desire to impress Kate, a little bit of his history, a little bit of his powers, and his view on Earth, particularly tied to what we saw in the first issue. This is more characterization, better presented too, than you'll see in most series over issues and issues. Noh-Varr is set up for us in about five pages total. Brilliant work, wasting no space. The action, too, is gorgeous. McKelvie is an absolute treasure.
Noh-Varr rescues the team from the parents in fantastic fashion before making a sweet exit (and Terminator reference) to his ship, which Kate piloted to him. The team joins him on the ship and they try to escape all their parents, including the addition of Noh-Varr's powerful progenitors. His father flies through the ship and grabs Billy, damaging the engines in the process. America goes after him as Noh-Varr's ship goes down. There's a great moment here where Loki talks to Teddy about his relationship with Billy, intimating that Teddy, who happens to be a Skrull prince who happens to live in the same city and go to the same school as Billy and who happens to be gay, is dating a reality warper. It's an amazing little seed and one that has inexplicably never come up before. Loki is the perfect character to mention it because there's no way of knowing if it's a reasonable point or a Loki-point (which might still be reasonable but is very likely to also be a Loki game). With a wave of different parents (including normal human bystander parents who have been whipped into a frenzy by the mind games at play here) descending on the team, Loki finally convinces Billy to hand over his powers for ten minutes then promptly disappears with them. There's still a very good chance Loki comes back, sure, but it's also exactly what Loki would have done one way or another. Along with everything else happening in this book that warrants mentioning, it's more of Gillen's amazing Loki that he played with in Journey into Mystery so successfully. The characters are great, the writing is perfect, the art is tremendous, and the story is perplexing. Everything's going right for Young Avengers.

Avengers Arena 8
Hopeless (w) and Walker and Gorder (a) and Beaulieu (c)

Everything's going wrong for the kids in Avengers Arena. With Kid Briton recently decapitated, Apex runs off, trailed by a curious and confused Death Locket. She throws herself on to the ground in a rage of emotions and, when she picks herself back up, she is transformed into a he. Now going by Tim (too few Tims in the Marvel Universe, frankly), he seems to have no memory of what's happened and who he was before. Death Locket is probably the worst person to be with at this point, given her limited understanding of what's been happening. X-23, meanwhile, has had to keep away from Hazmat and Reptil while they walk off the trigger scent. She finds Juston's Sentinel crash-site and investigates, expecting the worst. However, she finds him inside. He's angry and saddened at losing his best friend (the Sentinel) and only form of protection and bitter because no one came to look for him. He also reveals that he thinks he's paralyzed from the waist down. X-23 helps him transform the Sentinel into giant robotic legs with weapons for himself. Back at the safe zone, Bloodstone invites the newly arrived Chase, Nico, and Cammi to share their wealth of food in exchange for their help in burying Kid Briton. He's stewing over the new relationship between Nara and Anachronism and Cammi susses out the fact that he might be in love with Anachronism. They stick together for the rest of the issue, which interests Cammi as she pegs Bloodstone as a loner sort. Why he'd choose now to gain new friends is beyond her understanding. Finally, Juston and X-23 reappear, with Juston charging his new Sentinel legs into battle (X-23 falls off, unaware of his plans). Juston attacks Death Locket for destroying his Sentinel. Nico tries to help but gets blasted aside, causing Chase to show off his new Darkhawk powers for the first time and enter the fray. CONTINUED NEXT TIME.
The book continues to push forward on all fronts. There's a nice little talk between X-23, who is upset that this island seems perfectly honed for what she used to be and what she's trying not to be any more, and Juston, who knows she's a frontrunner and he's far closer to the back. They talk about those sorts of rankings and about how Arcade knows just how to play everyone. It's the first time that anyone's really even started the talk about Arcade and what he is and it's probably coming from two people who are capable of trying to figure it all out. However, it continues to not be important enough to dwell on, as things at the forefront need to come first. It's a great strategy to make everyone need to focus so much on the now that they can't think about the future or even the past that brought them here. The book continues to be solid and, with another big fight upcoming, will likely continue the trend next time.