Young Avengers #5: Loki is Nikki Minaj and JIM Fans Get Tossed a Bone

Cutesy variant cover by Jim Cheung.

Young Avengers #5 came out today! Spoilers ahead.

What happened:

Billy contemplates killing himself with Noh-Varr's beam-shooty gun to stop the Mother Parasite. I'm grateful that Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie don't provide realistic gun imagery in this scene. However, this does mean that it looks like Billy is trying to off himself with a hot glue gun. Anyways, we then learn that Loki is having some "Nikki Minaj's verse in 'Monster'" problems with sorta-Kid-Loki, his good side/guilty conscience/JIM fan bait. Perhaps swayed by sorta-Kid-Loki, Loki teleports back to Central Park to prevent Billy's self-inflicted crafting scald. Loki has figured out that the dead-fake-parents appear near where they died, which is why dead-fake-Laufey only showed up near the World Tree. Loki then super powers the rest of the Young Avengers long enough for them to escape. Billy is whiny and dramatic, and Noh-Varr hopes to have further sexual relations with Kate. America plans to watch Loki very closely. (As closely as Leah, complete with staring unblinkingly at his bedroom window all night long? He certainly has a type.) Now the team is off to somewhere that isn't New York, Oklahoma, or Colorado. Wherever will they choose?

Lemme get this straight: wait, I'm the rookie?

Random Notes:

-You know how in the 50s, people really, weirdly freaked out about comics? In a totally WTF manner? I really, really want to go back in time and show them this issue featuring a totally out gay couple and Loki's giant pentagram.

-America continues her main pursuits of punching people and dragging Loki around.

Atta girl, Miss America.

-Will Gillen fiddle with his word and bring back more of sorta-Kid-Loki? Maybe something happens in the forthcoming alternate universes issue? Maybe sorta-Kid-Loki becomes more a part of Loki-Loki? I really hope so, because the whole hangin'-with-teens thing is kinda creepy otherwise. Kid Loki, give Jason Todd a call on your Starkphone and get some tips.

-The Young Avengers don't know what make of Loki either. "He exhausted himself saving us, but also he might screw us over later? Um, let's lay him on some grass and stand a safe distance away until he wakes up."

What's next?

Young Avengers #6, with Prodigy and Tommy Sheperd speeding (boo) into the series, will be on sale June 26. Will Kate find herself in a love triangle with two hot, white-haired young guys?

Previously:

Young Avengers #4
Young Avengers #1-3

The prototype for Noh-Varr's imagination-powered ship.

Images:
YA5 variant cover: Marvel
YA5 panels: crappy pics I took with my phone.
South Park: the SP wikia.

Iron Man 3: Favorite Parts (Spoilers)

It's always watching.

Not doing a full review of Iron Man 3, but I really enjoyed it, so I decided to ramble on about my favorite parts:

-The opening. When Eiffel 65's "Blue" started playing, I almost turned to my sister and asked, "Is this 1998?" Then, behold, "1999" appeared on the screen. Close! Also one of my favorite Brian Boitano routines, which I tragically couldn't find on YouTube.

-The giant bunny. When the giant bunny made a micro-seconds-long appearance in an early IM3 trailer, the internet was befuddled and kinda freaked out. This emotional reaction to the giant bunny was shared by the characters in the movie as well.

Did they use focus groups to find what was most slightly unnerving
and yet plausible as a last-ditch gift idea from a rich guy?

-The ladies. When Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow, always endearing in this role despite GOOP's fishmonger housecall obliviousness) and one of Tony's one-night-stands, Maya (Rebecca Hall, who teamed up with the Black Widow in Vicky Cristina Barcelona), meet, there could have been cliched catfighting. Instead, they are smart people in a crisis who act like smart people in a crisis. Later, even though I was fairly sure she would heroically emerge from the flames, I was a leeeetle worried they had actually fridged Pepper. But nope, she lived to save the day (captured well here).

-Tony's PTSD and panic attacks. These were handled well, without too much comic relief or too much melodrama. You can have panic attacks AND be a superhero AND be funny AND be a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist.

-The little boy. Usually I hate the "little white boy gets to indulge in hero wish-fulfillment because nothing is more important than the egos of little white boys" trope. But thanks to Tony Stark's hatred of sentimentality, this was wickedly funny. The actor, Ty Simpkins, was a cutie without being cloying and had great chemistry with Robert Downey Jr. Good job, kiddo!

-Dale Dickey. Her role, as the grieving mother of a dead soldier, was tiny, but it was good to see her. If you're trying to place her, she beat up Jennifer Lawrence as a methland matriarch in the superb Winter's Bone.

-MIGUEL FERRER!!! I could hardly contain my excitement when Special Agent Albert Rosenfield from Twin Peaks showed up as the vice president (okay, I didn't contain my excitement; I clapped). But Albert would never engage in such deceit! And it seemed a little silly, since the vice-prez's daughter could probably rock a prosthesis without much of a problem. Seriously, I wonder how many actual amputees rolled their eyes at that plot twist?

And we love you, Special Agent Albert Rosenfield. :')

-Don Cheadle. It was kinda weird when they replaced Terrence Howard with Don Cheadle as Rhodey. They look nothing alike, and while Cheadle's a better actor, Howard looks more classically superhero-y. But it was endearing to see Rhodey running around with his polo shirt and hotel-manager physique, kicking ass. Maybe Katie Holmes and Terrence Howard can get drinks.

