Comic Book / Young Avengers

Are you Young? Wild? Free?^note Pictured, clockwise from left: Miss America, Kid Loki, Wiccan, Hulkling, Hawkeye II, and Marvel Boy. Not pictured: Prodigy, Patriot, Speed, Stature, Vision II, and Iron Lad.

"Who the #*&% are the Young Avengers?"

The Avengers' main young heroes team, equivalent to The DCU's Young Justice or Teen Titans. Created by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung, the team debuted in Young Avengers #1 in 2005 and aimed for young adult readers, but still contained enough Darker and Edgier material for older readers as well.

After The Avengers disassembled, a young time-traveler decided to assemble a team with people related to the Avengers history. The initial lineup consisted of Patriot (Elijah "Eli" Bradley), Asgardian (William "Billy" Kaplan, who would later change his codename to "Wiccan"), Hulkling (Theodore "Teddy" Altman) and Iron Lad (Nathaniel "Nate" Richards), all of whom intentionally patterned their costumes and aliases after the Avengers' Big Four^note Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk and Thor. Later, another four members joined: Stature (Cassandra "Cassie" Lang), Hawkeye II (Katherine "Kate" Bishop), Speed (Thomas "Tommy" Shepherd) and a younger version of The Vision.

Following the first volume, the team starred in a bunch of minis before appearing in Heinberg's promised "season two", Avengers: The Children's Crusade. Volume 2 was released as a part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch, this time in the hands of acclaimed Phonogram and Journey into Mystery (Gillen) writer, Kieron Gillen, and his long time collaborator Jamie McKelvie. The story is set a year after The Children's Crusade and introduced three new members: Marvel Boy (Noh-Varr), Miss America (America Chavez) and Loki. The run lasted 15 issues, ending when the creators wanted it to rather than being cancelled.

Appearances in Media:

Comic Books

The Team

• Young Avengers: Their main title.
  • Vol. 1 (2005-2006)
  • Avengers: The Children's Crusade: (2010-2012)
  • Vol. 2 (2013-2014)
• Civil War: Young Avengers/Runaways: During the Civil War storyline, the Young Avengers team up with Marvel's other group of teenage superheroes to fight a government branch who had sent a brainwashed Noh-Varr after them.
• Young Avengers Presents: An anthology by different creators, each issue focusing on a different member of the team.
• Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers: During the Skrull attack on Earth, the two teams of teenage superheroes have to join forces again, when Xavin's old mentor is sent to find and kill Hulkling.
• Dark Reign: Young Avengers: There's a new team calling themselves the Young Avengers in town. When the original Young Avengers investigate, they butt heads with Norman Osborn and his Dark Avengers.
• Siege: Young Avengers: A one-shot detailing the Young Avengers' activities during the Siege of Asgard.
• Original Sin: Anthology tied to Marvel's 2014 Original Sin event, featuring a story written by Adventure Time writer Ryan North about Hulkling, Prodigy and Noh-Varr teaming up against The Hood.
• Civil War II: Choosing Sides: During the Civil War II storyline, Kate Bishop feels confused and lost after her mentor's actions. The team (without Speed and Noh-Varr who are in a space adventure apparently) will reunite once more to try to lift her spirits and get her back in the game.
• Marvel’s Voices (2022): The second arc of this Infinity Comics webcomic (#5-12) is a Young Avengers story, subtitled Paradox Lost.

Appearances of members in other comics

• Hawkeye Vol 4.: Kate co-stars alongside the older Hawkeye. (2012-2015)
• AXIS: Cassie is brought back to life in this event.
• New Avengers: Wiccan and Hulkling co-star alongside the other members of the team. (2015-2016)
• Hawkeye Vol. 5: Kate headlines her own series. (2016-2018)
• Royals: Marvel Boy co-stars alongside the Inhumans in an intergalactic adventure to Hala and beyond. (2017)
• West Coast Avengers: Kate and America co-star. Noh-Varr also joins the team later on. (2018-2019)
• Exiles: Iron Lad appears as part of the team. (2018-2019)
• Death's Head: Wiccan and Hulkling co-star in a four-part miniseries. (2019)
• Strikeforce: Wiccan appears as a member of the covert ops teams. (2019-2020)
• Guardians of the Galaxy (2020): Noh-Varr appears as a new member of the space team. Hulkling and Wiccan join forces with them in the final story arc. (2020-2021)
• Empyre: Hulkling has a starring role in this event as he finally takes up his role as Emperor. Wiccan also features in the story, and the two get married. (2020)

Marvel Cinematic Universe

• Ant-Man: Cassie appears in her civilian identity, played by Abby-Ryder Fortson.
• Ant-Man and the Wasp: Cassie returns, reprised by Fortson.
• Avengers: Endgame: Cassie appears, now a teenager and played by Emma Fuhrmann.
• WandaVision: Wanda gives birth to Tommy and Billy in the third episode, and undergo Rapid Aging in the fifth to be played in the rest of the series by Jett Klyne and Julian Hilliard.
• The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Eli has a small recurring role alongside his grandfather Isaiah Bradley, played by Elijah Richardson.
• Hawkeye: Kate makes her debut as Clint's proteg and successor to the Hawkeye mantle, played by Hailee Steinfeld.
• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: America Chavez appears, portrayed by Xochitl Gomez.
• Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: Cassie appears, this time played by Kathryn Newton, and becomes Stature.

