With Mother defeated, the alternate Young Avengers banished, and Loki having gone through a whole character development thing, the Young Avengers throw a wrap party for their own series while offering some resolutions to dangling plot threads along the way. Read our review below!
Written by Kieron Gillen
Illustrated by Jamie McKelvie, Emma Vieceli, Christian Ward, & Annie Wu
ISSUE #14 – RESOLUTION (1 of 2)
• We gather in a night club, and have a string of connected and overlapping stories starring our cast. It’s a completely and unprecedented approach to a story in comics history. There are no parallels. We refuse to accept it.
•Team Young Avengers are joined by an all-start cast of some people we really like. Each individual section gets one individual artist. It’s a metaphor, probably.
• It’s been one hell of a year. In two episodes, one before and one after the new year, the Young Avengers get resolution. You guys do as well.
God, I can’t believe “Young Avengers” is ending. More to the point, I can’t believe “YA” is ending with a thinly veiled version of “Phonogram: The Singles Club.” Sure, when the series started a lot of hype was built around it being “Phonogram in the Marvel Universe” and aside from McKelvie’s art and Gillen’s musical influences, that was never completely true. Now, with “Resolution,” the epilogue that’s set to tie up all the run’s loose ends during a New Year’s party, “Young Avengers” has literally become “Phonogram 2.5.” And it couldn’t be any better.
What was keeping “Young Avengers” from delving into full “Phonogram” territory wasn’t the party atmosphere per say, but more of a personal focus. The series dealt heavily with relationships yes, but almost exclusively between cosmic punches or armies of Kree Supreme Noh-Varrs. Now, with the big bad defeated, the story has a chance to breathe and explain some things. For the most part, this doesn’t feel like a stream of info dumps. Of course the Young Avengers would celebrate a huge multidimensional battle with an after party at a nightclub, they’re teenagers. There are a few moments that feel really sudden (Miss America’s sequence, the surprise character at the issue’s end) but that only fits in with the party atmosphere of the book. Some things may not make sense now, but it’s a party! Dance all night and deal with consequences in the morning (or when issue #15 comes out.)
McKelvie begins the celebrations with his art that, once again, proves to be one of the prettiest in the industry. The sequence, depicting a bromance between two characters who always could have used more time together and, through a slanted eight-panel sequence, we get one character’s entire reaction to one of the dour events from last issue beautifully illustrated. From there, from that personal moment, we’re taken to the nightclub where, predictably, McKelvie draws the everloving hell out of a party scene. Did you ever want to see Skaar throw down on the dance floor? Yes! That happens!
Following McKelvie’s sequence comes other vignettes illustrated by guest artists, all of whom sort of pale in comparison to McKelvie on a general basis, but excel with their individual stories. Emma Vieceli and Lee Loughridge get an introspective scene regarding Billy and Teddy that serves as an end cap to all the drama they faced together, and a redeeming moment for David. One thing that must be noted about Vieceli’s art is how expressive she makes the boys’ faces, really selling the emotions they’ve experienced during the run culminating to one moment on the dance floor. Especially Billy whose demiurge button-up is utterly fab. Plus, keep a look out for the guy by the punch bowl. He loks pretty sketchy.
Christian Ward tackles Miss America’s Chavez segment and… wow that’s pretty much all of the answers we were asking for wasn’t it? Without taking away her air of mystery, Gillen and Ward offer an in-depth explanation of who America is that stretches all the way back to the Marvel Now! Point One from last year. In fear of giving away the story, I won’t go ingot too much detail over what occurs but Ward is a natural talent at the kind of childlike wonder this story involves. Like Vieceli, his characters have wonderfully expressive faces but his painted style ensures that his segment of the story still remains all his own.
Finally, Annie Wu handles the last portion of the issue which serves as an excellent epitaph to the other relationship of the run. When I mentioned this issue finally making “Young Avengers” feel like “Phonogram,” this vignette was the sequence that clinched it. Someone facing an ex, turning them down, growing up themselves, and facing an element that’s seemingly come out of nowhere only to surrender to the power of music (which if the playlist is to be believed is Nelly’s “Getting Hot in Here”?) Yeah, this is “Phonogram.” Not just “Phonogram,” but also one of the most iconic moments in the series that Wu renders masterfully. The Young Avengers dancing their cares away and yeah there’s still stuff to be explained and yeah there’s still plenty of problems to be had but in this moment, none of that matters. All that does is the music. All that ever mattered was the music.
Final Verdict: 9.5 – Buy! The playlist lists the final song for the next issue as LCD Soundsystem’s “All My Friends” so let’s cut to the chase and call that one a Buy too.
