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Young Avengers #4: Review

Apr 2013
Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie

Story Name:

Deus ex machine gunner

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Young Avengers #4 Review by (March 26, 2022)
It's the McKelvie/Norton art show again.

Kate Bishop mentions *her* dead mom at 1 point, glad at least that *she* hasn't been brought back to haunt her. However later in the 2016 Hawkeye series that Kate will frontline Eleanor Bishop will turn out to be alive and well and villainous.

At the same time Kid Loki wonders why his 'father' the goo-Laufey isn't attacking them with the other parents. He seems to mentally discover why and we'll learn about it next issue.





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Young Avengers #4 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
Back in #1 we saw Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) hooked up with Marvel Boy (Noh-Varr) in his orbiting spaceship when they were attacked by Skrulls. Since then we've only witnessed Wiccan (Billy Kaplan) getting text messages from her which he's been too busy (fighting for his life) to answer.

Now we see that Kate got worried about Billy's silence and they have tracked his cell phone to MJ's Club in New York where a scan shows him, Hulkling (Teddy Altman) and 2 others held prisoner in some goo. Noh-Varr detects the presence of extradimensional reformative tissue (the goo) and handing the controls of the ship to Kate he leaps into action from the hovering ship through a window of the club with 2 alien guns blazing. He takes out various goo-based captors in deliberately (to impress Kate) spectacular fashion, including walking on walls (thanks to partially cockroach DNA), swinging from a chandelier, pausing to put on a favourite record and then diving out of another window where Kate and his ship catch him in midair. His parting shots free the captives from goo, and standing atop his ship he casually invites them aboard.

Billy and Teddy gladly accept the invitation, closely followed by America Chavez with Kid Loki in tow. But behind them the goo bodies reform (which was why Marvel Boy was cavalier about 'killing' them) and start coming after them. In previous issues we've seen that these bodies simulate dead parents of their captives. And now Noh-Varr's parents turn up, equally disparaging of their son's activities because they think he should have taken over Earth by now and made it the capital of the Kree Empire. Noh's voiceover reminds us that he and his family are advance Kree military from another timeline and all but him died when they crashed on Earth-616.

MB zooms his craft away from them as Wiccan explains that a spell of his went wrong and has been reanimating dead parents. At that point they run into America's supermoms. Then the threat escalates as random parents from a nearby retirement party leap onto the spacecraft, or fall to become goo-splatters. Kate suggests NV takes them to space, but he knows his own parents would defeat them there so he heads for Central Park.

Captain America and Thor in Avengers Mansion overlook the subsequent battle but because of a side-effect of the spell revealed in #2 notice nothing. NV's dad Captain Glory smashes through the craft and takes Wiccan with him. America goes in pursuit. Noh-Varr has to land the damaged craft. Loki has a quiet word with Teddy about Billy. As a reality warper no-one can be sure when he's subconsciously 'arranging' things. For instance Teddy as long-lost heir to the Skrull Empire makes an improbably convenient gay dashing prince to be sharing school classes with him. America returns with Billy, Cap Glory in hot pursuit until Kate takes him out with a blast from what Marvel Boy calls a Kree composite soul bow.

In a lull in the fighting they try to come up with a plan. Loki reminds them he's already presented 1 (last issue), but Wiccan again refuses to lend him his power. So Loki comes up with Plan B:- kill Billy and the goo-monsters all go away but nobody buys it. So Loki reverts to Plan A, but seriously this time. It's up to Billy to decide but America estimates they only have 30 seconds before the enemy attack again. Loki whispers to him that he doesn't really want Teddy to have to snap his neck. And Wiccan casts 1 of his mantra spells to give Loki his powers for 10 minutes. And Loki teleports away.

The Young Avengers obviously believe that they've been betrayed. And a whole mob of goo-parents charge towards them.



Jamie McKelvie
Jamie McKelvie
Matthew Wilson
Jamie McKelvie (Cover Penciler)
Jamie McKelvie (Cover Inker)
Matthew Wilson (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: Clayton Cowles.
Editor: Lauren Sankovitch. Editor-in-chief: Axel Alonso.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(Steve Rogers)
Hawkeye
Hawkeye

(Kate Bishop)
Hulkling
Hulkling

(Teddy Altman)
Loki
Loki

(Loki Laufeyson)
Marvel Boy
Marvel Boy

(Noh-Varr)
Ms. America
Ms. America

(America Chavez)
Thor
Thor

(Odinson)
Wiccan
Wiccan

(Billy Kaplan)

Plus: Young Avengers.

> Young Avengers: Book info and issue index

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