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Young Avengers #7: Review

Aug 2005
Allan Heinberg, Andrea Di Vito

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Story Name:

Secret identities part one


Synopsis

Young Avengers #7 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
Captain America, Spider-Man and Luke Cage are reading about and watching a TV report on the Young Avengers crime-fighting activities. They comment on the modified uniforms (which wealthy member Kate Bishop gave them last issue to replace the ones tattered in battle).

Cap is angry that the teens disobeyed his order to disband last issue. He's also concerned about their uncontrolled power, because they were able to kill Kang in #5. Cage suggests training them. But Cap wants to call their parents. As he had warned them he would if they continued their costumed lives.

Cut to scenes of the home life of various YAers.

In the Upper West Side, Teddy (Hulkling) Altman arrives to pick up his friend Billy (Wiccan) Kaplan. Neither have told their parents about their super-heroing yet. Teddy urges Billy to do it. If it all goes wrong he can reset their memories by magic.

Billy's parent overhear this conversation, and mistakenly think Billy and Teddy are going to come out as gay, which they'd guessed already. To the youths' initial confusion they welcome the revelation warmly.

In the Upper East Side, Cassie (Stature) Lang's mother and step-father are watching the TV report of a giant girl in the YA. Peggy fears Cassie has got hold of her father Scott (Ant-Man)'s size-changing formula. Blake doesn't believe it. He especially doesn't think Cassie would put Peggy through the same worry she had when she was married to a superhero.

In the Bronx, Eli (Patriot) Bradley is unsuccessfully trying to find something in his room. He avoids his grandmother's questions, but sees his grandfather Isaiah weeping over a newspaper picture of Patriot in action.

Cassie meets up with Kate Bishop, and they head to a meeting with the boys. On the way Cassie remarks that Billy and Teddy have each other, and so do Kate and Eli. Kate protests too much, saying all she and Eli do is argue.

They find Wiccan and Hulkling, but Eli is a no-show. Billy thinks Patriot may have gone after some Mutant Growth Hormone dealers on his own, as he did in #2. So he casts a locating spell to find him.

Eli, in plain clothes, has indeed tracked down an MGH lab. But he is discovered on the roof, and falls through a skylight. There he is confronted by an angry Mr Hyde.

In Avengers Tower, Steve Rogers and Jessica Jones are watching Tony Stark examining the new Vision. This Vision was created by Iron Lad in #6 by installing the old Vision's software in IL's armour. But he doesn't have the original Vision's memories and experience.

Cap is still getting resistance to his plan to warn the YA's parents. But he intends to contact Isaiah and Faith Bradley personally, because he knows them. And he suggests Jessica talks to Peggy Burdick (ex-Lang), because she used to date Scott.

Faith is happy to see Cap and invites him in, ignoring Steve's attempts to say why he's come. Peggy is hostile to Jessica, but immediately jumps to the correct conclusion that the giant girl in the news is Cassie.

Eli is helpless in the grip of Mr Hyde, until his 4 friends burst in. 3 of them attack Mr Hyde while Wiccan helps the bleeding Eli. Billy asks why Eli didn't use his super powers. Eli's answer is to run away. Billy follows, and sees him injecting himself with MGH.


 

Review / Commentaries

Rating:
4.5 stars

Young Avengers #7 Review by (June 18, 2013)
Spider-Man is sitting around with the Avengers with his mask off. I don't believe he's told them his identity yet (but Cap does know it). But they were all naked in New Avengers (2005) #5, so what's a mask between friends? Actually it was Iron Lad who killed his future self Kang in #5, and he went back to his home time in #6. So they don't now have the type of power Cap is worried about. Peggy Lang's worries led to divorce from Scott. And they turned out to be well-founded when Scott was killed during Avengers Disassembled. And her fears for Cassie will equally bear fruit when she dies at the end of Children's Crusade. Isaiah Bradley was given a version of Captain America's super-soldier treatment in WWII. The Young Avengers believe Eli has inherited his grandfather's powers. But Eli is here searching his room for some of the Mutant Growth Hormone that we will learn next issue is actually giving him his abilities. MGH is a drug extracted from super-beings that gives people super-powers. Various villains like Owl (Daredevil (1998) #41-45) and Vanisher (Uncanny X-Men #408-409) have been implicated in its distribution. This time it's Mr Hyde. Mr Hyde started off as a Thor villain in Journey into Mystery #99. He has a Hulk-like relationship with his scientist alter-ego Calvin Zabo who created him. He needs Zabo's potion to transform back and forth. But he usually doesn't bother reverting to Zabo. The original Vision was of course another casualty of Avengers Disassembled. And just like the rest of those casualties (Scott Lang included) he will eventually be resurrected. Cap met the Bradleys in the modern-day epilogue to Isaiah's story in Truth: Red, White & Black #7. Jessica Jones dated Scott Lang in her Alias series.


> Young Avengers comic book info and issue index

Elektra
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Excelsioring your collection:
DIAMOND SELECT TOYS Marvel Premier Collection: Avengers Endgame Captain America Statue, Multicolor
Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Andrea Di Vito
Andrew Hennessy
Justin Ponsor
Jim Cheung (Cover Penciler)
John Dell (Cover Inker)
Justin Ponsor (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Cory Petit.
Editor: Tom Brevoort.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(Steven Rogers)
Hawkeye
Hawkeye

(Katherine Elizabeth Bishop)
Hulkling
Hulkling

(Theodore Altman)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Anthony Stark)
Luke Cage
Luke Cage

(Power Man)
Spider-Man
Spider-Man

(Peter Parker)
Wiccan
Wiccan

(William Kaplan)

Plus: Blake Burdick, Captain America (Isaiah Bradley), Faith Bradley, Mr. Hyde (Calvin Zabo), Patriot (Elijah Bradley), Peggy Burdick (Peggy Lang), Vision (Jonas).