Video Games

• LEGO Marvel's Avengers: Wiccan, Hulkling, Hawkeye, Stature, Speed, America, and Noh-Varr (as the Protector) appear as playable characters.
• Marvel Future Fight: Wiccan, Hulkling, Hawkeye, and America appear as playable characters.
• Avengers Academy: Over time, nearly the entire cast was added to the game. The only exceptions were Young Vision and Patriot, and that's because the game used other versions instead (original Vision and the Rayshaun Lucas Patriot from Marvel Rising; Loki appeared as well, but favored the post YA version, nevertheless "Kid Loki" is available as an alternate costume).
• LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2: Wiccan, Hulkling, and America are playable in the base game; Hawkeye is also playable as part of the Champions DLC.

---

The series has a character sheet

See also Avengers: The Initiative and Avengers Academy for other Avengers young teams. For X-Men equivalents, see New Mutants, Young X-Men, New X-Men, Generation X, Wolverine and the X-Men (Marvel Comics) or The original X-Men team. For a team of young people related neither to The Avengers nor to The X-Men see The Runaways. Also, see Avengers Arena for the other comic about super powered teenagers (and complete opposite to this series) in the Marvel NOW! relaunch.

---

Young Avengers contains examples of:

Volume 1

• Aesop Amnesia: The first arc ends with Iron Lad being explicitly told that he can't stay in the present to avoid his fate of becoming an enemy of the Avengers because of the damage it would do to the timestream. Cue The Children's Crusade, where he not only returns, but his actions directly lead to Dr Doom killing Stature. Way to go, you armored idiot. Given that this is a younger version of Kang the Conqueror, who constantly tries to alter events via time travel, it was probably to be expected.
• Affirmative-Action Legacy:
  • The original Patriot (decades before Eli took up the mantle) was a white guy named Jeffery Mace. Eli is also a legacy character to his grandfather Isaiah Bradley, the legendary black Captain America of WWII, and his uncle Josiah X, aka Justice.
  • Kate Bishop is also a female, while the original Hawkeye was a male.
  • Taken to the logical extreme in the Children's Crusade one-shot. Iron Lad visits a Bad Future where Eli is the new Captain America, Kate is now the only Hawkeye, Teddy is the new Captain Marvel, Billy is the new Sorcerer Supreme, Eli's son Steve is the new Bucky, and Eli's wife Samantha is the new Falcon.
• Almost Kiss:
  • Speed interrupts Wiccan and Hulkling just as they're about to kiss on-panel for the first time.
  • Eli and Kate almost kiss while riding a carriage around Central Park.
• Ascended Fanboy:
  • Hulkling, Patriot & Wiccan became superheroes to be like the original Avengers.
  • Coat-Of-Arms is a fan of Norman Osborn's, and she helped put together the Young Masters for the chance of seeing him become the Green Goblin again. Her actual dream is to dance with him to George Michael's "Shoot the Dog".
• Badass Normal: Kate Bishop and Patriot both started out this way, but Patriot got hold of first some drugs, then a blood transfusion full of Super Serum, leaving Hawkeye the sole BN on the team.
• The Bad Guy Wins: The boys' first outing as heroes had them up against Electro, who was... out of their weight class. After he got done giving them the beatdown, they basically just said "Let us leave and we'll never bother you again." On the plus side they went straight from there to the church at the beginning of Volume 1.
• Bald of Authority: Patriot, though his status as team leader came and went in favor of Kate.
• Berserk Button: Siege reveals that one shouldn't loot any Asgardian treasures around Wiccan. Especially in the middle of a disaster area. And don't mock Asgard. Given the kinds of things Wiccan can do now, it's probably for the best that this particular button hasn't come up since.
• Betty and Veronica: Kate (Archie) with Eli (dependable, sensible Betty) and Tommy (delinquent, hotheaded Veronica).
• Beware the Nice Ones: Wiccan and Hulkling are the sweetest, most unassuming gay couple you could ever hope to meet...until you threaten one of them, in which case the other will be very put out. Hulkling never hesitates to lay the physical smack down; Wiccan is less easily provoked but has magic, so he hits harder. Case in point: he once put twenty people into comas for threatening Hulkling.
• Bland-Name Product: Dark Reign has a character use Spacebook while the 2013 run uses Yamblr for its recaps.
• Blessed with Suck: Poor Melter of the Dark Young Avengers wants to be a superhero. Unfortunately, that's hard to do when your power is melting people.
• But Not Too Gay: While straight characters in love (also teenagers) have been shown kissing and sleeping naked, implying some off-panel nookie, gay couple Hulkling and Wiccan are seen doing little more than holding hands and sleeping together...clothed. Finally averted in Children's Crudade 9.
• The Cavalry: Iron Lad's return in Children's Crusade to prevent Wolverine from killing Wanda.
• Child of Two Worlds: Hulkling is a half-Kree half-Skrull child of an affair between Captain Marvel and a Skrull princess. Both the Kree and Skrulls want him to lead their faction. For extra fun, the Kree and Skull despise each other and have been trying to wipe each other out for thousands of years.
• Code Name: All of them.
  • Billy changed his codename from Asgardian to Wiccan, because of the obvious jokes that would occur once the press got wind of his homosexuality (even Eli got a chuckle out of this). It should be noted that despite the codename, Billy is not of Asgardian descent; on that same note, Hulkling is of no relation to the Hulk, he's actually the half-Kree/half-Skrull son of Captain Marvel & Princess Anelle.
  • Lampshaded with Kate Bishop - The rest of the Young Avengers jokingly call her "Hawkingbird" after she arms herself with Hawkeye's bow & Mockingbird's battle staves, and also wears Mockingbird's mask. After she doesn't pick a codename, it's pointed out mid-mission that she probably should pick one, unless she wants the rest of the team to accidentally give away her secret identity in battle.
• Coming-Out Story: Spoofed. Wiccan is reluctantly trying to tell his parents he became a superhero, but they misunderstand and assume he's coming out with his boyfriend. They're supportive of his sexuality; however, he didn't get a chance to say anything to them about being a superhero until '"Family Matters".
• Crimefighting with Cash: Kate bought new uniforms for the Young Avengers after Captain America and Iron Man confiscate the originals in an attempt to shut the team down. Later, an abandoned building owned by her father becomes the Young Avengers' base of operations.
