The plan for Young Avengers has been evident since introducing such a young Spider Man. Now it is alive with Miss Marvel aka Kamala Khan going to see our next Hawkeye, Kate Bishop.
The problem, as always is the sense that the human motivations for wanting to protect the planet will be invisible. In Avengers: Assemble and in all the exposition before it, we knew why no one wanted Loki to win. he acted the same as The Red Skull. If Captain America was having ‘none of that’ then neither was Tony Stark. He was not going to be out-heroed by the man his father loved too.
The problem is that with The Young Avengers, there have been too many lessons learned for them to repeat the mistakes of well, The Avengers.
Look at the example that has been set:
The team is in disarray. Tony is dead. Pepper is raising Morgan alone. Steve had to travel back in time to be with his one true love. Natasha is gone. Clint is broken. Thor is eternally at war with no home and no family. Bruce does not have Natasha.
These words described what we know to be: ‘the woe of aftermath’.
You either know the reference or you do not. Either way, what motivation would a new team of heroes have to join the fight when the scourge of being an Avenger has destroyed the individuals.
Scott is lost in Time (watch Quantum-mania again. despite its obvious flaws, there is a one hell of a set up if you can catch it). Wanda is ‘dead’. The Black Panther? Bucky? Rhodey? Sam? All pulled from pillar to post.
Why would Yelena want to join Hope and Kamala in a fight against…whom?
Well, what you will not see is the fight The Thunderbolts where Yelena betrays Val et al to stop anyone from dying. What you will not see is Pepper being murdered and Morgan, Iron Lad (our boy from Iron man 3 and Tony’s funeral, and on the street with Scott in Endgame, aka Kang) and Ironheart teaming up with The Iron Patriot and Mach V to avenge Pepper’s death.
What you will not see is a more human motivation to be an Avenger, a role that doomed her parents, for Morgan. Instead we will see trite coincidence and bad writing to excuse Squirrel Girl and a genuine lack of imagination to explain Billy and Tommy.
I know creating for a 22 billion dollar franchise is hard. I know remembering that without a holistic history of Captains America (plural) we do not understand why Patriot is proud to serve because his grandfather Isaiah did too. We know that The Falcon has more to offer than as a sidekick, since he is literally the brains of the operation. And I know there is too much at stake now as we wait for The Falcon and Winter Soldier to mean something.
The reboot we will not see is the epic one. the human one. The one that fuses being ‘A friendly neighborhood Spider Man’ with saving the universe again and again forever.
Things at the MCU are going to get worse before they get better and the path to fulfilling the promises of Avengers 5 and 6 is a dangerous one. The Marvels might not be the fatal slip but it is close. No one can bear the cracks that a terrible Deadpool sequel will cause.
So, I again offer my imagination to no one at all because it is probably better served elsewhere. But deep down inside, knowing who taught me about comics, I could save the MCU. If asked.