Comics are Awesome III

[Sparky Prime]

Young Avengers - Secret Identities (2005)

The New Avengers have formed by now, as we see their new headquarters in Avengers Tower with Spider-Man, Luke Cage and Captain America discussing how to handle the situation with the Young Avengers. Cap decides to send Jessica Drew to talk to Cassie's mom, while he goes to talk to Eli's grandparents. Iron Man studies their new Vision, discovering he has adapted the brainwaves of Nate Richards (similar to how the original Vision adapted the brainwaves of Simon Williams), essentially making him a teenaged Vision. Meanwhile, Billy tries to tell his parents that he's a super hero, but they misinterpret it as him coming out as gay, and embrace his relationship with Teddy. Eli notices some drug dealers near a warehouse and ends up crashing into their production facility, headed up by Mr. Hyde. The rest of the Young Avengers join him, only for Wiccan to discover Eli is using the drugs they're producing, Mutant Growth Hormones. Turns out, Eli doesn't have super powers. When he first met Iron Lad, Iron Lad had been looking for his uncle, Josiah, who has been missing for a few years now. But Eli lied to him, telling him he'd gotten a blood transfusion from his grandfather, Isaiah, that gave him super soldier powers. He's actually been using MGH to fake it. Eli is able to defeat Mr. Hyde by taking a massive dose of MGH. After the battle, Eli quits the team now that his secret is out.

I remember this story having a bit of controversy in that Eli was taking drugs to give him super powers. This was based on Allen Heinberg's own steroid use. I get what he was going for but not sure it translated that well. At any rate, mutant growth hormone is an interesting idea, basically a drug that gives normal people temporary super powers, or can temporarily boost someone's powers if they have powers. I'm a little disappointed this was only 2 issues, because they could have done so much more with this story that would have fleshed it out better.

Young Avengers - Family Matters (2005)

The Young Avengers are officially disbanded by Captain America. The team meets after school, hoping to get Eli to talk to them, when Teddy is grabbed by Kl'rt the Super-Skrull. The kids manage to get away, and head to Billy's home, where they find Teddy's mom is there looking for him. Super Skrull catches up to them, using a device that forces a Skrull back to their true form. Teddy's appearance remains unchanged, but his mom is revealed to be a Skrull. She attacks Kl'rt, but he kills her and kidnaps Teddy in the confusion. The Young Avengers go to Avengers Tower for help, but the New Avengers aren't in, only Jarvis and Vision. Vision agrees to help, but Patriot thinks they need more, and Vision points out another potential recruit from his contingency plan. This turns out to be a speedster named Tommy Shepard, and much to their surprise, appears to be Billy's identical twin, save for having white hair.
Meanwhile, Kl'rt reveals that Teddy is actually named Dorrek VIII, and is the son of the Skrull Princess Anelle. He was taken to Earth by his mother's chambermaid (whom Teddy thought was his mother) to find his father to protect him. Now Kl'rt wants him to take his rightful place to reunite their Empire. The Young Avengers arrive, but shortly thereafter, are attacked by Kree warriors. They want Teddy because his father was the Kree warrior Captain Mar-Vell. The Young Avengers manage to escape with Super Skrull, and tells Billy and Tommy he think they are the sons of Scarlet Witch. But before they can get much into the topic, they're attacked by Skulls, with the Kree and New Avengers arriving shortly after, quickly becoming an all out battle.
Teddy calls for a ceasefire, but when a Kree fires at Captain America, Patriot jumps in front of it, and the battle restarts. Eventually Teddy agrees to go with them (the Kree and Skrull agreeing to a sort of shared custody) to get the fighting to stop. After they leave, it's revealed Super Skrull swapped places with Teddy, allowing Teddy to remain on Earth for the time being. At the hospital, Eli receives a blood transfusion from his grandfather, giving him super solider powers just as he had originally claimed happened. Kate stands up to Cap when he tries to shut them down again, arguing they have the right to use their abilities to help people. Cap agrees and gives her the name Hawkeye, because her standing her ground reminded him of Clint. Tommy joins the Young Avengers as Speed.

