Avengers: The Children's Crusade #1(of 9)

Avengers: The Children's Crusade #1: Writer: Allan Heinberg(!). Pencils: Jim Cheung(!). The ORIGINAL Young Avengers creative team!!!

Review: We get started with the Young Avenger kids battling some crazy racist bible-thumping terrorists. The YA's pretty much have matters in hand, until one of the terrorists claim to have a nuclear device on his body, and that he'd be happy to martyr himself. At this time Captain America(Steve Rogers), Iron Man and Ms. Marvel arrive on the scene, just as the nutjob was about to detonate himself. Before he can though, Wiccan uses his magic in a way he never had before, and the world quickly turns white(ala the Scarlet Witch). When things go back to normal, only the YA and Avengers are still standing, while all of the terrorists lay around comatose. The three Avengers take the kids back to the YA headquarters, and Iron Man reveals the whole ugly truth about what the Scarlet Witch had done after she went crazy(among other things, killed Vision, Ant-Man and Hawkeye, rewrote reality, and de-powered almost all of the mutants). With Wiccan most likely containing the soul of one of Wanda's thought to be dead twins, the adult Avengers are kind of concerned that Wiccan could potentially have inherited Wanda's reality warping powers, and as such want to bring him in for testing. Wiccan tries to explain that he isn't his “mother” and hadn't done anything wrong, but all the Avengers can see in him is his “mother” Wanda and his “grandfather”, Magneto. Feeling betrayed, Wiccan storms off in a huff, telling the Avengers that he wouldn't go through with their evaluation. The Young Avengers follow Wiccan outside and for the most part they seem to think Wiccan should go along with the Avengers, which only upsets him more, and causes him to storm away from them as well. Upon arriving home, Wiccan finds Captain America talking to his parents about his powers. Feeling completely boxed in, Wiccan finally relents and agrees to go with Cap, who tells the Young Avenger that the Avengers would only hold him until they knew what he was capable of. While Wiccan and Cap are flying to the Avengers Tower, they run into Wiccan's boyfriend Hulkling, who tells Cap that nothing had better happen to Wiccan while he was in Avengers custody. Cap tells Hulkling that he's invited to come along to see that the Avengers mean Wiccan no harm. Hulkling and Wiccan end up in a guest room at Avengers Tower, and before they can get comfortable, Speed breaks in and tells the boys that he was there to break them out. Before the two can stop him, Speed runs them through the wall to the rest of the Young Avengers, who were waiting outside. Wiccan explains that while he appreciates the trouble the team went through to get him out of the Tower, he was going to stay, since wherever he ran to the Avengers would ultimately find him. Stature tells Wiccan that instead of giving up, the team should try to find the Scarlet Witch, and show her the her thought to be dead twins(Wiccan and Speed)were alive and well. Stature reasoned that if Wanda learned of this, maybe Wanda would bring Stature's father(Ant-Man)back to life, as well as undo the spell that decimated the mutant race. The team begins to lean towards this course of actions, but before they can decide on a course of action, Magneto(!!)arrives on the scene, stating that it was about time he met his grandchildren.

What I Thought: Ahhhhh....... How I missed this series... I'm so glad to be reading a new Young Avengers story that I can't really say anything negative here. Although to be honest, there really isn't anything negative that I COULD say! I guess I could complain about how easily Wiccan gave up and decided to allow himself to be jailed by the Avengers, but even that was explained away when Wiccan stated that no matter where he went, the Avengers would always find him. No, this comic was nearly flawless. Sure some of the characters didn't get a lot of talking time, but the ones who did sounded exactly as I remembered them. What a satisfying comic book!

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.I'd guess the answer to that is that it depends on the prison...