But why is he a tiny pensive baby cowboy in his Sunday best?
I have no problem with it. I’m just confused.
SHHHH JUST COME
“Hey, you look surprisingly good with bold prints. That couch is pretty loud but there you are, lookin’ fine. You should wear more bold prints yourself.”
“I’ve told you before, Robert, I’m not meeting your tailor.”
I think we’re all too busy chinhanding and sighing with immense satisfaction that Marvel’s finally getting onboard the ship that’s been happily sailing unimpeded by the dictates of canon since Thor 1.
Young Avengers has a kind of rocky publication history. A lot of times they’ve only existed as tie-ins to events, so we’re missing a lot of backstory for the characters (as far as I know we still don’t know how Billy and Teddy met, for example, which was actually a plot point in the last run). There are a couple of sketchy plotlines too, and I’m still annoyed that Eli was written off the team — we were told at the time that it was for a very good and specific reason, but since then, that reason has appeared to be “we wanted to replace him with a white dude”.
That all said, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed what I’ve read of Young Avengers. I’d give the Young Avengers And Runaways titles a miss, there’s way too many twee youths to keep them all straight (I am perhaps biased in that I think the Runaways are grindingly boring as comics, even though I like Victor and Molly). But the original Young Avengers run and the most recent one are both pretty awesome. Children’s Crusade is part of a larger story that may not be a hundred percent comprehensible in terms of plot, but it still has a lot of fun content, like Tommy having a race with Pietro and the “Clint fucked a doombot” scene.
But yeah, I think it’s worth finding the original run at least, and if you like that, you’ll enjoy the rest.
With the greatest respect, I’m going to have to disagree with you on Young Avengers, as someone who recently read it for the first time in order and loved it.
I think if you read the run without reading things like the Children’s Crusade and the crossovers with the Runaways in Civil War and Secret Invasion, you miss out on a lot. I found Children’s Crusade contained enough and was self explanatory enough that I didn’t need to have read any House of M to understand it. It’s really important origin stuff for Tommy and Billy – Billy especially, as it shows you what he’s capable of and adds weight to his storyline in Volume 2 (McKelvie/Gillen’s run). It also gives you grounding information for Prodigy’s depowered state when he arrives in vol. 2. (It also explains what happens to Cassie Lang, who otherwise would disappear without explanation.)
Likewise, the Runaways crossovers are vital for Teddy’s backstory and origins, and the Civil War run in particular gives Noh-Varr (another Vol. 2 character) his origin. I also just plain loved seeing the group interact with another group of powered kids under extraordinary circumstances. Given that Vol. 1 only has them interacting with adults and villains, that was really important to do, I think. The only run I’d say is unneccessary to read is the tie-in for Dark Reign. I actually actively disliked that. It was gratuitously violent, filled with all kinds of bigotry, and mainly focussed on a bunch of villain YA-wannabes and barely showed the actual YA team at all. Plus, when you haven’t read the major Dark Reign run, Osbourn’s team are SUPER-CONFUSING in terms of brand confusion. I wondered why Hawkeye and Iron Man were suddenly being such douchecanoes. You can probably skip the tie-in one-shot for Siege, too, since it’s tiny and just a fragment of a larger story. It doesn’t really add anything.
I’d read:
Young Avengers volume 1 #1-#8, Annual, #9-#12
Young Avengers/Runaways Civil War #1-#4
Young Avengers Presents #1-#6
Young Avengers/Runaways Secret Invasion #1-#3
Young Avengers Children’s Crusade #1-#9 + OneShot
Young Avengers Vol. 2 #1-#15
You and I also have different feelings on Eli Bradley. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I actively hate him, but there’s little love lost there, for me. The only think I liked about him was his backstory – basically, all the stuff about his grandfather and the history of racism in the super soldier program. I did like the way he called Cap onto the mat over that. Otherwise? He’s misogynistic. He’s a bully. He’s someone who wanted so hard to be superpowered he was willing to take backstreet drugs to do it, which is played for the sadness and pathos angle, but then, magically, he gets to be superpowered anyway. I see very little to like in him, very little that’s a positive portrayal for kids or POC, and very little that hasn’t been done before with other characters. He’s meant to be a strong black teen, but when it boils down to it, he’s all about his own manpain. Also, when he tries to date Kate Bishop? He spends an entire issue whining about being friendzoned. (Seriously, reread Young Avengers Presents #6.) Kate Bishop has VERY good reasons for being reluctant to progress into a sexual/romantic relationship with a man (see Young Avengers Annual from Vol 1.), and given the readership KNOWS this and the writers would have known this, it left a nasty taste in my mouth that we were meant to care more about Eli not getting his dick wet than to care about Kate’s healing process. I like David Alleyne (Prodigy) much better. He’s got an interesting (former) mutation, his relationships with the rest of the YA are positive, and he’s another queer character in the mix.
