Young Avengers #6
Sidekicks, Part 6
Iron Lad (Nathaniel Richards) came to the past to recruit a new team of Avengers — Patriot (Eli Bradley), Hulkling (Teddy Altman), Asgardian (Billy Kaplan), Cassie Lang, and Kate Bishop — to stop Kang the Conqueror, his future self. This had the unforeseen consequence of altering history that would see the present day a ruined wasteland.[1] Kang had come to force his younger self back to the future to restore reality to its proper order. The Young Avengers resisted this as they did not want to see their friend become the brutal warlord. In the final battle, Nathaniel Richards impaled Kang on Kate’s sword, seemingly killing him.[2]
With the Kang now dead, the timeline shifts away, restoring New York City back to its former glory, including Avengers Mansion.[3] However, there are still unexpected repercussions as rows of grave stones appear on the property. They soon realize the original Avengers are all dead. Cassie looks for her father’s grave and discovers that he is not among the deceased and wonders if he might still be alive in this new timeline.[4] However, the others point out that they can’t know how events are different and its possible that Cassie’s father never has children in this timeline, meaning she could blink out of existence at any moment. The Vision — who has animated Iron Lad’s nuero-kinetic armor — also says that Teddy and Billy are also somehow related to the Avengers and their continued existence is at risk as well![5][6]
However, Eli doesn’t think they have time to wait and find out the hard way and insists that Nathaniel return to his proper time period and follow his dark destiny. He asks Billy to cast a spell to make Richards forget his meeting with the Young Avengers in order to set things right. When Asgardian tries to cast a spell, Nathaniel attacks him, not wanting to go back. That’s when Billy suddenly vanishes from existence. This angers Hulkling who thinks that Iron Lad did something to his friend. That’s when Hulkling vanishes as well. This is enough to convince Nathaniel that he has no other choice but to go back.
He instructs the Vision to open the time portal to send him back home. With the doorway open, Nathaniel says his goodbyes. He and Cassie — who fell in love with one another during the conflict — kiss one last time. He apologizes to them all for the man he is to become, but they promise to remind him of the hero he could have been. Before walking through the time portal, Richards tells them that he loved being a Young Avenger. Once he passes through the portal and it closes, reality is snapped back to its proper order as evidenced by the fact that Avengers Mansion is in ruins once more. They are surprised to see that they are still the Young Avengers and remember everything that happened. Looking for the others, they find Billy and Teddy helping Captain America (Steve Rogers), Iron Man (Tony Stark), and Jessica Jones back to their feet. Apparently, when the timeline was restored, it only erased everything that happened after Kang arrived.
In the aftermath of the battle there still one question that remains: Do Captain America and Iron Man still want to shut them down? Cap sits them down and gives them the uncomfortable truth: While the Young Avengers proved themselves in battle, he cannot allow them to continue to operate unless they have consent from their parents. None of them want to reveal their secrets and without further argument, the team decides that they should all give up and go home. However, Captain America confiscates their gear before they leave. Watching the youths head for home, Steve wonders if he made the right decision.
Before the Young Avengers go their separate ways, they have a private conversation together. Kate insists that they should continue training, but none of them relish the idea of having Captain America against them, or the idea of their parents finding out their secrets. With that, everyone decides to depart. Billy offers to use his magic to give everyone a lift home, but Eli decides to take the subway back to his place in the Bronx. Before he goes, Kate gives him back one of the throwing stars she took during the hostage rescue at St. Patrick’s that she did not hand over to Captain America.
However, several weeks later, the Young Avengers meet in their civilian identities in Washington Square Park. Kate and Cassie have come around to believe that Captain America’s threat is all bluster. He can’t de-power them, or arrest them because they haven’t broken any laws, and even if he went to their parents none of them would believe his story. This wins everyone over and Kate says she has a surprise to show them. Along the way, they suggest that Billy change his codename since he’s not really an Asgardian. Kate suggests Wiccan, and Billy doesn’t hate it. Teddy still likes his Hulkling name and decides to keep it. Cassie decides to go with Stature for herself since she can both shrink and grow. When they suggest that Kate start calling herself Hawkeye, she refuses the nickname and nobody can come up with a better one.[7]
The surprise turns out to be an unused warehouse owned by Kate’s family and inside she has new costumes for the team. As they gear up, the Young Avengers decide that they will have to reveal the truth to their parents sooner or later, at least so Cap doesn’t have that to hang over them. When Stature worries that won’t be enough to stop Captain America, Patriot reminds her that his approval never stopped them before and with that, the Young Avengers go out into the city a team once more!
Recurring Characters
Young Avengers (Iron Lad, Patriot, Hulkling, Asgardian/Wiccan, Stature, Kate Bishop, Vision), Captain America, Iron Man, Jessica Jones, Kang
Continuity Notes
This has been detailed over the last five issues. Basically, if Kang doesn’t have his first clash with the Avengers (circa Avengers #8). Typically, the rules of time travel go in the Marvel Universe is that usually it just creates an alternate reality. In some cases, the change to history are so extreme it overwrites one reality with another. Infamous cases include when Legion killed his own father, Professor X in X-Men (vol. 2) #41, creating the Age of Apocalypse (Reality-295), and when the Scarlet Witch used her power in House of M #1 to create the House of M (Reality-58163). In both cases reversing the inciting incident restored the baseline reality (in X-Men: Omega #1 and House of M #8 respectively) Usually with both realities existing independently of one another. Such will be the case here, as we’ll see next two next issue. As of this writing (May, 2024), the nightmare timeline that is replacing present day Reality-616 in this story has yet to be given an official reality number.
Although seemingly killed here, restoring history to the proper order apparently undid Kang’s death as well as we’ll see him again in Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 2) #19.
In the proper timeline, Avengers Mansion had recently been ruined by the Scarlet Witch when she went mad and attacked her teammates. See Avengers #500-503. This led to the Avengers disbanding in Avengers: Finale #1 and setting in motion the events of this story arc.
Cassie’s father was Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man. He was seemingly killed during the Scarlet Witch’s opening salvo on the Avengers as seen in Avengers #500. What will later learn, in Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #5, is that Scott was saved from this fate by the future Young Avengers, who brought him forward in time.
The Vision’s assertion is true, however how Billy and Teddy are related to the original Avengers is unexplained here. The details:
It will later be revealed that Asgardian is the reincarnation of one of the Scarlet Witch’s deceased children. The Scarlet Witch used magic to impregnate herself in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #3 and gave birth to twins named Billy and Tommy in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #12. The twins were seemingly erased from existence when they were used to restore the fragmented soul of Mephisto in Avengers West Coast #52. Billy comes to this conclusion in Young Avengers #10, but the Scarlet Witch doesn’t confirm it until Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #6.
Teddy Altman is actually Kree/Skrull hybrid and the son of Skrull Princess Anelle and the Kree Captain Mar-Vell. They had a brief affair during the Kree/Skrull War circa Avengers #89-97. As will be revealed in Young Avengers #9-12, Teddy was secreted to Earth after his birth to protect him from the Skrull Empire.
When talking about restoring reality, they say that Jessica Jones will have her baby again. Jessica revealed that she was pregnant in Alias #28. Due to the changes in the time stream, her pregnancy was erased in Young Avengers #4. Obviously, it gets restored by the end of this issue and she will give birth to her daughter Dani in The Pulse #14.
The suggestion is made because the original Hawkeye (Clint Barton) was killed in Avengers #502. His death will be short lived as he is resurrected in House of M #1-8, as we’ll see in New Avengers #26. Kate will eventually give in to pressure and start calling herself Hawkeye in Young Avengers #12.