And, the team has to deal with serious consequences, like death. Kate Bishop's revelation at the end to Jessica Jones is startling, and makes me appreciate her character even more. Even the hints at romance among the team members were subtly handled and enjoyable. But what I liked most about the book is that the characters grow and develop throughout. It was downright funny when Cap decides to tell on the kids to their parents! In fact, there is a lot of humor in the story. Captain America and Iron man are justifiably concerned that these young heroes are a danger to themselves and others, and want to force them to disband. And the action scenes are truly exciting and well done. I was afraid the story would get bogged down in teen angst, but the writer cleverly kept the teens realistic (as superheroes can be) with fears of parental disapproval and bickering among themselves as the main source of tension outside of the action-laden encounters. Both stories have big players involved and give this new team a valid reason to exist. The plot of the second half is built around the truth of Hulkling's origin. His team doesn't know who he really is, but when he tells Captain America and Iron Man, the stakes become much higher. The identity of Iron Lad is at the core of the plot for the first half of the book. Cassie Lang finds Kate at the hospital after the event and they decide to join this new team (Speed joins close to the end). Kate Bishop comes onto the scene when she saves Patriot during the team's 'rescue' of a wedding party she is in. The story opens with four young heroes fumbling through crime-fighting: Iron Lad, Patriot, Hulkling and Asgardian. But, Heinberg does a brilliant job not only of building a plausible origin story for these young heroes, but one that seamlessly fits into the larger Marvel universe. It's not easy to get readers interested in brand new heroes, especially when they are 'modeled' after some iconic ones. I can now see why it is so highly rated and I have a new appreciation for the Marvel Now series. Even though I have stuck mostly to reading the Marvel crossover events, I decided to pick up this original YA collection, which debuted after Avengers Disassembled, because three of them appear in both series. I have had some difficulty getting into the new Marvel Now 'Young Avengers' series mainly because I just don't care about the characters (aside from Kid Loki), because there is so little character development.

Young avengers allan heinberg