When mysterious teen Super Heroes assemble as Earth’s Mightiest, they grab the attention of their adult counterparts. After a few successful missions against Super Villains, they prove themselves worthy of the name the Young Avengers.
Banded by Bravery
In the year 3016 in the technologically advanced alternate reality known as Other-Earth, 16-year-old robotics student Nathaniel Richards is rescued from a bully’s near-fatal attack by his future self, the megalomaniacal time-traveler Kang the Conqueror. Kang outfits young Nathaniel with a suit of psychokinetic armor that responds to his thoughts and gives him a glimpse of his future as a conqueror. Horrified at the death and destruction caused by his future self, young Nathaniel rejects Kang’s help and uses his armor’s time-shifting powers to escape to modern-day Earth-616, hoping to find Kang’s longtime foes the Avengers so that they could help him defeat his future self.
Calling himself Iron Lad, young Nathaniel soon discovers the Avengers disbanded due to their insane member Wanda Maximoff, AKA Scarlet Witch, who wrecked Avengers Mansion, apparently causing the deaths of her teammates Scott Lang, AKA Ant-Man, Clint Barton, AKA Hawkeye, Jack Hart, AKA Jack of Hearts, and her estranged android husband Victor Shade, AKA Vision. Since a glitch in his armor prevents him from traveling further back in time, young Nathaniel tries in vain to contact various individual Avengers, then breaks into Stark Industries where he accesses the Vision’s stored remains. Uploading data from the Vision’s central processing unit into his armor, Iron Lad finds a failsafe program within the Vision’s CPU which was designed to locate a new generation of young Avengers—super-powered youths with various connections to the Avengers—if anything were to happen to the original Avengers.
Elsewhere, the Scarlet Witch’s twin sons, once believed to be pure magical constructs that had been wiped from existence, had apparently been reborn as teenagers Tommy Shepherd and Billy Kaplan, living with separate families; now teenagers, neither of them was aware of his true parentage or his brother’s existence. Thomas inherits super-speed abilities similar to those of the Witch’s twin brother Pietro Maximoff, AKA Quicksilver, while Billy believes that he had acquired his own magical energy-wielding ability from a brief encounter with the Scarlet Witch, and he becomes the costumed adventurer Asgardian.
Eli Bradley is the grandson of Isaiah Bradley, the sole survivor of an early American Super-Soldier program that experimented on African-Americans in the 1940s. Calling himself Patriot, Eli gains super-powers by taking mutant growth hormone (MGH), though he claims to have gained his abilities through a blood transfusion from his grandfather.
Teddy Altman, AKA Hulkling, is the son of deceased alien Kree hero Mar-Vell, AKA Captain Marvel, and Skrull princess Anelle, inheriting his mother’s shape-shifting powers and his father’s extraordinary strength, though he was raised as a human and knew nothing of his dual alien heritage.
Iron Lad uses the data within the Vision’s CPU to recruit three potential “Young Avengers” residing in New York City: Patriot, Asgardian and Hulkling. Iron Lad leads these young heroes on several missions in an attempt to train them for their impending showdown with Kang; but when Avengers founders Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, and Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, learn of the team’s existence, they decide to end the young heroes’ exploits before they get hurt.
Meanwhile, Cassandra “Cassie” Lang, teenage daughter of the late Scott Lang, sets out to join the Young Avengers and continue her father’s heroic legacy as Stature. Cassie had been stealing the Pym Particles responsible for her father’s size-changing abilities for years in an effort to gain super-powers of her own, seemingly without success. She is joined in her search for the Young Avengers by Kate Bishop, AKA Hawkeye, and the wealthy Manhattan publishing mogul Derek Bishop’s athletic daughter, who had previously assisted the Young Avengers in stopping gunmen at her sister’s wedding. But when the two girls find the Young Avengers at the largely wrecked remnants of Avengers Mansion, the team’s leader Patriot tries to discourage the girls from joining. Their heated argument soon turns into a scuffle, during which Cassie instinctively grows to giant size, finally showing the effects of her longtime exposure to Pym Particles.
By this time, Captain America, Iron Man and their private investigator associate Jessica Jones (formerly the heroine Jewel) had also found the Young Avengers, and were intent on pressuring the teens into giving up heroics for their own good. Before they could settle any of their ensuing arguments, Kang the Conqueror arrives and demands they hand over Iron Lad or risk destroying the timeline. The heroes fight and slay that incarnation of Kang, but soon realize that a future without Kang would have potentially catastrophic impacts on the timeline. Reluctantly accepting his destiny, Iron Lad removes his armor and travels willingly into the future to become Kang, preserving the timeline in the process. Back in modern-day Earth-616, Nathaniel’s empty armor becomes sentient, its new persona a fusion of the previous Vision synthozoid’s old operating system and Nathaniel’s recorded brain patterns, becoming known as Jonas, AKA Vision.
