Broken Frontier

For a superhero, leading a normal life is the toughest struggle of all. And for a young superhero, adults, particularly parents, can be bigger threats than Kang the Conqueror ever was.

Following another adventure in which the Young Avengers take down The Shocker, Captain America is even more intent on shutting them down. As he makes plans to tell their parents, Wiccan and Hulkling come out to Wiccan’s parents, and Stature’s parents wonder if she’s also involved with the Young Avengers. Patriot doesn’t confront his parents at all, but somehow his grandfather knows. Meanwhile, The Avengers learn that the new Vision is more appropriately thought of as Young Vision. When the Young Avengers meet up and Patriot doesn’t show, they track him down to a dark warehouse. There they find a new super-villain to fight, as well as a deep, dark secret Patriot has of his own.

Homosexuality really shouldn’t be more of an issue than any other aspect of characterization in comics, but, unfortunately, it is. I started with this aspect of Young Avengers because issue #7’s most interesting page—the letters page—is totally devoted to it. Somehow aliens, gods, zombies, vampires, magicians, and some of the most vile characters to be found in any storytelling format are readily accepted in comics, sometimes as heroes, but a concrete reality like homosexuality—not poverty, racism, sexism, or an ill-thought out war—causes more controversy than all of those real world issues combined.

Would Young Avengers be a better book without the gay relationship between Hulkling and Wiccan? It doesn’t matter to me, because, like The Authority, Young Avengers would be a fine comic regardless. But perhaps it matters to some young kid out there who loves superhero comics but has trouble coming to grips with his own sexuality. If a comic book could help him and do whatever small part it can to show him how to live with and acceptable himself as Hulking and Wiccan do, then what matters to me is irrelevant, because it becomes something more important than merely a well-written, entertaining comic.

Allan Heinberg’s script, very aptly entitled "Secret Identities," is about just that—acceptance and adjustment during that difficult time between being a kid and becoming an adult. The secret identity isn’t just the alter ego a hero has when not fighting evil, but the true person she or he is when no one is looking, not even himself. We are what we acknowledge about ourselves, but we also are what we hide, even from ourselves, and in this way, we all have, indeed need, secret identities. Heinberg hits this note well a number of times throughout the issue. Spider-Man talking about becoming a hero at the age of 16. The choice of the new villain. The depiction of Wiccan and Hulkling coming out. Revealing the deeper, darker secret that burdens Patriot. How Stature deals with her parents’ disparaging remarks about the possibility that she could be a superhero. The reader sees and feels the awkwardness of adolescence, but to Heinberg’s credit, he doesn’t hit the reader over the head with the idea that the Young Avengers are mature enough to be superheroes. Rather, he leaves the question open, so much so that one finishes Young Avengers #7 wondering if Captain America isn’t right after all. Maybe "Young" and "Avengers" are two words that just don’t go well together at all. If Heinberg can keep this tension going, Young Avengers will take its place beside Runaways as the best titles about young people that Marvel has published in years.

Andrea DiVito is a solid penciller, by which I mean that he has impeccable technique, but his work has few if any distinctive qualities. "Uninspired" is a strong word that doesn’t apply with any precision at all, but it gets at the impression that DiVito, while certainly strong enough to illustrate one of Marvel’s better and most hyped titles, has yet to find his voice—those stylistic strokes, flourishes, and approaches that will differentiate him among other artists. That said, he gets high marks for his clean lines and a very realistic sense of proportion. And to the extent that one can see more influence than inspiration in his images, he’s appropriated his influences extremely well. Much like the art currently in New Thunderbolts, his frames, panel progressions, and sense of anatomy evoke the 80s, particularly the look of The Avengers during the Roger Stern era, but he conveys vibe and mood in a very contemporary way. DiVito’s style is also notable for how he depicts different sorts of female faces with equal parts strength and delicacy.

In a very short time, Young Avengers has proven to be much more than a gimmick, or even an Avengers spin-off. With each issue, it becomes more and more its own book, and better for it.