• Deadpan Snarker: Pretty much everyone. Wiccan, Speed, and Kate might be best at it, though.
• Doomed by Canon: Once we learn that Iron Lad is a teenage Kang the Conqueror, his fate is a given.
• Downer Ending: Children's Crusade ends with: Cassie and Jonas dead; Iron Lad giving into his darker tendencies and well on his way to becoming Kang The Conquerer; Eli having a Heroic BSoD, giving up being Patriot & moving to Scottsdale to live with his mother; and the rest of the team so despondent that they give up the super hero lifestyle, although several months later, Captain America calls the them to Avengers Mansion & tells them that even if they no longer operate as Young Avengers, they will now always be considered Avengers.
• Dysfunction Junction: Pretty much everyone on the team has an issue, be it drugs, rape, parental abandonment...
• Empathic Environment: There is rain when Teddy decides to temporarily part from Billy.
• Everyone Can See It: Stature and Speed see the bond between Kate and Eli clear as day, but Kate claims that the two do nothing but fight.
• Foil: The team as a whole is one to the Runaways, Marvel's other major teen hero team of the 2000s, as highlighted in the crossovers. The Runaways are West Coast reluctant heroes who use no codenames or costumes, are children of villains, and would prefer to keep a lower profile, while the Young Avengers are New York-based, Jumped at the Call and patterned themselves after the Avengers (costumes, codenames and all), are related to quite a few heroes, and strive to be recognized by the Avengers.
• Foregone Conclusion: The Young Avengers, even if they find Wanda, will not be able to reverse M-Day due to other comics already published occurring chronologically after, showing M-Day as still in effect. About the only reason to follow that part of the storyline of Children's Crusade is to see how/why they fail...and indeed, though no one except Rictor gets their powers restored thanks to Patriot and Doom, Wanda does get found, her memories restored, and her Reality Warper powers returned back to normal. She even will be able to rejoin the Avengers, once she gets her head back together and has some quality family time.
• Gayngst: Mostly averted, but a flashback does reveal that Billy used to get bullied because of his sexual orientation.
• Gentle Giant: Hulkling. But again with the whole don't hurt his boyfriend thing.
• The Ghost: Billy's younger brothers have been mentioned several times, but never seen, even in scenes taking place at the Kaplan residence.
• Good Parents: The Kaplans, who were very understanding of their son's sexuality (and his superheroism).
• Hair-Contrast Duo:
  • Billy (brunette) and Teddy (blond).
  • Cassie (blond) and Kate (brunette).
• Half-Human Hybrid: Hulkling is half Kree and half Skrull.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Gay?: In The Children's Crusade, Teddy continually calls Billy his boyfriend over and over and over, with such frequency that you'd think the writers get paid for bringing it up a ridiculous amount of times in the space of a few issues.
• Hereditary Twinhood: A complex example. Scarlet Witch is the fraternal twin of Quicksilver, and Speed is the reincarnation of one of her magically-conceived identical twin sons. In one Bad Future, Kate Bishop is pregnant with Speed's twins.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Tommy manages to impress Wolverine with his eagerness to make Skrulls blow up with super-speed. Billy flat-out calls him the team sociopath in the Children's Crusade.
• Heroic Wannabe: The entire team, who formed because they were fans of the original Avengers, though they do pretty well for themselves and eventually get their inspirations' acknowledgment.
• Inexplicably Identical Individuals: Billy and Tommy, leading them to suspect that they are related in some way. They are.
• Interspecies Romance:
  • Hulkling (Kree/Skrull hybrid) and Wiccan (human/possible mutant)
  • Stature (human) and Vision (synthezoid)
  • Big Zero (human) and Egghead II (some sort of robot)
• Jumped at the Call: Pretty much every one of 'em.
• Knight Templar: Doom, after he absorbs the Scarlet Witch's powers and claims he wants to restore mutants and save/rule the world, in Children's Crusade. As usual.
• Killer Rabbit: Molly Hayes, during their first crossover with Runaways.
• Legacy Character: Depending on how loosely you use the term, anywhere from half the team to all of them are legacy characters. Patriot, Hawkeye, and the Vision are each the second superhero to go by that name; Speed, Wiccan, and Stature have original codenames, but consider themselves successors to Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, and Ant-Man, respectively; Hulkling falls somewhere in the middle.
  • At the beginning of the series, this trope was played with the original four members, who were pegged as legacies of four of the Avengers. On revelation of their full origins, they are actually legacy characters, just of different people.
    • Patriot is a legacy of Isaiah Bradley and Josiah X, rather than Steve Rogers.
    • Asgardian/Wiccan is a legacy of the Scarlet Witch, rather than Thor.
    • Hulkling is a legacy of Captain Mar-Vell, rather than the Hulk.
    • Iron Lad was secretly a young Kang the Conqueror, rather than a legacy of Iron Man.
  • Stature is a straighter example, being the daughter of the at-the-time-late Scott Lang, the second Ant-Man.
  • When she first joined the team in a full capacity, Kate Bishop put together a costume composite of Hawkeye, Mockingbird, and Swordsman, complete with bow, battle staves, a sword, and so much purple. Patriot even asked if her name was "Hawkingbird". She settled on being the second Hawkeye, avoiding being a Master of None.
  • The new Vision was technically the old Vision, but with an altered AI and upgraded body. Then he died and the original consciousness returned.
• Lighter and Softer: Alias fans may find it weird seeing Jessica Jones as a maternal figure who doesn't smoke, drink, or curse (although the first two were because she was pregnant at the time).
• Like an Old Married Couple: Wiccan and Hulkling, in Children's Crusade. Half the trouble Billy gets into is because of ignoring Teddy's common-sense warnings, and Teddy's not shy about making his displeasure known when he finds out about it.
• Love Triangle: The original team basically consisted of the stable gay couple and two sets of love triangles: a Betty and Veronica situation with Kate, nice guy Eli, and bad boy Tommy; and the angstier/quirkier triangle between Cassie, a guy she knew for a few hours, and a robot with the memories of the guy she knew for a few hours. By the end of Children's Crusade, these triangles are resolved when none of them end up together.