Smells Like Team Spirit
While they are brought together first by the time-traveling future Kang despot, Iron Lad, and he initially sends them on missions, the group ultimately finds their leader in the Super-Soldier serum-empowered Patriot. The team includes the super-fast Tommy Shepherd, the chaos-magic user Billy Kaplan, the shape-shifting alien hybrid Hulkling, the size-morphing Stature, and the arrow-wielding Hawkeye. When Iron Lad returns to the future, his armor remains behind with an imprint of his brain patterns, and it becomes a new iteration of Vision. Though they are sometimes dysfunctional, they find their own way through the ups and downs of teamwork.
Patriot leads the team until he quits out of shame for how he goes about getting his powers, despite the team wanting him to stay on. Hawkeye leads the team for a time, but doubts her abilities when things go awry.
Eventually the groundbreaking, interdimensional Super Hero America Chavez, AKA Miss America, joins the ranks. The super-genius David Alleyne, AKA Prodigy, and the alien hero Noh-Varr, AKA Marvel Boy, join the team as well as the reincarnated God of Mischief Loki Laufeyson, AKA Loki, known as Kid Loki, when he’s not manipulating nor opposing the team.
Amidst their adventures, some of the Young Avengers have romantic flirtations and relationships with others on the team. Billy and Teddy share a serious relationship, while Kate ends up having feelings for both Tommy and Eli. Later, she shares a romance with Noh-Varr but they don’t last. Vision holds a candle for Cassie while David makes a move on Teddy, stirring up some drama here and there.
Super Villains Abound
Early on in the team’s foray into battling Super Villains, they face one of the most dangerous beings across space and time, Kang the Conqueror, but they work together and defeat him.
The interdimensional parasite known as Mother causes a lot of trouble for the Young Avengers, trapping Teddy and Billy, repeatedly attacking the team, and mind-controlling the adults in their lives.
Loki, who seemingly tries to help the team, always has his own endgame that sows further distrust, making the team second guess his membership on the team. Though he pulls through and saves the world, even when it’s from himself.
Avenger Allies
While they have a rocky start with the Avengers, who don’t believe that teens should be involved in dangerous heroics, the Young Avengers impress their adult idols by helping to maintain peace with the X-Men. They eventually become full-fledged members of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The young team even calls on the Avengers for help on occasion.
Saving The World
After the Kang debacle, Captain America kicked the teens out of Avengers Mansion and warned them not to wear their costumes again. Kate responded by secretly converting an old Bishop Publishing warehouse into the Young Avengers’ new headquarters and providing the entire team with new costumes; she also convinced Billy to adopt a new code name, Wiccan, fearing his old “Asgardian” alias might attract off-color ridicule if Billy’s romance with Hulkling became public knowledge. While defeating super-criminals such as Herman Schultz, AKA Shocker, the Young Avengers considered confessing their identities to their parents and guardians. Still trying to discourage the teens from super-heroics, Captain America revealed Patriot’s dual identity to his grandmother while Jones visited Cassie’s mother Peggy Burdick, who had already figured out Cassie was Stature. Meanwhile, the Young Avengers took on super-criminal Calvin Zabo, AKA Mister Hyde, who had been dealing MGH. During the fight, Wiccan discovered MGH was the real source of Patriot’s powers. After the Young Avengers defeated Mister Hyde, an ashamed Patriot quit the group, despite his teammates’ insistence that they needed Eli’s leadership, not his powers.
The young team’s next test came when the alien K’lrt, AKA Super-Skrull, kidnapped Teddy and killed his adoptive mother. Billy’s parents discovered his dual identity as Wiccan during this incident, and Patriot rejoined the group in their time of need. Deciding they needed reinforcements to handle a major threat like the Super-Skrull, the Young Avengers recruited the new Vision and had him access the previous Vision’s Avengers Failsafe Program to locate other potential Young Avengers, finding Tommy Shepherd in a superhuman youth detention facility where he had been held since vaporizing his school. The Young Avengers freed Tommy from detention, immediately noticing his resemblance to Wiccan, and brought him along to confront the Super-Skrull. By that time, K’lrt had explained to his captive Hulkling that he (Teddy) was the rightful heir to the throne of the Skrull Empire, and that he intended to bring Teddy into space with him to unify the Skrull people. The Young Avengers attacked, freeing Hulkling, but a squadron of Kree soldiers interrupted the fight, identifying Teddy as the son of Mar-Vell and trying to draft him into the Kree army. Hulkling refused and the Young Avengers fled, taking along a wounded K’lrt, who confirmed Teddy to be Mar-Vell and Anelle’s son. Super-Skrull also surprised the heroes by informing them that Billy and Tommy were the long-lost sons of the Scarlet Witch and the previous Vision, though Tommy was skeptical.
