Avengers: The Children's Crusade #9

I really hope we get a Young Avengers on going after this, assuming it keeps up the quality that this series had... Can't wait to get this in trade.

I miss the Young Avengers

This issue has been a pinacle of comic book achievements. The art and writing go together flawlessly. We get deaths, we get threats, we get departures, and we get love (not gonna spoil it, it's wonderful). What more could you possibly ask for in a comic. Unfortunately, due to the changes made in this book. It looks unlikely that the Young Avengers are going to get a new series. I really hoped so and I do continue to hope, as everyone would benefit from Allan Heinburgs writing of these characters. Nobody else should be allowed to write them. I did have a few concerns on this ending, but those were immediately outweighed by my jubilation upon reading this issue. It's amazing. Shocking. Awe-inspiring. I wish every comic was this good. The only comic that I have read so far that has equalled this level of epicness is Uncanny X-Force Vol 1 18, and we all know how highly that issue was praised. Seriously, if your not getting this comic, get out. It's amazing. Get the trade. And for all you cheap people who are dying to know what happened in this series, worry not. I'll be posting a spoilers included review of this issue and other issues over March break (I've really fallen behind on reviews lately).

@feargalr said:

I really hope we get a Young Avengers on going after this, assuming it keeps up the quality that this series had... Can't wait to get this in trade.

Me too!

i was actually really letdown by the final issue. like you said, it's been nearly two years since the mini started. i don't even think it was supposed to be 9 issues in the first place, they just extended it. i think the young avengers is one of the only consistently good team books when they're put out. but a lot happened in this series for it to end like that. for years we wondered what happened to the scarlet witch. now house of m, the devastation of mutantkind is because of doom? everything can't be done by the hands of doom! no matter how bad ass it sounds. it just doesn't work for me. the deaths are sad but they're of characters that are sort of "meh". i'm confused about what scott lang's role is as of now. and at the end of it all what they get is sort of just something to shrug at. sure, they got respect but they definitely deserve more and should've already earned that some time ago. they need an on-going again. same team because the writing and the art as always for young avengers is knocked out of the park. just my opinions but that's how i felt after finishing the story.

I can't wait to read this issue

Hated it.

HATE HATE HATED it.

This is not a 5. A 2 maybe, more likely a 1. Unless your rating system involves judging on art only in which case 5. Or by averaging art and writing which gets a 2.5-3.

Patriot Quit Again and was a whiny b**** most of the time and moved so he is not there for the final scene.

Kid Vision got killed essentially no one did anything. Iron Lad became Kang.

Others quit but appear to have changed their mind.

No real funeral. Setup for AvX, I suppose besides that nothing.

Man so many emotions after reading this, it has been THAT long since it started. My god...What's going to happen now? I wish there was an ongoing so we can continue to see these characters...and after all these years Teddy and Wiccan finally share a kiss too. Great issue. Great series. We need more of these.

@Skaddix: I will agree on this on the level that the adverts for this issue lied to us. Marvel promised this was the beginning of or some sort of prelude to AvX and that this would hint to some sort of future of the Young Avengers but Marvel handled the book all wrong, all the delays weren't in fault of the writers and artists, Marvel kept pushing the book back when they decided to do AvX, or perhaps the book wasn't selling well. If you take the whole series as it is, with the beginning it had and this ending, it really does fit perfectly.

@Skaddix: I absolutely agree. This issue NEEDED a Funeral!

Be picking it up as a trade when it comes out, everything I read from it I enjoyed.

Well, that was bittersweet to say the least. I mean, it was great, but I felt kind of bummed by the events that transpired. It's like a sad movie.

Sooooo. I'm confused. Is Scott Lang alive again, and if so, why did the Avengers make a statue of him at the end? Maybe it's just because it's been so long since issue 8, but I went in expecting a big ending and suddenly realized this was just an epilogue to something I didn't realize was already the big ending.

@Skaddix: You should definitely use spoiler alerts :/

I was just hoping to read peoples' opinions on the book as a whole, I didn't really want details

I was saving myself for the trade :P

It was a good ending.. I just don't understand the concept of letting someone die if there is an option to save them.. *shrug*

I'm still a bit iffy about Wanda. It's like, you've just refound out you killed the father of your children, but she doesn't even mention it lol. She still just swoons after Doom. I don't know, I was just expecting SOME remorse for the man she loved. Guess once she got a firm grip of the other branch, she never looked back at the other one. Anyway, I kind of liked it.

I agree, this is how it should be done. But...