-The whole Mandarin thing. The decision to resurrect a racist caricature from comics history rightfully raised some eyebrows. Early on in the movie, using this caricature to make a comment on racism was already an interesting way of handling that. Then when Tony discovers the Mandarin is really just Trevor, a drugged-out, washed-up London stage actor hired by a think tank as a cover for its accidental explosions, it's hilarious. Ben Kingsley was awesome in this dual role. Now that he's "battled" Tom Hiddleston and Sir Ben Kingsley, which Shakespeare-rooted thespian should RDJ take on next? Julia Stiles as the Enchantress? Brian Blessed as Doctor Doom? The entire Royal Shakespeare Company and Oregon Shakespeare Festival as an army of Skrull?

Rock it, Trevor.

-The writers' refusal to engage in rote throw-away dialogue. With funny spots like the banter between two goons and Tony (was Tony nicknaming one of the goons "Ponytail" an homage to the similarly coiffed and nicknamed goon in Murakami's 1Q84? I can dream, right?) and a hired gun's last-minute admission that he finds the fake cult he's working for really weird, you could tell people were having a good time during this.

-The Science Bros post-credits scene! Having learned by now, the theater remained packed as the credits dragged on. They never did explain why none of Iron Man's new superhero friends showed up to help him*, but hey, at least Bruce was there to lend an ear afterward. Sort of.

*My theory:
Thor: braiding his hair for Thor 2, possibly in front of messy-haired Loki's rich kid prison cell to taunt him.
Captain and Black Widow: doing Winter Soldier stuff.
Hawkeye: taking Pizza Dog to the vet.
Bruce Banner: actually stoned from giant bag of weed.

Young Avengers #4 (Spoilers)

Clint's loss, really

Last month I wrote about the first three issues of Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie's Young Avengers. Today Young Avengers #4's out, and Gillen has said it's his favorite (so far). Here's the run-down on this issue in which a hot alien does backflips and defeats monsters while explaining to the reader why he has not had sex with Clint Barton.


Summary:

Noh-Varr (who is adamantly against his former Marvel Boy title) and Kate escape the Skrull and quickly rescue the rest of the hip young beamslingers, who were about to be off'd by Teddy's fake dead mom. Of course, Noh-Varr's dead parents immediately resurface to join the league of Fake Dead Nagging Parents, whom the Young Avengers try to elude in Central Park. In a talk with Teddy, Loki brings on the passive aggressive bitchery big-time to undermine the former's relationship with Billy, but he does have some good points about the improbability of Teddy and Billy's meeting. Then Loki has an epiphany while complaining about how his birth father wants to eat him, borrows Billy's power, and teleports away. Meanwhile, a horde of zombie parasite people converge on our remaining heroes. The end.

Plot twist: they ARE forming a rock band. It's all part of their evil plan
to embarrass America and Loki...to DEATH!

Random Notes:

-I'm loving Noh-Varr. What a cutie. Avengers, you don't banish a guy who loves vinyl and is built like that - okay, maybe you banish him to Brooklyn or San Francisco...or Portland...or Austin... Anyway, you done good, Kate.

-Look at Gillen being all clever again with a Family Circus-style map of Noh-Varr's ass-kicking path. Update: I shamefully underestimated McKelvie's input in the planning and structure of this. He gives a great behind-the-scenes look at how this spread came about here.

-I think Gillen has a great handle on the tone. Everything's rapid-fire witticisms and exaggerated young adult culture, but it doesn't come off as overly cloying, at least not to me. Diablo Cody faced "nobody talks like that!" criticism for Juno, but that was never the point (nor was it Wes Anderson's or P.G. Wodehouse's). When Noh-Varr posed dramatically and declared "come with me if you want to be awesome," I chuckled rather than rolled my eyes. The "Yamblr" Tumblr parody at the beginning of each issue annoyed me at first with its smug assurance of adoration, but hey, it's funny and goes well with this world.

-This cleverness also makes it a nice companion to Matt Fraction (Gillen's "Everything Burns" partner) and David Aja's laid-back Hawkeye series, which was just nominated for a few Eisners.

-This storyline is really bringing home the trope that if you're going to be a superhero, your parents have to die. You can get new ones if you want, but the first-round parental figures absolutely need to be dead.

-America Chavez has two jobs: to punch everyone and drag Loki around.

-Shouldn't Loki's All-Language have auto-corrected "loco" to "locas" when describing America's moms, or was that a specific word choice he employed to increase his obnoxiousness? Probably the latter.

-I am 90% sure Loki's "you are a very lovely daydream" line to Teddy was just to get the Yamblr fangirls going.

-What was Loki's revelation? Maybe the parasite didn't know Loki was adopted* and therefore considers Odin his real dad (if he still does), hence Laufey's appearance? And this tells Loki something about the parasite/spell? Hm...

*a.k.a. Odin found a baby on the ground.


What's Next?

Will Loki save the day or retreat to Malibu with a margarita? Will Teddy and Billy's relationship collapse in a storm of tears and whined accusations? Young Avengers 5 is out May 22.

Update: Here are some more images from YA4 along with Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie talking about their work relationship.

Images:
Noh-Varr being a boss: CBR's preview
Yamblr: Young Avengers #4
YA4 cover: Marvel's preview