Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Civil War: Young Avengers/Runaways #1 Synopsis by
Rob Johnson
In #11 of the original Young Avengers series Patriot took a blast aimed at Captain America, and in #12 Cap finally agreed that the Young Avengers deserved to be given a chance. He even gave Kate Bishop the bow and arrows belonging to the dead Hawkeye and told her to use his name. And the newest recruit Tommy Shepherd took the codename Speed. Eli Bradley was given a transfusion of his grandfather's blood which gave him the powers he'd previously faked with Mutant Growth Hormone and he recovered. Various team members had various adventures before Civil War hit them.
Then they attended the general gathering in the Baxter Building (as seen in CW#1 and Wolverine (2003) #42). In CW#2 Patriot was nearly apprehended. Hawkeye, Hulkling, Stature and Wiccan *were* captured but rescued by Cap's resistance forces.
Now Cap has the team restricted to monitor duty in a New York secret base. But 1st we see what's happening to the Runaways in Los Angeles after the Dead Means Dead story arc in #19-21 of their 2005 series where they came to terms with the death of Gert Yorkes.
They're at the Santa Monica Farmers' Market wondering why the entrance is guarded by 2 armoured soldiers. (They are totally unaware of the Civil War and don't know these are the new SHIELD Cape-Killer Agents.) They get in without any problem. The youngest Molly Hayes is back to her exuberant self but Chase Stein is still surly after the loss of his girlfriend. Xavin the Skrull as usual argues with Victor Mancha, the robot son of Ultron. Nico Minoru is jealous of Karolina Dean's relationship with Xavin, who is male but shapeshifts to female to suit Karolina.
The Cape-Killers stop a burly guy with a suspiciously large bag. In response he whips off his coat, pulls on a mask, retrieves a large mace from the bag and stands revealed as a new version of Flag-Smasher, enemy of the concept of nations. Karolina is confused because they only recently defeated Flag-Smasher. (I'm confused because that's not in any comic I know about.) Nico sends Chase to get their Leapfrog vehicle. When FS hurts 1 of the guards, Karolina zaps him. Victor doesn't want to cut Nico to make her magic Staff Of One manifest. Instead he interrupts a fight between FS and Xavin and short-circuits the villain's exoskeleton. Then Molly drop-kicks him to unconsciousness.
The other guard is grateful for the assist and tells them to run away as a SHIELD helicopter arrives and targets them. Because they're minors SHIELD can't use excessive force (because of public opinion, not morality) so they fire electro-nets to capture them. But Victor takes care of that and holds the copter off while the others board the Leapfrog, where Chase and Old Lace their pet Deinonynchus (dinosaur to us) await. However the SHIELD Agents can now tell Victor's a robot and they shoot him full of holes as he reaches the Leapfrog.
Now we join the Young Avengers on monitor duty. The 5 have been joined by Speed and the new Vision. They hear news of the children of the Pride's escape, of their own defiance of the Superhero Registration Act and Human Torch still in hospital after being attacked by a mob (CW#1). Android Vision is actually doing all the monitoring hooked up to a computer system. The team are itching to get out and help. Stature (Cassie Lang) defends her friend Iron Man against Speed's accusations of how IM has betrayed Cap and the super-community by supporting the Act and the Government's repressive forces.
Vision suffers some feedback as he sees Victor Mancha attacked. Cassie recognises the Pride kids as the Runaways group she was intending to join before she met the YA (as revealed in the YA Special). Kate wants to help them but Eli says there is no resistance group in LA. Impulsive Speed suggests they go fill the hole but Eli wants Cap's permission (and he's a bit jealous of Kate and Tommy's growing bond). But Steve Rogers turns them down flat (with a cameo from Daredevil (actually Danny Rand), Falcon and Goliath (Bill Foster) in the background).
So the team 'borrow' a quinjet which Vision pilots guided by Wiccan (Billy Kaplan)'s chanted "I will find the Pride's kids". Kate looks the target up in the Avengers files, including the fact that Cap got them put in foster homes for a while (#17 of their 2003 series). Cassie is worried about Vision's feedback, and also that he seems uncomfortable with her close presence. (His body is Iron Lad's armour and he has IL's memories, and Iron Lad and Cassie developed a thing in their brief time together.) Eli tries to justify their course of action as making sure the Runaways aren't turned to the dark side as their supervillain parents were.
Meanwhile the other team have reached their base, the Hostel beneath the La Brea Tar Pits. They at last hear news of the Registration Act which Molly interprets as the Avengers are after them. They're all worried about Victor. Xavin remarks that at least it's only the robot, which angers Karolina and Chase. He quickly backtracks and says he meant that he's repairable. But Chase doesn't know if he can do it, so Molly runs out in tears ...
... where she runs into the other team who tell her they're the Young Avengers. The youngster's response is to lift a truck and throw it at them. No-one is hurt but she keeps fighting them until she suddenly falls asleep. (Molly does that when she runs out of energy.)
They carry the girl inside, but the other Runaways think they must have attacked her. Battle is about to commence when Vision's arm phases through a wall towards Victor, who screams.