Young Avengers #8 Review
“Earth-616”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Jamie Mckelvie & Mike Norton
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Letterist: VC’s Clayton Cowles
Cover Artist: Jamie McKelvie & Matthew Wilson
A review by Scott Bachmann.
It was a very long list!
Young Avengers is hilarious, inventive, and brilliant. Sometimes the plot is wonky, but this isn’t about plot, it’s about enjoying the ride. First of all, there isn’t a better Marvel Character than Kid Loki. Every issue he has phenomenal lines and manages to be a conniving monster, but still fun to be around. Second, it stars the number one Marvel character, Kat Bishop. Who? You dare ask who? That’s Hawkgal. The other Hawkeye. The young female Hawkeye that not only co-stars in the brilliant Hawkeye, she snarks her way into stealing every scene in YA, when Loki lets her.
Loki: I’m an all-time expert in badness, me. #7 on many all-time villain lists.
Prodigy: #7? So you’re saying you’re an also ran.
Loki: IT WAS A VERY LONG LIST! #7 IS A RESPECTABLE POSITION!
So what makes YA so brilliant, other than Kieron Gillien’s hilarious dialog? Jamie McKelvie’s madly inventive art with mad assists by Mike Norton. He strives to make every issue different and he achieves it, even going so far as to shred the fourth wall. There’s a dimension that exist around the borders/gutters of the panels and twice now the characters have broken through to it. The second time, this issue, the panels grew tentacles and attacked them. Previously they diagrammed Noh-Var taking out a bar like Kree Boss – using isometric maps. And colors? You have to see the page where Wiccan sees himself in a universe where the constellations are his face. Beautiful. Also, a shout out to Clayton for his word balloons. The banter and the punch lines require timing and this guy makes it work with subtle finesse.
So what happens in this issue? They run across dimensions like Sliders hunting down somebody that looks like…you know, it doesn’t matter. They punch holes in reality like Superboy on Crisis overload and dive into strange adventure after adventure. It’s fun.
You want blood and angst, go across the street to DC. You want the funniest comic in town, it’s right here in Marvel Now.
4/5
Scott Bachmann writes his own comics and novels over at Scottcomics.com