Comics I Bought: April 10, 2008

I'm back from the comic shop this week and I got no new comics but I did pick up two hard cover collections that were on sale for half off:

Spider-Man and the Black Cat - "The Evil That Men Do"

Tales To Astonish - Masterworks - Volume 2

And now for a review of something I've read recently.

"The Young Avengers" Hardcover Collection by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung

I read an issue or two of "The Young Avengers" when it came out back in aught five. I remember thinking that it was pretty well done but I never read any more issues. Cut to a few years later and I'm looking for some thing to get at the local comic shop so I pick up this hardcover collection of issues 1-12. The writer I've never heard of but I've liked Jim Cheung's art since his days drawing "Scion" for Crossgen comics. I decide to buy it and give it a read.

I'm having a hard time reviewing this book because of it's teen angst subject matter. It's a well drawn super hero comic so that's never an issue. It's the story that I have a problem with. Or maybe it has a problem with me. The writing isn't bad. In fact it's well done. It's the whole teen super hero "all the world is full of melodrama" thing that doesn't interest me. Maybe I'm an old fuddy-dud but I just wanted the Young Avengers to stop whining so much. "Back in my day teen super heros knew when to shut up" (said in old man voice).

Besides the whining it's a good book. There is a lot of well drawn action, the dialogue is snappy, and the teen angst driven plot lines are actually pretty interesting. I don't want you to think I didn't like this book. It just didn't suit my taste at times.

The basic plot of the book is that a bunch of teenage (14-16 years old?) super heroes are gathered together by another teenage super hero to help protect him from Kang the Conquerer (the actual Avengers are disbanded at this time). The tag line of the book is "They're Not What You Think". That's because these super heroes generally have no relationship with the Avengers. They are not their teen sidekicks or anything like that. They are mistakenly called "The Young Avengers" by the press. They even didn't name themselves that. Oddly enough by the end of the book it's revealed that most of them have some relationship with the Avengers. So I guess they are who we think they are. But that's not really too important.

So there you have it. "The Young Avengers" is a well done teen angst, coming of age, super hero book. I just happen not to like so much teen angst in my super hero comics. But if that sort of thing doesn't bother you or you like teen angst super hero comics check out "The Young Avengers". You'll like it.