Synopsis
Dark Reign: Young Avengers #2 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
Last issue, a team appeared claiming to be the new Young Avengers. Melter leads Big Zero, Coat Of Arms, Egghead, Enchantress and Executioner in overly violent 'good' deeds. Lisa (Coat Of Arms) can manifest multiple arms, and is an artist who is filming their escapades as a project. Amity (Big Zero) is a violent bigot who can grow very large. Sylvie (Enchantress) speaks cod-Shakespearian with a lisp (though sometimes she forgets to) who claims to be Asgardian, and can certainly do magic. Danny (Executioner) is a Punisher wannabe but is financed by his mom. Chris (Melter) and Sylvie are an item, and he suspects his leadership is only due to her. Amity and the robot Egghead are sort-of a couple too - he lets her reprogram him to her way of thinking and in return she activates his pleasure circuits.
Chris isn't happy with his team's methods and grey motives. But while agonising about what to do he accidentally melted an old woman. Then the gang came to the attention of the real YAv (Patriot leading Hawkeye (Kate Bishop), Hulkling, Speed, Stature, Vision (Jonas) and Wiccan), who track them down to their base - an Invisible Manor in Central Park.
Coat Of Arms urges her side to fight because it will make good film. Battle is joined but Melter and Patriot are ready to talk. Enchantress too doesn't want to fight Wiccan because she REALLY wants to join the other team. Executioner too thinks Hawkeye should stop firing arrows at him because he's a hero. Coat Of Arms and Speed recognise each other's civilian identities. But Big Zero lays into Stature, and Egghead and Vision clash. Until Sylvie really lets loose and pushes all the combatants apart.
Wiccan is seriously impressed by Enchantress' power. COA and Speed show that they know each other well. Patriot tells Melter they can't use the name Young Avengers. Chris counters that there are so many Avengers teams around now that the name can't be copyright!
We now get a flashback to a few hours earlier when the real YAv in the abandoned Avengers Mansion were watching Norman Osborn's announcement of his new (Dark) Avengers team on TV. The news report also mentions a sighting of the new YAv. They decide to go after their imposters. Wiccan tries a locator spell but it just points to them because he said 'Young Avengers'. Presumably he figured out how to phrase the spell better because they got here.
Patriot asks if the newbies are another team created by Osborn. COA says she founded the team, but NO was involved - sort-of. Cue another flashback.
Lisa was at Cowley Fabrications who did construction for her art installations. They also provide costumes and kit for super-characters. Osborn was there picking up a bow and some special arrows. She gushes all over him because she's a big fan. And HE knows of HER work as an artist. (She's already taken the nom d'art Coat Of Arms and we get the impression she also has her superpower.) But when she reveals that she likes him as Green Goblin - supervillain as artistic statement - he loses his cool.
But the extreme reaction just spurred her on to take her art further. She found Melter, and together they recruited the others.
Patriot's YAv don't know how to react to this. So they ignore it and Eli Bradley says what they came to say. If the new guys want to be Young Avengers then they'll have to try out for the established team. Or they can just pick another name. He leaves them to decide. On the way out Speed tells the others he met COA when they were both in juvenile detention. And they already don't like Big Zero's Nazi-look costume.
Meanwhile BZ, Egghead and Executioner want to ignore Patriot's offer. Until Enchantress mind-controls them to think they can ace the test and take over the other team. Later in their bedroom Chris is unhappy with what Sylvie just did. But not because of the mind-control but because he doesn't want to submit to the YAv's judgement - they might uncover stuff (like him killing the old woman last issue). He suggest they just leave together, but Sylvie so wants to be a real Young Avenger.
Meanwhile Lisa draws her team beating up the Goblin. And Danny contacts his mother for more money. He tells her he's going to be leader of a new team. And it turns out HE knows Kate Bishop and has recognised her as Hawkeye. And we see that his mom is Princess Python.