@fotocub said:

Sooooo. I'm confused. Is Scott Lang alive again, and if so, why did the Avengers make a statue of him at the end? Maybe it's just because it's been so long since issue 8, but I went in expecting a big ending and suddenly realized this was just an epilogue to something I didn't realize was already the big ending.

I have the same question.

@BewilderingBeing said:

It was a good ending.. I just don't understand the concept of letting someone die if there is an option to save them.. *shrug*

That also seemed hard to justify to me.

Also, what happened to Doom's power in the end? I don't remember it going away at the end of last issue, or did I just forget?

But overall, great characterization and art throughout. Despite its out-of-continuity publication schedule, it felt like what was happening actually mattered.

haha @Skaddix said:

This is not a 5. A 2 maybe, more likely a 1. Unless your rating system involves judging on art only in which case 5. Or by averaging art and writing which gets a 2.5-3.

Patriot Quit Again and was a whiny b**** most of the time and moved so he is not there for the final scene.

Kid Vision got killed essentially no one did anything. Iron Lad became Kang.

Others quit but appear to have changed their mind.

No real funeral. Setup for AvX, I suppose besides that nothing.

hahaha you gotta get used to the comicvine staffs ratings. there not professional critics so theyll give 5's to anything that gets their stick up when there porn cant.

This was a really anticlimactic way to end this series.

Note: I'm going to spoil some plot details here, but since a lot of other people are already doing that, I hope it's okay. Please don't read this if you don't want to have those details spoiled.

As much as I really love Jim Cheung's artwork, I can't help but be very disappointed by The Children's Crusade. Did this storyline really need a year and a half to be told? In those nine issues, what exactly happened? Sure, Wanda became The Scarlet Witch again, Rictor got his powers back, Scott Lang came back to life, and Stature and The Vision died, but did it really take nine issues for all that to happen?

I was really interested in the story when the first few issues came out, but I started noticing a rather disappointing similarity in the plot within the separate issues. It seems like most of the issues consisted of something along the lines of:

• Billy really wants to save The Scarlet Witch
• The Young Avengers bicker about whether or not it's right to go and find her and how to go about doing that
• Two groups of heroes (usually consisting of Avengers and X-Men) arrive and they also bicker with each other about what to do with The Scarlet Witch. Of course, they disagree, which leads to them fighting each other.
• The Young Avengers are caught in the middle, but they manage to slip away one way or another and resume their search for The Scarlet Witch on their own.
• A New Challenger Appears! Of course, this character will completely throw a wrench in everybody's plans.

It might seem like a lot, but considering that The Avengers show up in multiple issues and proceed to fight with someone or another, it starts to become clear how irrelevant that fighting is to the actual storyline. It makes it seem like they're just kids arguing over a ball, saying "It's mine!" "No, it's MINE!" And then they fight and fight and fight, and then they realize that someone else took the ball amid the ruckus.

Scott Lang came back from the dead. That seems all well and good, and I hate to beleaguer fans of the character but... so what? Did we really need Scott Lang to come back from the dead, especially considering both Hank Pym and Eric O'Grady are parading around with Ant-Man's size-changing abilities? Really, what makes Scott Lang unique if he is not Ant-Man or a father to Cassie? I was really hopeful before the end of the series that we could get some good father-daughter size-changing superheroics between him and Cassie, but we all know now that that's not going to happen for at least a few months (for all I know, Cassie will come back in Avengers vs. X-Men or something).

Speaking of Cassie, her and The Vision's deaths seemed really tacked-on and meaningless, like shock deaths for the sake of death. Why did they need to die in the first place? I guess I can understand why they would want the old Vision back so they can finally bring back the pre-Disassembled Avengers lineup, but why Cassie? It's not like there wasn't any untapped potential for character growth there anymore. Moreover, why was everybody so abjectly opposed to Iron Lad abusing the timestream to save Cassie, while everybody seemed completely fine when they just did the same for Scott Lang?

I'd say more, but I figure this nonsensical rambling has gone on long enough. Sorry.

On a final, somewhat unrelated note, however, I remember how the first issue had a disclaimer at the beginning basically saying "Please excuse the fact that Steve Rogers is in his Captain America costume." At the time, Siege had just happened and a newly rescued-from-the-timestream Steve Rogers was the new head of The Organization Formerly Known As H.A.M.M.E.R., Formerly Known As S.H.I.E.L.D., while Bucky was going around as Captain America. Funnily enough, this storyline took so long to be completed that a whole 'nother status-quo-changing Marvel "EVENT!" happened in the meantime in which Steve Rogers became Captain America again. Considering that it's The Marvel Way to "shake up" the status quo on an annual basis, it is clear that it makes no sense for a modern canonical Marvel storyline to take this long to resolve.