• Meaningful Name: This might not be intentional, but Wiccan and Hulkling's names are Billy and Teddy, which is reminiscent of another pair of very close friends. However, those two were nowhere near as close as Wiccan and Hulkling.
• Mythology Gag: The Stature/Iron Lad/Vision love triangle replicated the Scarlet Witch/Wonder Man/Vision love triangle. The Visions keep having this problem.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Subverted. In the beginning, when the boys were specifically modeling themselves on particular Avengers, they used their powers to match the them. For example, Hulking (literally imitating the Hulk) mostly just showed off his super strength and Asgardian (imitating Thor) used electrical powers. They had other powers all along, but were concealing them from the public (and the Avengers) until Kang's arrival made it necessary to stop holding back.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Pretty much all Iron Lad tried to do so far, especially in Children's Crusade, where everything he or Billy tried to do to turned horrible.
• Oppressed Minority Veteran: Eli Bradley's grandfather Isaiah was a test subject for Project Rebirth, and the first man to put on the mantle of Captain America. Using his serum-granted abilities, he helped liberate a concentration camp. After the war, the government didn't want to admit that a black man was essential to the success of Project Rebirth, so Isaiah was locked up for stealing the costume and spent years languishing in a military prison. When he was finally released, the serum had destroyed his brain, and his medical needs have impoverished his family.
• Paper-Thin Disguise (several):
  • Kate's 'mask' is a pair of sunglasses (hopefully she never wears those when not in costume).
  • Cassie and Eli wear actual masks, but their secret identities are already closely associated with the legacies they take on: Cassie, publicly known as the daughter of the second Ant-Man, wears a variant of his costume and doesn't hide her hair or most of her face (Domino Mask); Eli's grandfather is likewise publicly known to have been Captain America, and Eli, likewise with a Domino Mask, is Patriot. Both have been easily found out (though, thankfully, not by villains).
    • Although Eli's grandfather, Isaiah, is relatively obscure, being only widely known among the black community. Even Wolverine, who has met everyone under every sun in every multiverse Marvel has to offer had never heard of him before Black Panther and Storm's Wedding.
    • Eli's first costume did avert the trope by covering almost everything.
  • Wiccan has no mask at all and yet somehow avoids detection. Then again, He IS a wizard.
• Person of Mass Destruction: In the first issue of The Children's Crusade, Billy's massive use of his powers without even realizing makes the Avengers worry that they might have another Scarlet Witch on their hands, who, for those who don't remember, is a Reality Warper responsible for both House of M and Decimation.
• Playing with Syringes: What happens to Wiccan, Hulkling, Xavin and Karolina when they get captured during the Young Avengers/Runaways Civil War crossover, although they get rescued fairly quickly. Also makes up the backstories for Speed and Noh-Varr, instilling both boys with a distrust of authority. Each time, the implication is that alien beings and mutants are considered to have less rights than normal humans and no legal protection against this treatment.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Wiccan and Speed. Wiccan is a spellcaster who's a pretty nice guy if you don't hurt his boyfriend. Speed is a hyperactive juvenile delinquent with a penchant for using hyperkinetic shockwaves to blow stuff up.
• Power Floats:
  Cassie: Billy, you're kind of levitating.
  Teddy: That's how you know it's working.
• Power Glows: Played straight with Billy again.
• Pregnant Badass:
  • Jessica Jones. "Can I give you some advice, Kang? Never threaten a pregnant woman - especially one with powers."
  • In the Children Crusade's Oneshot, alternate-future-Kate states that she's pregnant with twins but is still active as an Avenger
• Pregnant Hostage: See above.
• The Psycho Rangers: Dark Young Avengers, also called Young Masters of Evil.
• Rape as Backstory: As part of her backstory, Kate was raped in Central Park. It's what motivated her to take up fencing and archery and etc etc.
• Reality Warper: Wiccan's powers, basically. Like Scarlet Witch before him, their exact nature is given to change Depending on the Writer, but the effects are all the same.
• Red/Green Contrast: One visual hint that Wiccan and Speed are Polar Opposite Twins is their opposing color schemes — Billy is dark-haired and always has a red mantle complemented by cooler tones, while Tommy is white-haired and has a white-and-green costume.
• Relationship Reveal: Wiccan and Hulkling, although it was downplayed due to everyone seeing it coming.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: To Magneto's request of, "Will you help me?"
  "Do we look like idiots to you? Wait, don't answer that."
• Running Gag: Not so much a gag, but a frequent occurence when Clint Barton was using the Ronin identity between Civil War and Siege; whenever he teamed up with the Young Avengers, Kate would be incapacitated at some point in the battle purely so the writer (Yes, more than one did it) could have Clint take up the bow & arrow again.
• Scarf of Asskicking: Part of Kate's costume.
• Screw Destiny: Nathaniel founded the Young Avengers to avoid his destiny of becoming a supervillain.
• Shadow Archetype: Most of the Young Avengers have a Shadow Archetype in the Dark Young Avengers.
• Short Teens, Tall Adults: The Young Avengers are significantly shorter than the adults.
• Sizeshifter: Stature and Big Zero
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: Eli and Kate, although it takes them until the Siege tie-in to get to the actual kiss. Cassie sees it coming a mile away.
  No matter what, at least [Billy and Teddy] have each other. And you have Eli.
  I do not have Eli. All we do is fight.
  Why do you think that is?
• Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: Hulkling, Wiccan and Speed by their origin stories. Especially ironic when one considers that Comic-Book Time is very much in force in the Marvel Universe. Most notably, Franklin Richards was born in 1968. He has yet to reach puberty in the main timeline, whereas Speed and Wiccan had to have been born sometime during the late-1990's in order for their backstory to work. Of course, Franklin has a Story-Breaker Power that makes ever allowing him to grow up a problem, whereas Wiccan and Speed do not. Hulking, however, is like Franklin in that he really ought to be much older than he is considering that both of his parents died in the early-1980's and their actual affair had to have taken place in 1971.