Title: Day Of Atonement Rating: PG Summary: Bucky thinks he’s got a lot to atone for. Fortunately, there’s a holy day for that. Notes: Thanks to arsenicjade for checking this one over for me. 😀
When Steve was little, he didn’t comprehend or even notice that good boys from his building didn’t play with the Jewish boys one block over. When he got older he understood it, but ignored it; after all, his mom didn’t care, so why should he?
Sarah Rogers didn’t give an Irish damn what the biddies in the parish thought of her or her son, as few of them had raised much of a hand to help her when Joseph was alive, and anyone she chose to associate with didn’t give a damn either. On the few occasions someone pointed out Steve’s choice in friends, she said, with an affectionate smile, “Well, Steve’s never been good at idiot rules.”
Steve ran about for most of his childhood in short pants with Bucky Barnes (Lefty Commie Jewish ma, Lefty Commie Convert dad) and Arnie Roth (orthodox, kind-hearted father, dead mother), who lived on the border between the Jewish neighborhood and the Irish one, an invisible but very tough membrane. Arnie drifted off eventually, too scared of seeming any kind of different to play with goyim, but Bucky and Steve battled angry Irish boys in Steve’s half of the street and (less often) tough Jewish boys in Bucky’s half, and soon enough most people who knew them left them alone. Sarah kept a jar of kosher pickles and a special plate for Bucky when he visited, and while she couldn’t send food over to the Barnes family, she did look after Bucky and Becca when the Barnes parents needed to go to a rally or a protest, and the time the strikebreakers put Bucky’s dad in a bad way because he was trying to Unionize.
If Steve ate a lot more matzoh growing up than most Irish, Bucky and Becca occasionally got a meal that might not strictly speaking be entirely kosher.
“Do you remember Yom Kippur back in ‘35, the year after my mom died?” Steve asked. He tried not to ask do you remember too often, but Erev Yom Kippur was in two days, and he didn’t know if Bucky would want to remember, or to participate.
“You wanted to fast with us,” Bucky said, sitting at Sam’s kitchen bar. “Mom wouldn’t let you. She had the Rabbi in to tell you the sick didn’t have to fast.”
“He boxed my ears when I lipped off to him, too.”
“He said that you were a gentile anyway, which was punishment enough.”
“Never lipped off to the Rabbi again,” Steve said ruefully, and Bucky smiled. “It’s comin’ up, you know.”
The smile dropped off his face. “I know.”
“Sam would drive you to Temple if you wanted. We could both fast with you,” Steve ventured. Bucky hadn’t left the house since they’d brought him here.
“Don’t remember much — ” Bucky’s lips twisted. “Bet I could still make kreplach, all the times we watched Mom do it, but the prayers, the words, it’s all…”
He made a faint gesture, fingers fluttering away from his head. Lost to the Winter Soldier.
“They got me,” he said bitterly. “They didn’t put me in a camp but they got me just the same.”
“Hey, no, it’ll come back,” Steve said. “It will. If you can still make kreplach you can still pray. That kinda stuff doesn’t leave you, Buck.”
“It’s Yom Kippur. I got a lot to atone for. There’s too much — “
"I don’t believe that, and I don’t think you do either, not deep down. Anyway, your dad always said the best thing about bein’ a Jew was wholesale one-day forgiveness,” Steve said. Bucky’s mom had always swatted him for that.
Bucky looked at him, head bent, only his eyes moving. “What if I can’t remember?”
“Well, then you’ll have to go back to Hebrew school,” Steve said with a grin. “I hear the Rabbis don’t box ears anymore.”
“Bet they would if you lipped off to them, you were the worst at lipping off,” Bucky replied.
"So you’ll go? Sam and I will come if you want, at least, you know — ”
“Yeah, fine,” Bucky sighed. “I don’t know, dragging you two goyim around with me, G-d better send me patience for the pair of you…”
@actuallyclintbarton , this is relevant to your interests. 🙂
knitting in the dark 