All-New Avengers or Young Avengers?

Let’s face facts right from the get-go, here - Everyone can be an Avenger. It’s part of the push that Marvel does when they want to a sell a character to the readers. What works better than putting them on the headlining team with a multi-million dollar franchise to boot? Nothing, that’s what. In fact, it would be foolish not to do something like All-New, All-Different Avengers, which brings some new faces to the fold.  

  The new faces that I want to focus on, not that the rest aren’t special in their very own way, would have to be Miles Morales and Kamala Khan - aka (Ultimate) Spider-Man and Miss Marvel, respectively. The reason why I want to focus on those two is because everyone else on the roster is an obvious choice. Even the new Thor being there needs no explanation. She’s the new Thor, she’s part of that big marketing push already, it falls into place.   What makes Miss Marvel and Spider-Man so special is how young they are. They are very young and it makes their inclusion in this new team so intriguing. Of course, I would have lumped Sam/Nova into this grouping from the start - but his age has been a point of consternation with many fans ever since he played his role in Avengers vs. X-Men. The point actually stands for all three of them - why not place them into a new Young Avengers?  

  Is that brand so untenable that we can no longer relegate the characters who would actually be age-appropriate into it? Is there no way for Marvel to sell Young Avengers in a way that doesn’t fall into the meandering pitfalls that Gillen’s most recent run fell into? I mean, these must be the cases considering that it would actually be a perfect utilization for everyone involved. Not only would it revive the decreasing interest in teen teams but give them something to talk about.   When was the last time, really, that a teen team made it really big? Even Teen Titans only hangs on by the ever-decreasing threads of its former glories. So, why take these characters and place them into the general Avengers sphere? To show readers that they’re worth reading about - giving them the edge that they need to be financially viable. All good, and I’m sure Mark Waid will do a fine job, but a good opportunity is a good opportunity and it seems one was passed by.  

  The inclusion of other characters like Vision and Iron Man  makes the age disparity much more distinct. The one thing that this new series will not lack will be available slots for interesting dynamics for everyone. It’s such a weird amalgam in some cases that there can be sparks already seen from here. In any case, who would have been on this hypothetical teen team? We already have three down - who else might have filled in that roster?   If we take a team to be at least five, then maybe Mania from Venom or even one of the cast-off Runaways who definitely need the love there. Maybe there will be a time when teen-teams can really sky-rocket once again. It just takes some effort and some care. Yet, as time goes on interest will continually wane. In all honesty, teen-teams have become nothing but so much fodder for events and “meaningful” deaths.  

  So, it is for the best that Kamala, Miles, and Sam were placed right into the big league from the get-go. It’s better than the alternative, at least for now, and they have a skilled writer at the helm. All-Different Avengers is going to be a series to watch. Before I forget - Falcon/Captain America is going to be on the team too, in case anyone thought I forgot. If you have your own thoughts on the state of Teen-Teams, please comment below.