Allen Heinberg // Jim Cheung
May 2011
****
A:TCC‘s strongest issue, prob’ly cuz it plays to Heinb’s strengths: character & dialog, and his core team of Young Avs. Some closure as Iron Lad, by killing Vision 2.0, accepts his destiny as Kang the Conqueror. The catastrophe gets treated w/ emotional weight, as the team drifts apart over months.
last issue: Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #8 of 9
also indexed for May ’11
The Fantastic Four #604
FF #16
Allen Heinberg // Jim Cheung
March 2012
****
There’s no good way to retcon a bad story, so A:TCC provides multiple ones for Wanda M’s haywire episodes, incl. the possibility that Doom was behind it all. Now he’s got cosmic powers, unluckily for Cassie Lang. The storytellers play fairly, trading her life for her father’s resurrection.
last issue: Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #7 of 9
next issue: Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #9 of 9
also indexed for Mar. ’12
The Fantastic Four #601
FF #13
Allen Heinberg // Jim Cheung
November 2011
***
With 4 superteams in this ish, it’s no surprise that characters get lost in the melée. The mag’s real point is a retcon of Av Disassembled & reversal of House of M. Offpage, the Scarlet Witch had allied with Dr. Doom to tap into a “life-force” that gave her reality-altering powers.
last issue: Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #6 of 9
next issue: Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #8 of 9
also indexed for Nov. ’11
FF #9
Allen Heinberg // Jim Cheung
August 2011
****
The Scarlet Witch confirms that, yes, she is Wiccan’s mother, metaphysically at least. It’s earnest comic sturm und drang that makes A:TCC the best “essential” Marvel U. tale of the terrible Bendis Era. To underscore this mini’s central status, X-teams (incl. David’s X-Fac) make strong cameos.
last issue: Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #5 of 9
next issue: Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #7 of 9
also indexed for Aug. ’11
FF #5
Allen Heinberg // Jim Cheung
June 2011
****
Kid Kang, AKA Iron Lad, returns from the future; if Young Avs had been Heinberg & Cheung all along, this would be a thrilling development. Anyway, his time travel allows for this maxiseries remit: to “correct” the catastrophic plot of Disassembled, such as a broken Scarlet Witch & dead Scott Lang.
continued from Avengers: The Children’s Crusade: Young Avengers #1 of 1
last issue: Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #4 of 9
next issue: Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #6 of 9
also indexed for Jun. ’11
FF #2
Allen Heinberg // Alan Davis
May 2011
***
Heinberg’s worst single issue in a fun split run. Storywise, his one-shot means to raise the stakes by showing Kang mis-leading the adult YAs in a timewar. But it slides into a needless “issue #0” flashback. Tho’ Davis isn’t in his element (chatty spandex comics), he does yeoman’s work.
continued from Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #4 of 9
continued in Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #5 of 9
also indexed for May ’11
FF #1
Allen Heinberg // Jim Cheung
March 2011
***
Scribe Heinberg places his legacy team-up against some heavy foes: Dr. Doom, Magneto, the Avengers… Ironically, the “heroic” team is the most violent & unambiguously motivated. In the melée, many of the Young Avs get shrifted, tho’ Heinberg’s favorite member, Wiccan, shares the focus with Wanda M.
continued in Avengers: The Children’s Crusade: Young Avengers #1 of 1
last issue: Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #3 of 9
next issue: Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #5 of 9
also indexed for Mar. ’11
The Fantastic Four #587
Allen Heinberg // Jim Cheung
January 2011
***
Talky but still stronger than Bendis’ Avengers comics, whose failures this mag seeks to correct. In fact, A:TCC casts those New Avengers as villains, which makes sense considering their smug bullying. Meanwhile, the kids have uncovered the Scarlet Witch, amnesiac and affianced to Dr. Doom!
last issue: Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #2 of 9
next issue: Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #4 of 9
also indexed for Jan. ’11
The Fantastic Four #585
Allen Heinberg // Jim Cheung
November 2010
***
To find his “metaphysical” mother (the Scarlet Witch), Wiccan & the gang team up w/ Magneto & Quicksilver for a trip to C. Europe. As if guided by destiny or plot necessity, they learn that she’s a Doombot! Trad super-team comics in a modern idiom, driven by character dynamics & fannish continuity.
last issue: Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #1 of 9
next issue: Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #3 of 9
also indexed for Nov. ’10
The Fantastic Four #583
Allen Heinberg // Jim Cheung
September 2010
***
The creators of Young Avs reunite to rescue their fine team from cameo limbo & tie up the essential loose end: the relationship btw Speed & Wiccan to the Scarlet Witch’s “lost” twin children. It feels as if the reader has simply missed a few years of issues while the cast shuffled & powered up.
next issue: Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #2 of 9
also indexed for Sept. ’10
The Fantastic Four #581
Allen Heinberg // Jim Cheung
August 2006
***
YA, like Astonishing X, has hit catastrophic delays, & sadly folds up shop just as it begins to deliver on its potential. That Marvel space-opera, the Kree-Skrull War, reverbs as Avengers kids & adults fight to keep Hulkling from getting drafted by both sides. Clean fun, classic superhero comics.
last issue: Young Avengers #11
also indexed for Aug. ’06
Astonishing X-Men #15
Civil War #2 of 7
Nextwave, Agents of HATE #6
Allen Heinberg // Jim Cheung
May 2006
****
Hulkling learns he’s the illegit son of Capt. Marvel & a Skrull princess, conceived during the Kree-Skrull War! Wiccan & Speed too have an illustrious parentage, as their souls transmigrated from the Scarlet Witch’s lost twins! The electrifying reveals epitomize the legacy approach of this mag.
last issue: Young Avengers #10
next issue: Young Avengers #12
also indexed for May ’06
Iron Man #6
Nextwave, Agents of HATE #3
The Pulse #14
Mark Millar // Steve McNiven
November 2006
*
Plot holes are starting to gape as Stark supplements SHIELD agents w/ super-convicts. Even worse are the book’s politics. Truth is, Millar comes at the Bush Admin from the Right, composing a libertarian nightmare where criminals are paroled to round up true Americans like Cap & a reformed Spidey.
[last issue: Civil War #4 of 7]
[next issue: Civil War #6 of 7]
