Young Avengers Vol 2: Alternative Culture and Vol 3: Mic-Drop at the Edge of Time and Space by Kieron Gillen

Young Avengers Vol 2: Alternative Culture and Vol 3:  Mic-Drop at the Edge of Time and Space written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Jamie McKelvie and Kate Brown is the second volume in the latest iteration of Young Avengers. I have previously reviewed Vol 1: Style > Substance. (As a side note, yay for Young Avengers having better blurbs than most Marvel paperbacks!)

Ever wonder what the super hero equivalent of a terrible soul-sucking, talent-wasting temp job is? Wonder what Tommy (aka Speed) has been up to? Wonder why mutant David Alleyne (aka Prodigy) hasn't been even in the background in any one of the eight thousand X-books? Discover answers herein! Then: existential horror turns cosmic horror as something emerges from the shadows of the past...and it seems that the Young Avengers have one more thing to worry about. The team races desperately across the multi verse in pursuit of their missing friend, but their road trip goes crazy as it reaches its desti nati on. Because its desti nati on is mainly excitement and heartbreak. Several Young Avengers decide what to do next. The question is, whether they stay Young Avengers! Plus: Are you ready for Mother's Day?They say you can never go home. For the Young Avengers, that's not true. They can go home — it's just that if they do, the universe may end. The team takes on the gig to save reality, but is Kate Bishop an enemy in waiting? Will Noh-Varr get an arrow through the head? And is this the end of the loveable/strangle-able Kid Loki? As the Young Avengers take on "the Young Avengers," Loki's scheme reaches its final twist — and the Young Avengers' jaws hit the floor. Then, the team gathers in a nightclub for a string of connected and overlapping stories illustrated by an all-star cast of people we really like. And as the New Year looms, the Young Avengers get a resolution — and so do you. Plus: Kissing! Drama! Conflict! Kissing!

Young Avengers continues to be a fun series to read. These two volumes dealt with the problem set up in the first volume and also introduced a new problem for them to deal with. Character-wise it also added Prodigy, whose superpower is, loosely speaking, being smart.

Young Avengers keeps playing with art style throughout these two volumes, just like it did with the first. I particularly liked the credits pages, which were very creative and different each issue. The way the different dimensions were represented, similarly to the first volume, continued to be pretty cool. I like the meta of comic book characters looking at comic books.

The characters continue to be awesome and these two volumes are probably more character driven than the first. Where the first volume set up a big bad, these two have room for more sass and lovers quarrels and other drama. There's also a lot of queer representation, which is nice to see, especially in a comic aimed at teen readers.

Young Avengers was a fun read overall and I would definitely recommend this series to anyone with an interest in comics or superheroes. If you've read and enjoyed the first volume, I definitely recommend continuing. If you're new to the series, I suggest starting from the beginning.

4 / 5 stars

First published: 2014, Marvel
Series: Young Avengers Vol 2 and 3 of 3. Containing issues #6-15
Format read: Digital
Source: Marvel Unlimited