Bye, Kids: Thoughts on the Young Avengers Afterparty

Do you even go here?

Disclaimer: I really did love Young Avengers. It was great in a lot of ways, and I want to get the trades and cradle them to my bosom. I just was not crazy about the way they handled the ending.

The epilogue of Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie's Young Avengers was split into two issues (#14 came out on Dec. 18 and #15 came out yesterday) dubbed the "afterparty," and honestly, I'm not sure it was a great choice. Maybe it would have worked better as a single long (but stilled pared down) issue, as two low-key, repetitive issues spaced weeks apart kinda deprived the series of its "oomph." Rather than being a snappy, satisfying, Austen-style wrap-up, this dragged a bit. Billy and Teddy's relationship is fine, which we knew. Noh-Varr and Kate's relationship is over, which we knew. America is gay, which we knew. Loki's having an existential crisis, which we knew. No one cares what happened to Tommy, which we knew. Oh, and he's back, and Kate's dating him again, even though that sounds like the most aggravating punishment a person could inflict on herself. (Why was he in this series, again?)

By the time Noh-Varr rambles on about his romantic and Earth-related choices again and Loki half-heartedly hits on David and Patriot arrives and is still mysterious for whatever reason and the gang is like, "well, I guess we'll go on another adventure or whatever," I just wanted Loki: Agent of Asgard to start and kick some life back into at least one of these characters. We know he gets to go to Paris, at least, so hopefully things for him look up after he ditches the drab party.

Another questionable choice was the use of guest art. While the art was good, and some of it wonderful, this is our big "goodbye" to the characters, and since McKelvie's art has been so key to the series, it was jarring to have the many different looks here (the multiverse arc would have been an awesome place for this). Of these two issues, I think it worked best in America's section in YA #14. Christian Ward's bright, star-studded look felt right for the story of America's childhood in another dimension's utopia, and I loved how the watercolor look started playful, became frenzied with angst and rage, and then muddied into disappointment and resignation.

America leaves her princess-superhero wonderland.

Ok, so that was almost all kinda negative. What did I like besides the America part?

-Kate and America's banter.

-Noh-Varr walking around shirtless and with headphones, especially by Annie Wu and Jordie Bellaire.

Damn, girls. Nice work.

-Learning Loki tips service workers well. Looks like he stopped by his parents' for some funds. Did he ever pay back Billy for covering his diner tab, though?

"No, I don't know what happened to the treasure chest, Moms. God!"

-David's face when Patriot violates his personal space (Joe Quinones's work).

New best reaction image.

So, it wasn't a great ending, but it was a great series. Witty, fun, pretty, inventive. Seamlessly diverse. Even if Gillen and McKelvie are done with this story, I hope what they've built here lives on. I want to see America wrestle with her past and be awesome. I want to see Noh-Varr grow as a person. I want to see David be super smart and stylish. And I especially want to see all these characters interact again. I hope Loki and Kate text their friends some invites for Loki: Agent of Asgard (out Feb. 5) and Hawkeye (#16 out Jan. 22).

Lunch is on Kate and Loki, since they're the only ones with jobs now.

Young Avengers #13: We Are Noh-Varr Ev-arr Getting Back Togeth-arr

Being punched by Miss America is a privilege.

Lucky number 13! Only two issues left after this! 

What happened?

A bunch of expository banter with other young Marvel heroes we don't care about happens for one whole excruciating page, but then we are blessedly reunited with our main bunch, who are busy fighting Mother and the exes. Sadly, we're immediately met with hot, hipsterish, dashing, but cadish Noh-Varr breaking up with Kate in favor of evil, S&M-themed Oubliette. I feel for them both. Kate deserves smarter and Noh-Varr was probably never going to be a long-term thing. Noh-Varr is like the most beautiful purebred yellow lab ever who also loves 60s girl groups and probably shouldn't be left to make decisions for himself.

Pat, pat.