They brought back the nobody Scott Lang but killed off his daughter who I thought was a better character.

Sigh Now there are two Ant-Men? No wait the interesting one might have just died in Secret Avengers.

The ending did not answer two crucial questions:

1. Is this the real Wonder Man?
2. Was Doom the cause behind M-Day and Avengers disassembled?

It was sad to see that no one really gave two cents about Vision's demise. Even Cassie shoved him aside when Iron Lad came back. I officially hate the Summers clan.

@ahgunsillyo said:

Note: I'm going to spoil some plot details here, but since a lot of other people are already doing that, I hope it's okay. Please don't read this if you don't want to have those details spoiled.

As much as I really love Jim Cheung's artwork, I can't help but be very disappointed by The Children's Crusade. Did this storyline really need a year and a half to be told? In those nine issues, what exactly happened? Sure, Wanda became The Scarlet Witch again, Rictor got his powers back, Scott Lang came back to life, and Stature and The Vision died, but did it really take nine issues for all that to happen?

I was really interested in the story when the first few issues came out, but I started noticing a rather disappointing similarity in the plot within the separate issues. It seems like most of the issues consisted of something along the lines of:

• Billy really wants to save The Scarlet Witch
• The Young Avengers bicker about whether or not it's right to go and find her and how to go about doing that
• Two groups of heroes (usually consisting of Avengers and X-Men) arrive and they also bicker with each other about what to do with The Scarlet Witch. Of course, they disagree, which leads to them fighting each other.
• The Young Avengers are caught in the middle, but they manage to slip away one way or another and resume their search for The Scarlet Witch on their own.
• A New Challenger Appears! Of course, this character will completely throw a wrench in everybody's plans.

It might seem like a lot, but considering that The Avengers show up in multiple issues and proceed to fight with someone or another, it starts to become clear how irrelevant that fighting is to the actual storyline. It makes it seem like they're just kids arguing over a ball, saying "It's mine!" "No, it's MINE!" And then they fight and fight and fight, and then they realize that someone else took the ball amid the ruckus.

Scott Lang came back from the dead. That seems all well and good, and I hate to beleaguer fans of the character but... so what? Did we really need Scott Lang to come back from the dead, especially considering both Hank Pym and Eric O'Grady are parading around with Ant-Man's size-changing abilities? Really, what makes Scott Lang unique if he is not Ant-Man or a father to Cassie? I was really hopeful before the end of the series that we could get some good father-daughter size-changing superheroics between him and Cassie, but we all know now that that's not going to happen for at least a few months (for all I know, Cassie will come back in Avengers vs. X-Men or something).

Speaking of Cassie, her and The Vision's deaths seemed really tacked-on and meaningless, like shock deaths for the sake of death. Why did they need to die in the first place? I guess I can understand why they would want the old Vision back so they can finally bring back the pre-Disassembled Avengers lineup, but why Cassie? It's not like there wasn't any untapped potential for character growth there anymore. Moreover, why was everybody so abjectly opposed to Iron Lad abusing the timestream to save Cassie, while everybody seemed completely fine when they just did the same for Scott Lang?

I'd say more, but I figure this nonsensical rambling has gone on long enough. Sorry.

On a final, somewhat unrelated note, however, I remember how the first issue had a disclaimer at the beginning basically saying "Please excuse the fact that Steve Rogers is in his Captain America costume." At the time, Siege had just happened and a newly rescued-from-the-timestream Steve Rogers was the new head of The Organization Formerly Known As H.A.M.M.E.R., Formerly Known As S.H.I.E.L.D., while Bucky was going around as Captain America. Funnily enough, this storyline took so long to be completed that a whole 'nother status-quo-changing Marvel "EVENT!" happened in the meantime in which Steve Rogers became Captain America again. Considering that it's The Marvel Way to "shake up" the status quo on an annual basis, it is clear that it makes no sense for a modern canonical Marvel storyline to take this long to resolve.

I agree. I really wanted to like this series, but I started to notice big holes in the storytelling (especially regarding the Avengers and X-Men standing around in the background as a Greek chorus) and massive amounts of exposition, which really spoiled things. I like the art and the Young Avengers, but the story wasn't told particularly well.