In a post made to Tumblr yesterday, writer Kieron Gillen announced that once the current run on Young Avengers finishes, himself, Jamie McKelvie and Mike Norton (and therefore also colourist Matthew Wilson, most likely) will not be returning for the much-implied ‘season 2’ of the series. To commiserate, I’ll be posting repeated images of Noh-Varr into this article, so we can appropriately work through our feels during this difficult time.
The book has been one of Marvel’s more acclaimed, especially in the way it’s tackled sexuality, gender, and several other issues during the run. Pushed along through the power of their fanbase – who are based on Tumblr, in large amounts – the series will be ending next year with issue 15. This was intended to be the end of the ‘first season’ before relaunching later in the year. With Gillen and McKelvie leaving, it now looks as though Young Avengers may go on a hiatus for a while, rather than a quick relaunch.
More details are promised to be announced at the Young Avengers panel at Thought Bubble, next week. It seems most likely that the creative team will next move to focusing on the third volume of Phonogram, their creator-owned series at Image. Although… you never know… maybe they’re just busy prepping volume #1 of “The Radical Adventures of Adam X”?
No, probably not.
And I felt a great disturbance in the Tumblr, as if millions of fangirls suddenly cried out in angst, and were suddenly silenced by the tiny hope of a new season at some future point. For if they could wait for Sherlock, they could wait for anything.
Also, the upcoming issue of SciFiNow in the UK has a HEE-YUGE feature and interview with Kieron and Jamie on all things Young and Avengerish. And Christmasish. Just sayin’.
:(
It wasn’t Gillen’s best work. It definitely didn’t live up to JiM
I’d be interested in seeing demographics on sales. Was anyone aged 24 or younger buying it? Considering how many times the Young Avengers and related concepts (e.g., AVENGERS ACADEMY) have failed–or are sales in the 24,000 range acceptable now?–it’s time to stop trying to get adults to buy stories about teens and YAs. Get teens to buy them.
SRS
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wait, more Phonogram?
Well okay then.
Sysnsidar,
The #1 group of purchasers of YA in my store is High School/ College females. The title is a solid upper-middle tier seller for me, at #28 overall bestseller and #9 Marvel title. The TPs sell regularly as well. A good percentage of the draw is young Loki.
Thanks for the info. Judging by the sales figures, there aren’t enough people from that age group buying the series nationwide.
SRS
I hope the Young Avengers trades can be an entry point for Young Adult readers in the bookseller market. Personally, I would rather have a finite series than one that is eventually cancelled due to direct market sales. Dropping the mic is a better option than getting the cord yank out of the socket.
“The book has been one of Marvel’s more acclaimed, especially in the way it’s tackled sexuality, gender, and several other issues during the run. ”
It was only “one of Marvel’s more acclaimed” among those who privilege any sort of sexual content above all other content.
Remember: Kate Bishop slept with Noh-Varr without even knowing what his name was. If you think that’s really cool and great characterization, Young Avengers was for you.
It could be probably be argued that all YA superhero content is sexual content, or at least 50% of it is. I remember being a teenager — my thoughts were pretty evenly split between girls and mortality.
I think what you really mean, Dan Ahn, you had a problem with the sexual choices made by the characters. Which, okay, so? Is this point of YA fiction to highlight lifestyle choices the author wants to trumpet? Or to accurately portray what teenagers are like today? I see the value in both, I guess. But I think it’s kind of pointless to write a book about teenagers w/o having characters that act like actual teenagers.
Dunno, those characters weren’t really acting like teenagers, but maybe that depends on where you live.
“Remember: Kate Bishop slept with Noh-Varr without even knowing what his name was. If you think that’s really cool and great characterization, Young Avengers was for you.”
My god, how dare she act like a normal human being.
Seriously, people really need to realise that not everyone who reads comics is just like YOU. Young Avengers had a huge following on tumblr which very much translates into sales – especially trade sales. That young people are not interested in comic shops is not huge news – if it ain’t on Amazon, it doesn’t exist to a lot of people because comic shops are few and far between – and as a bookseller I had a huge number of young girls come in enquiring about The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys only to be hugely disappointed that being published didn’t mean it was available in book shops.
The majority of comic readers I know are 25 and under, and the majority of them loved Young Avengers as it was fun, didn’t patronise the readers, and was a breath of fresh air. That the distribution of comics in this day and age is monumentally fucked compared to all other media is the real issue, and the reason why the sales of comics continue to go down the pan while sales of graphic novels and tpbs/HCs are reaching ever more dizzying heights.
When it comes to the demographics of who is buying Young Avengers, let me just state, that it is one of my favorite books. And I am a 55 year old Grandmother. Granted, a Grandmother who has been reading comics and collecting comics since I was 15…so I’ve been at this for a while. But good storytelling and good art have a way of transcending age and experience.
I loved Nextwave too.
Another book I like is ending. This, Wolverine & X-men, FF, the Ultimate books, X-men Legacy, Avengers Arena, Fearless Defenders – I’ll have nothing to buy once YA goes. At least it’s ending on a good note.
I’d change that to the marketing of comics. . . is monumentally fucked. If there’s an enthusiastic audience for close-ended stories about the Young Avengers and other teen-aged heroes, then Marvel should try to give them what they want. Creators should be able to come up with such stories, if Marvel was brave enough to spend money on actually marketing the things.
SRS
Sigh…it’s a loss for comics, really – one of the few titles that “got” the tone that modern media needs in order to resonate. If you want an example of “doesn’t get” the tone, read most of the DC New 52 titles, particularly Teen Titans.
The heroes portrayed in Young Avengers were fun-loving, free-thinking, serious when they had to be, and…young. It should go without saying considering it’s in the book’s title, but so often teen heroes are uppity, depressed holier-than-thou pale imitations of their older mentors.
And the book dared (gasp) to accurately portray attitudes toward sex. People gripe, but Buffy built an empire on 50% but-whoopin and 50% teen drama.
Young Avengers had it’s challenges, and it wasn’t perfect, but it was closer than most any other DC or Marvel title to a comic that could break out of the awful, confined, trite, cliche, chest-thumping nonsensical repetitive storytelling that so plagues books today. It’s the sort of story that could make it if aimed at a mass market, but increasingly comics are for 40,000 comic readers only, and inaccessible to the rest of us.
Comments are closed.