But then we get the big revelation. Leah and the rest of the exes were Sorta-Kid-Loki the whole time! Obviously this raises a lot of questions, but I think the most important point is that it was actually Sorta-Kid-Loki, and not Oubliette, who convinced Noh-Varr via sexting to shave off his beard, and he is a goddamn hero. At Loki's confession that he's been manipulating them all along to control Billy's cool demiurge power, all the exes disappear, making Kate and Noh-Varr's in-battle break-up just that much more awkward. Loki cries on the floor and once again makes someone the offer of killing him (this time America instead of Thor) and is once again denied. Which is good, at least for the moment, because he's the only one who can save Teddy from being a chair.

Kate is a natural at delegation.

Teddy saves Billy, and thus everyone, with true love. Billy defeats Mother and checks out his new universe-controlling powers in an imaginative spread.

Actually, you're just departing editor Lauren Sankovitch's replacement.

The universe is saved, Billy is reunited with his parents, and Loki, feeling shame for perhaps once in his various lives, Mary Poppins/Gokus it out of there on a cloud.

And Tommy?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Random Notes:

-So...what about the Leah the gang saw in the multiverse? She's just kinda...hanging out? I hope this gets resolved within the next two (final) issues. I think I trust Gillen to not leave her hanging. I mean, she's not Tommy.

-America finally gets the blood-spattered punch-fest she's been waiting for all series.

-Loved the clever credits at the end to help clear up any confusion.

"Dear Noh-Varr, sorry the ghost of the good half of myself that I murdered sexted you."

 -Despite everything, Billy still introduces Loki to his parents (or tries to) as his friend. Billy, that is either really sweet or really stupid. Or both. I guess practicing magic with potato chips really bonds people.

-Nice segue for Loki for Loki: Agent of Asgard. We know from writer Al Ewing that in that forthcoming series he is trying (for reals!) to be better and is back with his mom, stepmoms, and Thor, and Young Avengers is setting that up nicely.

What's next?

Young Avengers #14 will be out on December 18. And then the book's finale, Afterparty, will be out in January. I'm gonna miss these kids. :'(

Like you totally didn't copy his hairstyle.

Young Avengers #12 and Afterlife With Archie #2: Kids in Costumes Have it Hard

Archie isn't so wholesome in this Tim Seeley variant.

It's was a busy Wednesday for young people in peril! Both Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie's Young Avengers #12 and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Francesco Francavilla's Afterlife With Archie #2 came out today. AWA 2 had actually sold out on the shelves by the time I got to the comics shop at 1:30, but a kind clerk found me a variant behind the register. Hero.

Let's start with YA 12...

...cause Leah wants to finish this hand.

What happened:

With the adults still under Mother's control, the Young Avengers have no choice but to go forward with David's plan of attacking the parasite and her army using every teenesque Marvel character he could scrounge up. The league of evil exes know of this plan, and are pretty sure it ain't no thing, but also aren't going into battle unprepared. Leah and Fake Patriot examine tarot cards while maintaining excellent posture, and Oubliette gets a killer poison manicure.

Our team, on the other hand, is not totally, completely confident in this endeavor. Noh-Varr and Kate fret (Noh-Varr while glancing at selfies of Oubliette), Loki does some literal-and-otherwise handholding with Billy, and David is coolly pragmatic and not optimistic.

"Only together can we survive this chick's shitty iPhone photos."

Once again we're reminded that Loki and America both know something about Billy that neither he nor we know. We also go back to the storytelling themes Gillen explored in Journey Into Mystery. "He can't die," says Loki. "This story has a happier ending than that." "His story," America reminds him.

Girl, you're in a Gillen book.

And then...the battle begins! The army of Marvel bit characters fights the other dimensional army, hoping that maybe, just maybe, they'll get picked up for a future Young Avengers story. Meanwhile, our heroes take on Mother and the exes, giving McKelvie another excuse to have a ball with form and composition.

And then! Gillen starts unveiling one of his twists. While squaring off against Loki, Leah brings up his early conversation with Teddy about the power of reality warpers and wishful thinking...and then she seems to merge with Sorta-Kid-Loki. It's probably useless trying to guess, as I'm always wrong, but to ruminate...perhaps Kid Loki is finally getting his revenge?  He did change. He did win. Somehow? Because Loki's guilty conscience wished it so? In this interview with Al Ewing who will be writing the forthcoming Loki: Agent of Asgard series, he says Loki's greatest fear is "sliding back into his old persona, getting trapped again in an endless cycle of fighting superheroes and getting beaten by them - especially after everything he did to escape that cycle." That certainly sounds like Kid Loki, who in the JIM finale begged Thor to kill him if he ever turned evil. Maybe Kid Loki or Sorta-Kid-Loki is finally getting his (sexier) body back, or at least will be more equitably sharing it with Loki-Loki? I'll stop now since this is turning into the end of that Louis CK skit on "Why?"

