Reviews 

Book of the Week: Avengers – The Children’s Crusade #2

By | September 2nd, 2010
Posted in Reviews | % Comments


Written by Allan Heinberg with art by Jim Cheung

THE RACE IS ON as the Avengers, the Young Avengers, and the X-Men compete to be the first to find the Scarlet Witch. When the Young Avengers discover the secret of Wanda Maximoff’s disappearance, the Avengers attempt to neutralize the Scarlet Witch before the Young Avengers can find her. But their efforts soon lead to an all-out war between the Avengers and the X-Men that only the Young Avengers can stop.

Check after the cut for what Gil and I thought of the second issue in the return of the Young Avengers and the Scarlet Witch.

Matt’s Thoughts: If I remember correctly, some people were rather torn on their opinions on the first issue. I get the feeling that many people were unhappy with the heavy amount of exposition, as well as how the book seemed to be mildly stagnant. Well, to those of you were for whatever reason unsure of the book after the first issue, this should assuredly make you happy.

The second issue is much stronger than the first. It really has the Young Avengers vibe to it that Heinberg and Cheung brought to the original with young Kang. It’s a rather sharp read with an appropriate amount of sass and sarcasm from the cast, as well as general humor and wit. The story is much more fast paced this time around as Magneto attempts to persuade the children to work with him before the Avengers bring a fight, and of course soon after that they fight another long over due special guest star. Of course, the actual ending to the issue is a fairly big shocker, which is pretty great. Granted, it’s an element that is confusing and will assuredly leave fans split, but a good cliffhanger it most assuredly is.

Heinberg and Cheung are very on the ball with this. You can really tell they love the characters and that they love Marvel. It feels completely natural in progression and it’s elements of the story that we’ve all been waiting a long time to see. Heinberg’s writing is so on point with these characters it seems effortless for him. Cheung is absolutely the master of his craft here, and the book looks completely clean and hits all the right notes. This book totally deserves it’s place as Book of the Week here.

It’s tough to write about this comic without sounding like too much of a fanboy here, but the long story short of it is that you should definitely be reading this comic. Ever since I first heard about it, the whole concept behind the book has gotten my incredibly jazzed, and this issue is absolutely the reason why. Bad ass Magneto hanging out with the ever so excellent Young Avengers as they search for the Scarlet Witch. I don’t need much more than this to be happy.

Gil’s Thoughts: In the second issue of this series, I was expecting it to be pretty awesome. But I had no idea it would turn out to be this awesome! There aren’t many books where you can have appearances from Magneto, the Avengers, Wundagore Mountain, and a few surprises on which I won’t spill the beans! The ending is a real shocker, and it’s one that I welcomed. Heinberg assuredly has a ton of twists and turns coming down the pipe, as this is only two issues in and we’ve gotten this far. And if you’ve ever watched his work on Grey’s Anatomy, you know he’s capable of that on a regular basis.

And Cheung’s work on this book is just gorgeous. He can seemingly alternate between urban and rural scenes on the fly, making them beautiful landscapes in vastly different ways. If there’s one thing I would like him to work on it’s the fact all of his faces look exactly the same. But other than that, it’s just plain lovely.

The book is such a solid mini; I hope it turns into something ongoing. But until then, I’ll hold out hope for a Young Avengers/Grey’s Anatomy crossover.


Matthew Meylikhov

Once upon a time, Matthew Meylikhov became the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Multiversity Comics, where he was known for his beard and fondness for cats. Then he became only one of those things. Now, if you listen really carefully at night, you may still hear from whispers on the wind a faint voice saying, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not as bad as everyone says it issss."

EMAIL | ARTICLES