• Standard Female Grab Area: In Issue #2, Patriot tries to stop Cassie Lang by using this. Subverted when she says her father let her take self-defense lessons and throws Patriot into a bush.
• Start of Darkness: For Kang The Conqueror. Especially obvious after the end of Children's Crusade.
• Straight Gay: Wiccan and Hulkling
  • Although, Wiccan lost a few points of Straight Gay when he decided the best disguise for the team was outfits from The Sound of Music. And with the latest artist's rendition of his hair.
  • Even earlier than that came from "Young Avengers Presents..." in which he mentions quoting Project Runway for a spell.
• Suddenly Ethnicity: Patriot's first costume completely covers his face, so we don't find out he's black until the third issue. This leads Cap to mistakenly assume his costume is based on Bucky instead of Eli's grandfather.
• Suggestive Collision: During the battle with Kang, Eli tackles Kate out of the way of an energy blast and ends up on top of her. They talk about how this makes them even for Kate saving him earlier, neither of them in any apparent hurry to get up until their teammates snap them out of it.
• Super Serum: Patriot. Originally he claimed to have gotten his powers from a blood transfusion from his grandfather, who was tested using a prototype of the Captain America formula, but it turns out he was lying. Of course after that, he actually did get a blood transfusion, and actual powers, from him grandfather.
• Superhuman Transfusion: Patriot states that he got his powers from a transfusion from his grandfather, a Super-Soldier made with Cap's Super Serum. However it was actually Mutant Growth Hormone. Later he actually got one from his grandfather.
• Superpowerful Genetics:
  • Wiccan and Speed somehow inherit their mother and uncle's mutant powers, despite being reincarnated, and therefore not genetically related to the Maximoffs at all [or each other, but they're still identical twins]. Though trying to apply logic and/or science to Reality Warping will only bring you sorrow and grief, especially considering that the boys are technically older than their past lives. And both The Vision (a robot) and Mephisto (the devil) can lay equal claim to being their father? Your head may explode now.
• Super-Speed: The imaginatively named Speed, AKA Tommy. He's even faster than Quicksilver in some issues.
• Taking the Bullet: When Cap refuses to hand Hulkling over to the Skrulls or the Kree, one of the Kree soldiers opens fire. Patriot takes the shot, and Cap has the Sentry (their most powerful member) fly him to a hospital to make sure he gets there in time.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted. Ironically, Billy's mother is a psychiatrist. Nobody seems to want to talk to her about anything, just the opposite, keeping her in the dark as much as possible seems to be major goal of the team. In the backstory, Kate seeks help after being assaulted.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: Where Kang the Conqueror is involved expect to find this trope is full effect. Iron Lad is actually Kang's past self. He started the Young Avengers to help him fight Kang because he doesn't want to become Kang. When Kang shows up Iron Lad kills him, in the process inadvertently turning the world into a Bad Future. In order to put things back to normal he has to return to the future and become Kang.
  Jessica Jones: Is this a time travel thing? Because I hate time travel things.
  Iron Man: If it's Kang it's a time travel thing.
  Jessica: See, this is why I hate Kang...
• Tomato in the Mirror: Hulkling, when he finds out he is a Skrull (and the prince of them, at that).
• Tonight, Someone Dies: Children's Crusade 8. It's Cassie.
• Transparent Closet: Averted and played straight; Billy and Teddy are open about their sexuality, particularly to Billy's parents, but still 'in the closet' about being superheroes.
• True Companions: Shows up in spades, particularly in the Children's Crusade mini.
• Two Girls to a Team: Kate Bishop and Cassie Lang.
• Vacation Crossover: The second crossover between Runaways and Young Avengers begins with the Runaways taking a rare trip to New York and getting stuck in the middle of Secret Invasion. After seeing their fellow Skrulls searching for a supposed "false prince", Xavin quickly deduces that they're looking for Hulkling (the half-Skrull son of a princess) and thus ditches their team in order to find and protect him, forcing the other Runaways to go bail Xavin out.
• Vomit Discretion Shot Check Billy's face in the panel after Speed vibrates them through the wall in Avengers: The Children's Crusade #1.
• Wham Episode: Avengers: The Children's Crusade #6. The Scarlet Witch is alive, remembers everything she did (and feels horrendous remorse for it), and acknowledges Speed & Wiccan as her children, before discovering that she can undo "No more mutants". But now the X-Men have come calling...
• Wham Line: Wanda saying "More mutants."
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The Young Masters of Evil that appeared and escaped at the end of the arc. Their story is explained outside the comic and it's a bit complicated. They appeared at first at the start of the Heroic Age in a short story. After that, they split up. Melter ended up drafted by The Mandarin. Executioner and Egg-Head showed up in the Vengeance miniseries along with Mako, a new Black Knight, and the Radioactive Kid. Executioner and Radioactive Kid ended up in a Latverian Prison, Black Knight quit and Mako had his head cut off. The rest of them joined Jeremy Briggs Clean Slate plan in Avengers Academy.
• You Killed My Father:
  • Cassie tries to do this with Scarlet Witch when they end up on the Mighty Avengers; ironically, Cassie is right that Wanda shouldn't be trusted, but not for the reason she thinks (Wanda is actually Loki, God of Mischief, in disguise).
  • Wiccan had trouble trusting the Super-Skrull after the Super-Skrull, in his desperation to bring Hulkling back to the Skrull Empire so that he, as the rightful heir to the Skrull throne, can bring peace and order to the Empire burned Hulkling's mother actually the Skrull nanny entrusted by his real mother to raise and protect him in secrecy to death right in front of him. Hulkling was surprisingly forgiving, especially after the Super-Skrull explains his reasons while showing genuine guilt, but his boyfriend was not.