Was the kidnapped Tommy rescued or mentioned?

No.

What's next:

Tragically, we only have three more issues of Gillen and McKelvie's Young Avengers, which Gillen writes about a little here. As aforementioned, extreme prodigal son Loki will be returning to Asgard as a secret agent for his mom(s) in Loki: Agent of Asgard, which comes out in February 2014. Will he finally get that cool car? At first I was a little nervous to see a writer other than Gillen take the reins on Loki, but hey, that's mainstream comics, and the interviews with Ewing have been encouraging. I hope Loki stays in touch with America, Kate, et al.; the chemistry in this little group was great. We'll always have noodles and revolutionary moon kisses, right? :'( 

This looks good 'cause it's from Francavilla's twitter.

That panel's so damn pretty I couldn't bear to use my crappy iPhone pic. All right, so, moving on to a different set of endangered kids. With the Archie Comics world pretty stagnant since the 1940s, minus the recent and welcome addition of gay teen Kevin Keller, the announcement that there would be a serious horror Archie book was a surprise. Afterlife With Archie #1 was a smash hit, and Aguirre-Sacasa and Francavilla impressed critics and Archie fans alike with their ability to stay true to the Archie mythology while ruthlessly twisting its conventions.

We already saw scenes of horror (a mouthless Sabrina exiled by her aunts) and violence-with-consequences (a jealous Moose beat up Reggie as he's done for decades, but this time it led to a dazed Reggie running over and killing Hot Dog) in the first issue. In AWA 2, the creative team shows us just how much leeway they've been given by opening the issue with a scene of emotional incest between rich twins Cheryl and Jason Blossom.

In "dead Raggedy Ann and Andy" costumes, no less.

It's a little eye-rolling and tawdry as a way to shock, but whatever, we get it, you're going HBO. The twins wisely decide not to crash Riverdale High's Halloween party after learning that mass cannibalism is taking place inside.

We see some more mature maturity in the interlude, a moody scene set at Pop Tate's. Ginger and Nancy are having a quiet, joyless dinner away from the party. They've been secretly dating (sorry, Chuck), and the closeted nature of their relationship is wearing on Ginger. Nancy isn't ready to come out. It's a pretty typical plot for a gay teen romance, but it gets interesting when they bring up out-and-happy Kevin. "Look in the mirror, Ginger. We're nothing like him," says Nancy. What does she mean? Is she (and the writer) acknowledging that as women of color, their experience of coming out might be different than Kevin's? But their discussion is interrupted the arrival of Jughead's father...who has been zombiefied!

Back at the dance, zombie Jughead has started his rampage, and his first partygoer victim is awkward one-sided love interest Ethel, heartbreakingly naive and sweet in her Snow White costume. When Jughead attacks her, the kids think it's a prank at first, and catch on to what's actually happening at various times, leading to a supremely satisfying moment when Veronica, who has been in all her bitchy, scheming glory, steps up and saves eternal rival/BFF Betty by taking a fire extinguisher to zombie Ethel's head.

Girl went all America Chavez on us.

 A core group of Archie characters - Archie, Betty, Veronica, Reggie, Moose, Midge, Chuck, Dilton, and Kevin - flee the school and make it to Veronica's mansion. ("Mr. Lodge, I've been trying to sneak into your daughter's room for as long as I can remember, and I know what a fortress this place is," says Archie reassuringly.)

But of course, they're not safe yet...

Alas, we don't get the next issue until 1/1/14, presumably because Francavilla fills in all the shadows by hand with half-dead ballpoint pens.

The gang in simpler times, when they were an extremely unprofessional band, what with half the members wandering away and the drummer not showing up until partway through the song: