Dark Reign: Young Avengers #3
Young Masters, Part 3
After discovering another group has been calling themselves the Young Avengers, the team has given their imitators an opportunity to try out for the group.[1] They newcomers get to this trial run soon as New York City is seemingly under siege from the terrorist group known as Hydra. As the media reports on the two teams working together, it is reported that Norman Osborn — America’s top cop — is waiting to see how the situation develops.[2]
Near the Brooklyn Bridge, Stature (Cassie Lang) is testing fellow size changer Big Zero (Amity Hunter). They use their giant size to deal with Hydra attack helicopters. However, Cassie has to step in and prevent civilian injury during the fight due to Zero’s reckless action. She is particularly disturbed when Amity hopes that police officers are killed in the battle.
Elsewhere, the Patriot (Eli Bradley) and the Melter (Chris Colchiss) are fighting some Hydra agents on the ground. Eli brings up the fact that Big Zero has fascist tattoos and dresses a Neo-Nazi and questions how she could be a hero. Chris doesn’t disagree with her problematic appearance, but insists that there is still a good person inside Amity somewhere. As the two fight, Patriot also notices that Melter isn’t using his powers in battle. Chris explains that he tries not to, hiding the truth, and this convinces Eli that he might have what it takes after all.[3]
Elsewhere, the Enchantress (Sylvia Lushton) has been paired up with Wiccan (Billy Kaplan) and Hulkling (Teddy Altman). Finally away from her teammates, she drops her faux Asgardian patois and comes clean to them. Sylvia explains that she was a resident of Broxton, Oklahoma, and after the Asgardians rebuilt Asgard there she woke up one day endowed with magical powers.[4] She then decided that she wanted to go to New York and use her powers in the service of the Young Avengers. She tells them this as she uses a spell to turn the attacking Hydra agents into frogs. While this stops the fight, Wiccan finds that the spell goes too far and casts his own to restore the soldiers back to human form and bound in rope instead.
In yet another part of the city, Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) and the Executioner (Danny DuBois) are paired together to stop some rogue robots. Danny explains how joining with his team was merely a stepping stone to join the real Young Avengers. Kate confirms that she chose the robots because she didn’t want Executioner to kill anybody. Infatuated with Hawkeye, Danny is impressed with her archery skills.
Elsewhere still, Speed (Tommy Shepherd) and Coat of Arms (Lisa Molinari) are fighting a Hydra mech in Central Park. There, Tommy insists that she join up with the Young Avengers, even though the team tends to be judgmental and naive, it’s kind of why he likes them and is sure she will too.[5] He then asked where she got her magic multi-armed coat. She explains that it happened shortly after she was released from juvie. She was having a hard time adjusting to a life on the straight and narrow as she believed she was destined for greater things. She frequently aired her complaints about the menial jobs offered to her to her parole officer. One day when she was returning from a meeting she was walking around an alley where she came upon the coat. Someone had placed it on a coat rack and tagged the brick wall behind it with a question: “R superheroes gud?” This is how she got her powers as well as her form of art. She admits that she wants to be a Young Avenger but figures that this feeling of want is how they all got into the current mess they are in.[6]
Lastly, the Vision (Jonas) has been paired up with the android known as Egghead. The Vision notices that his equal has some bigoted ideas and a disregard for human life, almost taking joy in killing humans. When he realizes that Egghead’s programming has been tampered with, Egghead takes offense, saying that he is a person with his own thoughts an opinions and questions if autonomy is only allowed if you agree with another person’s opinion. The Vision sees Egghead’s point and apologizes. Eventually, the battle is over and it is time for the Young Avengers to grade the performance of their potential recruits. The Enchantress then casts a spell to send each group back to their respective bases.
In the ruins of Avengers Mansion, the Young Avengers go over their experiences.[7] Eli says that there is something off about the Melter, his reluctance to use his powers in a fight suggests to him that he is hiding something. On the other hand, both Wiccan and Hulkling have found themselves liking the Enchantress and believe that with some of Billy’s training she could become a valuable asset to the team. Speed admits the obvious, he is both attracted too and wants Coat of Arms on the team. Tommy legitimately believes that she is a good person and that they can take a chance on her as they did on him.[8] Cassie tells the others that she isn’t a fan of Big Zero. She explains that after their battle together she asked about the fascist tattoos she has. Amity claimed she got them because she thought they looked cool and insists that she has Jewish friends, however the explanation wasn’t very convincing and Cassie doesn’t believe she even cared one way or the other. The Vision has the same opinion of Egghead, whom he believes is a psychopath that needs to be shut down for good. All of the Young Avengers agree with his assessment without question.
This leaves Hawkeye and her report on the Executioner. Kate tells them that they are going to have a problem with him. After the battle, she spent some time with Danny on a rooftop. He bragged about how his mother is insanely wealthy because she has been investing in green technologies that will save the world. He then shows off an anti-theft device he created called the noose, a device that would electrocute would-be thieves. She is disturbed that he tested the device out on a cat. Kate tries to let him down gently by calling him by his first name, saying that their computers were able to identify him. Danny finds this amusing, and tells her that he knows that she is Kate Bishop and that they both attend the same private school. He figures that knowing her secret identity will be his ticket to getting onto the Young Avengers.
Hearing this shocks the Young Avengers and Wiccan offers to use a spell to wipe his mind. Kate vetoes that idea since Billy wouldn’t do that to anyone in any other situation and she doesn’t want him to start now. She then concludes her story by telling the group what she wanted to say in response. It was a long rant about how the Executioner was a psychopath and adding him to the Young Avengers would be an insult to everything to stand for. However, instead she merely told him that she would confer with her teammates and get back to him about membership.[9] Still, the rest of the team promise they won’t let Danny blackmail his way onto the team and that they’ll make this all work out somehow. Kate thanks them for the effort but also worries if these would-be teammates might taint who they are as a team.