Volume 2

• Affirmative-Action Legacy: America Chavez is also the third person to use the Miss America identity, and both of her predecessors were white women.
• Alternate Universe: In vol. 2, the Young Avengers travel through many dimensions and worlds to chase after the entity that kidnaps Tommy. Miss America herself is described as an inter-dimensional street superhero.
• Back from the Dead: in the new series, the dead parents of several Young Avengers: including Loki's father Laufey, Marvel Boy's and Ms. America's Parents.
• Bad Future: Vol. 2 issue 8 is dedicated to showing the many ways the Young Avengers can destroy the world.
• Becoming the Mask: Loki grew to genuinely like the Young Avengers during his time on the team.
  "I stepped into your part. And now that part steps into me."
• Big Applesauce: Word of God is that Earth-212, the place where Loki first meets America (the person), is a platonic ideal of America where Manhattan has expanded across the entire globe with mountains of Lady Liberty in every bay. Eiffel Tower Effect, indeed.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Volume 2 has "Mother", some creepy dimension-hopper in Patriot's costume, and a team of homicidal exes who turn out to be manifestations of Loki's pathological self-loathing.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Loki, Billy, and Teddy are soundly outclassed by Laufey and he's about to strike until Miss America shows up and stomps Laufey into the ground.
  Billy: "That was...very cool."
  • Billy, Teddy, Loki, and America are captured by the parasite when Noh-Varr bursts into the club and frees them.
  • Teddy and David are about to be devoured by Mother when the rest of the team and as many alternate versions of the team members as they could find bust in and save them.
• Body Horror: Teddy's shapeshifting when forced into a chair shape by Mother.
• Born of Magic: Wiccan (Billy Kaplan) inherited the Scarlet Witch's power set. Kid Loki tormented his boyfriend, Teddy Altman aka Hulkling, with the idea that Billy may have magic(k)ed Teddy himself into existence. As Teddy was a blond, buff, green-skinned shapeshifting alien heir and son of one of Earth's Greatest Heroes and a Skrull princess, Loki mused how unlikely his very existence was, even if he was "a very lovely daydream". Without having a way to truly determine if Wiccan had inadvertently wished Hulkling to exist and be his perfect boyfriend, Hulkling decided that it didn't matter, because he loved Wiccan either way.
• Breather Episode: Played with in vol.2 issue 6. Having just ended the introductory story arc, which included some very fraught scenes for our heroes, the issue instead focuses on re-introducing Tommy Shepherd (an old member of the team) and David Alleyne (an ex X-Man who hadn't been featured in a long time). They're introduced working in a shitty job together, they befriend each other, and the first half of the issue is relaxed and fun - very typical of a breather episode. Then a mystery is introduced, but on the surface, it seems like one that can be solved by the end of the issue. And then there's a sudden Genre Shift and the ending is a Cosmic Horror Story.
• But Not Too Gay: In the relaunched series, Billy leaves Teddy's room because he doesn't want to be found in there after midnight. They're both fully clothed and didn't do anything more than a chaste kiss.
• Came Back Wrong: A weird variant. It turns out that grabbing your boyfriend's dead mom from an alternate universe isn't a good idea when you don't carefully choose said alternate universe.
• Captain Geographic: Miss America, despite not actually being American. Or from this Earth.
• Cast Full of Gay: In Gillen's run. Besides Billy and Teddy from the previous run, the second run establishes America Chavez as lesbian, David Alleyne and Noh-Var as bisexual. Meanwhile, Loki is nonbinary, and hit on almost every team member (not mentioning the League of the Evil Exes), and is the patron god of queer people. Lampshaded in this bit of dialogue when Noh-Varr's bisexuality rounds out the team:
  Kate: Wait— Hold up! Am I the only person on the team who's straight?
  America: Princess. I've seen the way you look at me. You're not that straight.
• Code Name: Played With with Miss America, who is a young woman named America Chavez.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Billy's magic is blue, Loki's is green and Wanda's is red. Best demonstrated in issue 5 where Loki runs away with Billy's power and is about to do some magic on the cloud. The pentagram is blue as it's powered by Billy's magic but lined with green as Loki is the one who's manipulated it. Based on the covers, the 2013 run also seems to associate America with blue, Billy with red, Kate with purple, Noh-var with yellow and Teddy with green.
• Coming-Out Story: Played straight in volume two with Prodigy, who came out to Teddy as bisexual (having "never said that out loud before") after expressing an attraction to him.
