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Young Avengers #10: Review

Mar 2006
Allan Heinberg, Jim Cheung

Story Name:

Family matters - part 2

Review & Comments

Rating:
4.5 stars

Young Avengers #10 Review by (May 22, 2020)
This time Jim Cheung, Dave Meikis and Dexter Vimes help Rob Stull with the inking.

According to the Marvel Chronology Project whatever mission the Avengers are on isn't documented in any comic.

This issue Kate Bishop has her battle staves as well as her bow and arrows, but not her sword.

When Cassie says Tommy and Billy look like twins this highlights the 1 drawback of Jim Cheung's art. While I like it very much in general, his faces are all very similar. They are even androgynous so the females look very like the males.

Tommy Shepherd will take the codename Speed.





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Young Avengers #10 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
Last issue the disbanded Young Avengers were thinking about reforming when Super-Skrull interrupted them to kidnap Hulkling who he claimed was a Skrull. He lent credence to his claim when he killed Teddy Altman's mother who reverted to her Skrull form.

In #6 Iron Lad left behind his neuro-kinetic armour containing the OS from the Vision (who's synthezoid body had been destroyed by She-Hulk in Avengers Disassembled). Now this new 'Vision', with the armour still in Iron Lad form, is playing chess with Edwin Jarvis in Avengers Mansion. The butler accuses him of letting him win many games. But Vision wants to know when the Avengers will trust him enough to let him be an active member. He suspects that they worry that he can be controlled by Kang The Conqueror (as Iron Lad's armour was in #4). But he reminds Edwin of how the original Vision tried to take over the World's computer systems (culminating in Avengers #253-254). And he claims to have installed fail-safes to prevent both from recurring. And he checkmates his opponent.

But then there's a knock on the window and they see the remaining 4 YAers (Kate Bishop, Patriot (Eli Bradley), Stature (Cassie Lang) and Wiccan (Billy Kaplan)) now suited-up and hovering on a force-disc magicked-up by Wiccan. After they're let in they explain what just happened, and they've come to the Avengers for help. But Jarvis tells that the team are on a mission. Edwin tries to calm them down and leaves Vision to watch them while he goes to try to contact Tony Stark.

But when he's gone Vision says he wants to help them by recruiting more Young Avengers. He calls up the earlier Vision's secret files on super-powered teens. He suggests 16-yr old Tommy Shepherd, a speedster who can also accelerate atomic matter to make it explode. Wiccan thinks they should go get him, but Vision doesn't want them to disobey Edwin's orders. But Cassie points out that Jarvis only told *him* to keep an eye on them, and if he comes with them he can *do* that. Obviously nothing would please the android more.

But before they go with the others Cassie has a private word with Vizh. She asks him if he has Iron Lad's brain patterns and memories. (She and IL had, rather quickly, fallen in at least attraction.) He answers yes, but he's *not* Iron Lad. And he alters the neuro-kinetic armour to look like the Vision rather than a futuristic Iron Man. Cassie thanks him for that.

What Vision has neglected to mention is that Tommy is currently in juvenile detention for vaporising his school (accidentally according to his defence). Patriot isn't happy, he wanted a Young Avenger not a Young Master Of Evil. But Vision just changes shape to mimic the form of 1 of 2 unconscious guards (the wisps of blue light about them suggest Wiccan's doing), and Wiccan magically mimics the other. Stature shrinks to hide on Billy's shoulder and they head inside the prison, leaving the 2 non-powered members behind. Eli asks what *they* should do, and Billy suggests Kate could think about a codename. Eli suggests Hawkingbird again (since her current weapons are based on Hawkeye's bow and Mockingbird's battle staves).

Vision leads them to Tommy's cell and suggests that there's a power dampener to stop the youth using his powers to escape. He phases his hand into the security lock and overrides its settings ... and the door explodes and a white-haired boy walks out of the cell. Cassie comments that Tommy and Billy could be twins. But the  exchange of pleasantries is interrupted by attacking guards. Tommy blasts a way through a wall. Outside they are faced with more guards plus Mandroids. The speedster races round disarming the guards. He says he's been experimented on to turn him into a living weapon. And now he turns himself on the flying Mandroids, crippling their suits. Wiccan has to stop them crashing to the ground. And now Tommy chases away the doctors who worked on him.

Kate knocks him down before he can kill them, and they have a bit of a meet cute. Patriot welcomes him to the team. Wiccan explains about Vision's Avengers Fail-Safe Program. Patriot stresses that they need a hero, not a super-terrorist and asks Tommy which he is.

Super-Skrull has Hulkling in restraints in a remote house, and Kl'rt transmits a message to all Skrull worlds saying he has found Dorrek VIII, the dead Emperor's true heir. Teddy still denies being a Skrull, so his captor tells him his true origin.

During the (really *a*) Kree-Skrull War, SS captured Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and the Kree Captain Mar-Vell and brought them to Dorrek VII, hoping to win his favour and marriage to his daughter Anelle (Avengers #94). But the Emperor feared his warrior's ambition and imprisoned him. While incarcerated he heard that Anelle had given birth to a male who Dorrek condemned to death because of who his father was. But the prince's nurse smuggled him away to Earth where his father was living.

Teddy still doesn't want to believe it, but can't resist asking who his father was. But it's interruption time again as Tommy Shepherd repeats his blasting through a wall trick. Teddy at 1st mistakes him for his boyfriend Billy (despite the white hair). As the others follow him overconfident Tommy takes on Super-Skrull alone and gets a bloody nose for his pains. The new Vision uses the old Vision's hand phased into the opponent's chest shtick to render him unconscious.

Billy hugs Teddy and tells him he used a locator spell to find him. The Skrull isn't *that* unconscious and pleads with Hulkling to accompany him for his family's sake. He has to admit that Teddy's mother Anelle died when Galactus ate the Skrull throneworld. He's just about to tell him who his father was when he's shot by a ray-gun. And Kree soldiers arrive to claim Hulkling for their side.


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Jim Cheung
Rob Stull
Justin Ponsor
Jim Cheung (Cover Penciler)
John Dell (Cover Inker)
Justin Ponsor (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: Cory Petit.
Editor: Tom Brevoort. Editor-in-chief: Joe Quesada.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Hawkeye
Hawkeye

(Kate Bishop)
Hulkling
Hulkling

(Teddy Altman)
Jarvis
Jarvis

(Edwin Jarvis)
Wiccan
Wiccan

(Billy Kaplan)

Plus: Mandroids, Patriot (Elijah Bradley), Speed (Tommy Shepherd), Stature, Super-Skrull, Vision (Jonas), Young Avengers.

> Young Avengers: Book info and issue index

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