Meanwhile, at the other group’s Invisible Mansion, the would-be Young Avengers also relate their experiences. When the Melter asks his team if they want to join up with the real Young Avengers, nearly everyone laughs at the idea. Lisa goes back to her room and does another painting. This one a graph that charts the correlation between great power and great responsibility.[10] She begins drawing an upward slope before she draws a line straight down. Lastly, the Executioner meets with his mother who wanted to check up on him in person. She has swallowed his story about how he wants to bankroll the Young Avengers and that he is dating Kate Bishop. He corrects her that he and Kate are not dating, at least not yet and gets fussy when she tries to touch him. She reminds him that she is paying for this venture because she wants to do whatever it takes to make him happy.
Little do they know that they are being monitored by the Iron Patriot (Norman Osborn). As it turns out he staged the Hydra attack with his own HAMMER agents as a test of these new “Young Avengers”. He tells his aide to look into their backgrounds and find out which of these 13 kids have killed anyone and to let him know right away the moment one of them calls.
Recurring Characters
Young Avengers (Patriot, Hulkling, Wiccan, Stature, Hawkeye, Vision, Speed), “Young Avengers” (Melter, Coat of Arms, Enchantress, Executioner, Big Zero, Egghead), Iron Patriot, HAMMER
Continuity Notes
Here the media wonders if this is actually the “International Avengers”, referring to Hank Pym’s team that was formed in Mighty Avengers #21. Norman Osborn has been in charge of national security since he killed the leader of a Skrull invasion of Earth in Secret Invasion #8. He will retain this position until Siege #4.
Last issue, Chris accidentally used his powers on an old lady who fell when she mistook his attempts to aid her as a robbery and attacked him.
Asgard was destroyed during Ragnarok in Thor (vol. 2) #80-85. Later, when Thor returned in Thor (vol. 3) #1, he used the Odinpower to recreate Asgard on Earth and at the time of this story it currently hovers over the town of Broxton, as seen in Thor (vol. 3) #2. There it will remain until Siege #4. As we’ll learn next issue, Sylvia was given her magical powers by Loki for reasons that, as of this writing (May, 2024), are unrevealed.
As we learned last issue, Tommy and Lisa used to know each other back when they were incarcerated in a juvenile detention center together.
She is referring to the near police state that the United States is in at the time of this story. How we got here is three fold: First, the United States government passed the Super Human Registration Act (SHRA) in Civil War #3, requiring superhumans to register from the government. Next came a Skrull invasion of Earth that nearly succeeded because SHIELD was compromised. This led to Norman Osborn becoming picked as the Director of SHIELD’s successor HAMMER. See Secret Invasion #1-8. This dire situation will come to an end following the events of Siege #1-4.
Avengers Mansion was left in ruins after the Scarlet Witch attacked her own teammates in Avengers #500-503. It will remain in this state until New Avengers (vol. 2) #1.
The Young Avengers broke Speed out of juvie to be on their team in Young Avengers #10.
Although not implicitly stated here, Kate might have been reluctant to say anything to upset Danny because she is a sexual assault survivor as revealed in Young Avengers Special #1. As such, even though she can defend herself, she was likely trying to diffuse a potentially dangerous situation.
Behind Coat of Arms is a painting of Captain America punching Hitler in the mouth while shouting “Am I real?”, this is paying homage to the cover of Captain America Comics #1, which features the iconic image of Captain America punching Hitler (the only sane response when dealing with a Nazi). Her “Great Power/Great Responsibility” chart is inspired by the motto of Spider-Man, which has been his credo since Amazing Fantasy #15. A footnote here gives credit to iFanboy for the idea of the graph. This is in reference to a long running comic book fansite, iFanboy.com, which — at the time — was printing t-shirts featuring a similar “Great Power/Great Responsibility” graph. In their version, the graph line shoots straight up and is stylized with webbing and the Spider-Man Logo. If you’re curious, here’s a link to an old post about the shirt from 2009.
Topical References
Enchantress states that her lisp laden affectation (a poor attempt at speaking like an Asgardian) is “retarded”. This used to be a clinical term used to describe people whose neurodivergence impacts their cognitive development. It is no longer used because it has since been co-opted as a pejorative term. However, since Enchantress is kind of an edgelord, her use of the word in such a fashion (as an insult) isn’t all that surprising. Just because it’s insensitive to use the word doesn’t mean a bad person won’t use it, you dig?
When the Executioner compliments her skill with a bow, Kate says “I am who I am” like “Popeye said”. This is a common refrain from the cartoon strip character Popeye the Sailor. The character first started appearing in cartoon strips published by King Features Syndicate in 1929. Since Popeye is an iconic classic character (not to mention being in the public domain) this wouldn’t necessarily be considered a topical reference. I’m sure you could find a more contemporary quote that wasn’t from the Great Depression if you wanted too though.
Speed refers to his fellow Young Avengers are being “Internet Taliban” when describing how judgmental they are. I am not sure if this was a common slang expression at the time, but it certainly sounds like it. See, this story was published 7 years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and well into America’s 20 year long “War on Terror” in the Middle East. One of the primary belligerents in this conflict were the Taliban a group of Muslim extremists who ruled the nation of Afghanistan both before and shortly after the war. They are best known for their strict zealous adherence to the Quran. I am assuming that Speed’s comment is likely a meta dig at certain people in online communities that are rigid in whatever they believe. Gatekeepers would probably be the modern equivalent in today’s parlance (unless you’re reading this sometime in the future when this term is now dated). Nonetheless, its use should be considered a topical references given the cultural context now being dated.
In her flashback, Lisa finds working in a Wal-Mart beneath her station. This should be considered topical as this is a real world business.