• Corrupted Character Copy: America Chavez in concept is Wonder Woman if spoiled by her mothers in paradise, who left her home not to return a stranded soldier and bring peace to his warring world but out of a desire to find fame and glory, and is motivated more by boredom than love, to the point she briefly stops helping people altogether until their problems become interesting enough, becoming a homeless Rummage Sale Reject until something motivates her enough to care again. Chavez does become more altruistic over time, however.
• Dance Party Ending: Volume 2 ends with the team partying it up at New Year's alongside other young superheroes before moving on to new adventures.
• A Day in the Limelight: In the new run, issue #6 focuses solely on Prodigy and Speed, as well as being drawn by guest artist Kate Brown.
• Fourth Wall Psych: In vol. 2, Kid Loki appears to be delivering an Audience Monologue in an amber void, elaborating on his character. On the next page, he is revealed to be...in a field of clouds in the sky at dusk, haranguing the real Loki.
• Frame Break: In Gillen's run, an instance of being trapped in a sort of outside dimension is represented as being trapped in comic panels on a blank page, which characters have to crawl around and break apart the lines to liberate each other.
• Godzilla Threshold: Mother proves to be such a threat to not just Earth, but the entire universe, that Wiccan breaks the team’s Thou Shalt Not Kill rule and obliterates her with his Demiurge powers.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: Vol.2, issue 11. When going against combined forces of Mother, Leah's team and army of their evil alternate selves David decides to call for backup - other teenage superheroes. All of them.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Miss America. Loki attempts this in vol 2 #4 but is shut down by America.
• Identity Breakdown: In the 2014 run of the series, Kid Loki suggests to Hulkling that his boyfriend Wiccan, who is a reality warper, subconsciously willed him in to existence as a perfect fantasy. The idea shakes him so badly that he takes a break from the relationship, the team, and began seeing a therapist.
• Interspecies Romance: Kate (human) and Noh-Varr (Kree)
• Interrupted Suicide: v2 had two of these. Both were Loki interrupting Wiccan (who thought, thanks to Loki, that if he died the monster he summoned would go away), first with "Plan A before plan B, Billy", second time with "I Lied" (he did not, but meanwhile found his conscience).
• Klingons Love Shakespeare: Noh-Varr allegedly left his dimension for close harmony girl groups.
• Lame Pun Reaction:
  Ghost of Kid Loki: Well, can't make a Hamlet without breaking a few eggs.
  Loki: That pun makes me glad I killed you.
• Legacy Character: The second series plays with this all over the place - Noh-Varr tried to be the new Captain Marvel, but it didn't work. Kieron Gillen noted he would be surprised if Miss America even heard of the Golden Age Miss America, and Kid Loki actually is The Mighty Thor's Arch-Enemy reborn as a kid who then got his body hijacked by his old self. Gillen says one of the series' main themes is found in Tommy's rant about how much he hates the concept, saying that heroes should find their own style and not copy someone else, revealing in the process that he turned down the idea of calling himself "Quickersilver". In Gillen's words, the positions of Hulk, Thor, Cap and Iron Man are taken, and the current occupants are going nowhere. So he tried to have the characters grow beyond their legacy, and also tried to give them new storytelling engines that were uniquely their own, like Billy becoming the Demiurge, god-figure of another universe.
• Legion of Doom: Created by Leah in vol.2, includes ex boyfriends and girlfriends of team members, Fake Patriot and Mother.
• Mood Whiplash: Issue 6 of vol.2 starts lighthearted with Tommy befriending David over their shitty jobs and turns into horror when some creature shows up in Eli/Patriot's costume stealing from their work place. Tommy tries to investigate it, only to undergo a Mind Rape scene when he tries to confront it. The costume makes him disappear without a trace before taunting the powerless David to put it (the hollow Patriot costume) on and disappears itself after he refuses.
• More Diverse Sequel: The original run had only one character of color, Patriot, although it was also one of the only mainstream series to have a canonically gay couple in the main cast. The sequel series added Latina lesbian America Chavez and bisexual black Prodigy; genderfluid alien Loki also tags along.
• Mr. Fanservice: Noh-Varr spends entire first issue of the second series only in his underwear, and mostly dancing.
• Mythology Gag: In the second series, Kid!Loki is manipulating the formation of this new team for reasons known only to himself - he specifically notes that getting The Avengers together is a classic Loki thing to do. (This is at least the third time that he's done it, and the second time on purpose.)
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Billy again in new series after ressurecting Teddy's mother, Miss America for stopping Loki from preventing it and Loki himself for making her think he wants to kill Billy, which is why she interrupted him in the first place.
