Avengers 12, Young Avengers 5

Avengers 12
Hickman and Spencer (w) and Deodato (a) and F. Martin (c)

Another interesting and less action-driven issue. The positive of this series is that it's created a story that is so self-sustaining and requires such a commitment that showing downtime is not only acceptable, it's natural. This so far isn't a book that needs action to push it to its next spot every issue, like so many other books, because the action is happening all around the Avengers. They have to deal with these life seeds all over the world but they can't deal with it in a "blow it up right away" kind of method. They instead have to see what these seeds are doing and investigate the circumstances as a whole. This issue is kind of the perfect example of that as the team further studies what's happening in the Savage Land. Tony (investigating this all from deep space with an empty suit providing surveillance and backup for the team on Earth) has been looking into the Savage Land and has found the newborn inhabitants to be remarkable. They don't need food or water, they don't breathe, and they've already aged about seven human years in two weeks or so. They can still be harmed but they don't have the same necessities that humans do. He worries that taking away the struggle of survival will make them cold or unsympathetic or any number of other, bad things so Hyperion and Thor decide to try to teach the children about life on Earth. It's a nice idea because neither character is from Earth and both share the kind of "we don't have the same struggles as humans do" mentality. They attempt to teach the children about trust and values and glory and honor and accountability and so on before Captain Universe shows up and helps explain that not needing can translate to providing, the same sort of argument that could be made about Thor or Hyperion's motivations. With great power and all that. Speaking of, Spider-Man interjects to mention that these children can still be harmed so teaching them only that lesson will lead to them martyring themselves and nothing more. As the issue winds down, several of the children are kidnapped by the High Evolutionary who has discovered what could be the next phase of humanity on the planet.

Again, I really like how well-paced this issue is. Sometimes I get annoyed at not having a plot advanced but I don't think a lack of action translates to a lack of plot. I'm particularly willing to forgive a lack of action if we get an added depth of character, which is bound to happen in this series when we're introducing so many new character/reintroducing lesser known characters. In this case, we get a lot of backstory on Hyperion and his feelings towards Earth and his own life. He's a little Doctor Manhattan-y with lesser powers. He's still unbelievably powerful (possibly equatable to Thor) but his memories work in the kind of way that Doc Manhattan's do: they're not linear, they're pretty much all a single moment, stored in light. He does seem to fully believe in helping humans, though, and has the personality that separates him from Doc Manhattan and others like him. He and Thor bond about being superior beings sworn to protect Earth and it's a nice little moment for each. Another good issue and I think this team is building nicely.

Young Avengers 5
Gillen (w) and McKelvie and Norton (a) and Wilson (c)

I still think that New Avengers is my favorite book currently being put out at Marvel. I'm blown away during every issue from start to finish and I usually need some time to process everything I've read. That said, I don't know if there's a book I get more excited to read than Young Avengers. There's a chance it could take the mantle from New Avengers at any moment but, for the time being, it's a situation where I prep this blog entry (by writing the title and the names of the people right up above the entry) and get actually giddy to start reading the comic itself. I know it's going to be absolutely gorgeous and have all sorts of twists and turns and be fun and different and exciting. It's about as big of a guarantee as anyone can make in this business and it's absolutely thrilling to have that out there. I also come away from the book going "whoaaaaa" or something of the like. I think three of the first five issues have left me on a weird emotional high where I can feel my whole body tingling and I can't stop smiling because what I've read has touched something in me that is so pleased with the fact I've been able to read this book that it takes me some undetermined amount of time to come down from it. So I suppose I can safely recommend this book to just about anyone.

We start to delve here into what exactly is going on with Kid Loki as Kid Loki himself shows us what exactly is going on with Kid Loki. Readers of Gillen's Journey into Mystery (SPOILERS: I DON'T USUALLY WARN OF THEM BECAUSE I FEEL IT'S INHERENT WITH WHAT I'M WRITING BUT IN THIS CASE, IF YOU INTEND TO READ GILLEN'S JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY, YOU SHOULD AVOID READING THE AREA BETWEEN THESE TWO SETS OF BOLD TEXT BECAUSE THAT SERIES IS GREAT AND I DON'T WANT TO RUIN IT FOR ANYONE) will already know that Kid Loki was still a form of Loki, but one who strived to change the way Loki worked and the way he was viewed. It was a great series presented as a sort of novel across something like twenty to thirty issues that showed the ever-devious Loki deviously doing things that could help everyone instead of things that could help only Loki. Of course, the true Loki wasn't quite gone and had been scheming himself and eventually forced Kid Loki into a corner and overwrote his soul with that of the original Loki. Confusing yes. Gillen explains it better in this very book. But we didn't really see anything past that assumed overwriting until now, as the true Kid Loki is now a sort of guilty conscience for regular Loki and-you know what, hang on a second, let me invite the other readers back in - OKAY, COME ON BACK NOW GUYS - This is a bit of a convoluted issue to explain because it involves me going so far back into JiM and other things so here's what I have to say: Read this issue. Read this book. Subscribe to it. You should be reading this series because it's so great. The characters are interesting and perfectly written. The art is gorgeous. The story is entertaining (this is the last issue of the arc, better get the whole series to be safe). The directions this book can go are numerous. It's all very exciting. Go buy it. That's my review.