So they reveal the mysterious connection Billy and Teddy have to the Avengers that was set up in the first story arc. Billy and Tommy being Wanda's kids is presented here as speculation they only briefly touch on, but it's obviously a forgone conclusion already. The question is how it's possible, given what happened to the twins last they had been seen. Something a later story would address. Teddy being the son of Captain Mar-Vell and Princess Anelle I don't recall anyone guessed at the time. Mar-Vell already sort of had 2 kids: Genis-Vell and Phyla-Vell. Although both of them were artificially created and aged to adulthood after Mar-Vell died. Not sure they've ever crossed paths, but that'd be fun to see. I liked the idea of Teddy being a hybrid of a Kree and Skrull. Given the races history, it creates an interesting dynamic for Teddy. Something this story touches on, but again, we'll see more of later on.

I really like the use of the Super Skrull here. Starting him off as a villain trying to kidnap Teddy, and eventually have him allied with the Young Avengers by the end, helping Teddy. Unfortunately, I don't think they ever address this ruse with him having switched places with Hulkling again. You'd think once the Kree or Skrull found out they'd been duped, they would have come back for him in force. Would have been nice if they had tied Secret Invasion into that to some degree. I recall Hulkling telling some Skrulls who he is, but they didn't even care in that storyline. Hulkling being the heir to the Skrull throne eventually comes up again in Empyre. I feel like they could have done more with him being the son of Mar-Vell, or half Kree, other than he has some clout with the Kree.

Eli getting a blood transfusion giving him the super soldier serum from his grandfather feels a little tacked on. I like that his lie became the truth. But, I dunno, it just feels odd that it happened in this arc rather than the previous one.

[andersonh1]

Today's comics: World's Finest #32 and Green Lantern #16 (which gets a legacy number of 583... I'm not sure which series they added up to reach that number!)

So let's assume the Golden Age's 38 issues aren't counted... different character.

GL vol. 2 - 200 issues
GL vol. 3 - 181 issues
GL vol. 4 - 67 issues
GL vol. 5 - 52 issues
GL vol. 6 - 12 issues
GL vol. 7 (current) - 16

That gets us 528. I'm assuming Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps is not counted, though if it was that would make 578. Count the The Green Lantern's 24 issues instead and that's 552, so that's still not right. I'm honestly not sure where they got the legacy numbering. I'd like to see what they counted and what they didn't.

[Sparky Prime]

That gets us 528. I'm assuming Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps is not counted, though if it was that would make 578. Count the The Green Lantern's 24 issues instead and that's 552, so that's still not right. I'm honestly not sure where they got the legacy numbering. I'd like to see what they counted and what they didn't.

Yeah, nobody knows where DC came up with the number. I've seen several debates online speculating how they arrived at it. Like you point out, there isn't enough Green Lantern issues to account for 583, so they have to include some other GL title(s) that shouldn't be.

[andersonh1]

That gets us 528. I'm assuming Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps is not counted, though if it was that would make 578. Count the The Green Lantern's 24 issues instead and that's 552, so that's still not right. I'm honestly not sure where they got the legacy numbering. I'd like to see what they counted and what they didn't.

Yeah, nobody knows where DC came up with the number. I've seen several debates online speculating how they arrived at it. Like you point out, there isn't enough Green Lantern issues to account for 583, so they have to include some other GL title(s) that shouldn't be.

I thought they may have counted "Green Lanterns" as close enough (though it seems like The Green Lantern would also be close enough), but that series had 57 issues, so it's still off. That would take us to 585. Yeah, nothing adds up here.

[andersonh1]

Today's comics: World's Finest #33 and Green Lantern #17/584. And the old DC bullet logo is back! Glad to see it.