• Not Wearing Tights: As creators noted, Miss America doesn't have a costume, just a theme of clothing.
• Now or Never Kiss: David plants a big one on Hulking, just to find out what it was like, and to have a taste of what Billy and Teddy has. He was quite embarrassed by it.
• Only Six Faces: Prevalent in Kieron Gillen's run on the series.
• The Power of Love: Billy and Teddy making up gives Billy enough power to destroy Mother and her spell once and for all. Lampshaded by Loki:
  Loki: Oh, ugh. Is love really going to save us all?
  America: Of course it is. Anyone who thinks otherwise is going to be stomped into paste.
• Put on a Bus:
  • Speed in new series had moved out, because the Kaplans were driving him nuts. Kieron Gillen noted that it's because having him on the team would make the cast too big and the plot too Billy-centered, which he wanted to avoid after Children's Crusade, and because he shares so many bits of personality with either Noh-Varr, Miss America or Kid Loki, that he would probably end up becoming a wallpaper. He returns briefly only to be kidnapped by an Eldritch Abomination; fortunately he comes back properly at the end of the run and reunites with Kate.
  • Eli doesn't appear in the Gillen, due to him leaving to live with his mom elsewhere. Gillen wanted to use him but was told he couldn't as editors had different plans for him, which ultimately never came to anything.
• Putting the Band Back Together: What Loki is apparently trying to do.
  • Recycled Premise: As Loki himself puts it, putting on the Avengers together is one of his greatest hits.
• Repression Never Ends Well: Loki is guilt-ridden over having manipulated events so he could take advantage of his young, previous self and kill him. It causes him to hallucinate his previous self taunting him before things take a turn for the worse and his guilt causes him to unconsciously use his magic to create constructs of the Young Avengers' exes which attack everyone until Loki finally fesses up.
• Rule of Symbolism: In vol. 2, Noh-Varr's ship engine (which is named Kirby) is sparked by belief and runs on imagination. Thus, the moment Billy is encouraged by Teddy and becomes confident that the mess he caused can be solved, the ship starts and the gang escape.
  • Lampshaded when Kate shouts "METAPHOR!"
• Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: Everybody on the cover of volume 2 issue 13, wherein Kate and Noh-Varr are about to shoot you, Billy is about to zap you, and Hulking and Prodigy stand behind in the ready position, but most intimidating of all is that Miss America has grabbed the front of your shirt and is about to punch you.
• Slut-Shaming: Kate mentally discusses it with herself in the beginning of the first issue of the second series, thinking she should be ashamed of herself for having a one-night-stand with Marvel Boy. She then decides that such thoughts are idiotic.
  • Played straight out of universe though. Issue number three's letter page has a very critical letter attached concerning this, believing that the two sleeping together makes them both 'instantly dislikable,' as it's not the kind of behavior superheroes should be partaking in. While Kieron Gillen disagrees and had to respond in the most withdrawn manner he could, he vents his frustration at this sentiment on his tumblr page, while mentioning that it's not the only letter like this he got (he chose the one that was actually printable), with most putting focus on Kate doing the act. Evidently, Mr Gillen does not like the idea that there's anything wrong with a woman sleeping with a guy she likes on the first date.
• Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: Somebody asked Kieron Gillen, the writer of the new series, about it. He answered by yelling that every time somebody tries to force Marvel Universe's timeline to make sense, a character in Avengers Arena gets their wings.
• Telecom Tree: In #11, Prodigy texts a couple of friends to run interference for the team while they get close to the Big Bad. They texted some friends and... The next pages shows a telecom tree of young heroes that has expanded to fill a full page.
• 10-Minute Retirement: At the end of Children's Crusade most of the team quits superheroing. Everybody who quit except for Eli is back in the game by issue five of volume two. And who knows what Eli's going to be getting up to.
• There Are No Therapists: In vol. 2, Teddy mentions seeing a therapist to deal with the fact that Billy may or may not have manipulated reality to get together with him. However, it should also be noted that Teddy's therapist is Leah, who has a grudge against Loki and is stated to be antagonistic.
• Two Girls to a Team: Kate Bishop and America Chavez.
• Wham Episode:
  • Issue #10 of the new series - Teddy's new friend-therapist is Leah. And she's collaborating with Mother.
  • Issue #12 - Leah isn't Leah. She is personification of Loki's self-hate.
• Wham Shot: Issue #8 of the new series concludes with Prodigy and Hulking separated from the group by the parasite when Prodigy suddenly pulls Hulkling into a kiss.

---