Before they could discuss it further, Kree and Skrull soldiers attacked, fighting over custody of Hulkling. The newly reorganized Avengers helped the Young Avengers battle these alien invaders until Teddy called a ceasefire by agreeing to spend half a year with the Kree and half a year with the Skrulls before deciding which race his allegiance lay with; however, the “Hulkling” who departed with the Kree was really a disguised Super-Skrull, enabling Teddy to remain on Earth. Shot during the Kree-Skrull battle while trying to protect Captain America, Patriot received a life-saving blood transfusion from his grandfather, which also gave him super-powers.
After Kate argued the Young Avengers and their families would have been safer if the Avengers had trained the teens rather than opposing them, Captain America gave Kate the weaponry and costumed alias of fallen Avengers veteran Hawkeye (Barton), the only Avenger who had truly stood up to him, and Cap said Kate was following in the tradition of a great hero. Tommy, meanwhile, adopted the costumed alias Kate had designed for him, Speed, and soon drew the team into a battle with the criminal Zodiac group. He also started an ongoing flirtation with Kate despite the longstanding mutual attraction between her and Eli, leaving Bishop confused regarding her romantic options since she found both boys appealing. The Young Avengers began using the wrecked Avengers Mansion as their headquarters, apparently with the unspoken approval of the senior Avengers, who had relocated elsewhere.
The super-hero “Civil War” fought over the federal government’s new Superhuman Registration Act (SHRA) turned the unregistered Young Avengers into wanted fugitives. Captured by Iron Man’s pro-registration S.H.I.E.L.D. forces, the Young Avengers were freed by Captain America and Sam Wilson, AKA Falcon, and soon joined the Captain’s underground anti-registration army, the Secret Avengers. When the authorities targeted the Runaways, another group of young, unregistered heroes, the Young Avengers disobeyed Captain America’s orders and came to the Runaways’ aid. The two teams initially clashed when the Runaways mistakenly assumed the Young Avengers were government agents, but they soon made peace and joined forces to battle actual government super-agent Noh-Varr, AKA Marvel Boy. The two teams parted on friendly terms, though the Runaways refused to join the anti-registration movement.
As the civil war continued, several Young Avengers teamed with Bucky Barnes, AKA Winter Soldier, to shut down a Hydra terrorist cell. Iron Man’s pro-registration forces lured the Secret Avengers into an ambush, during which Wiccan was captured and anti-registration hero Bill Foster, AKA Goliath, was killed. Demoralized by the incident, Stature defected to the pro-registration side. Meanwhile, at Captain America’s behest, Hulkling went undercover by posing as pro-registration hero Yellowjacket (Hank Pym, later revealed to be a Skrull subversive posing as the real Pym). As “Pym,” Hulkling helped free all the captured anti-registration heroes from the government’s super-prison “42” in the Negative Zone. During the civil war’s ensuing final battle, resistance leader Captain America had the upper hand but surrendered after seeing civilians rush to Iron Man’s aid and realizing the general public supported registration. The outlaw Secret Avengers largely disbanded and its members, including the Young Avengers, were offered amnesty in exchange for registering. Most of the former rebels accepted these terms, like Stature, but the rest of the Young Avengers remained active as outlaw heroes.
With the war’s end, several shaken Young Avengers searched for parents and mentors. After Captain America was apparently slain while in custody, a despairing Patriot sought guidance from Cap’s old partner, the Winter Soldier. Aided by Wiccan and Hawkeye, he tracked Barnes down, teaming with Winter Soldier and Hawkeye to take down a zombie-like MODOC (Military Organisms Designed Only for Combat) squad created by the subversive group Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.). When Barnes departed after the fight, Eli followed him. Barnes shared his thoughts on the late Captain’s feelings about America and heroism, and he also told Eli what he knew about the late Jeff Mace, the original 1940s Patriot. Hearing reports of Captain Mar-Vell’s supposed resurrection, Teddy confronted this seemingly resurrected Captain Marvel, who said he needed time to think about Teddy’s revelation of his parentage. After helping his fellow Young Avengers defeat a cyborg gang of bank robbers, Hulkling had another meeting with the “reborn” Captain Marvel, who was later revealed to be Skrull super-agent Khn’nr; Teddy was unaware of this, though, and the mentally reprogrammed spy genuinely believed himself to be Mar-Vell, so they had a warm “father-son” chat before the false Mar-Vell’s later demise. While searching for the Scarlet Witch, Wiccan and Speed encountered her old foe Martin Preston, AKA Master Pandemonium, who suggested they embrace their new lives and abandon their quest lest they bring back the darkness and chaos of the Witch’s past.
While Stature trained with the government’s new Initiative program, Vision covertly approached her and told her of how he had been traveling the world, seeking to understand who he was, and had decided to adopt a more human civilian name as Jonas. The two heroes debated the merits of registration before teaming up to defeat an A.I.M. squad trying to kidnap the Vision, who confided his romantic feelings for Cassie. While Cassie ultimately chose to stay with the Initiative and Vision went back underground, they shared a kiss, though Cassie explained that she needed time to sort her life out and could not commit to a relationship yet. Later, a traumatized Stature nearly shrank out of sight after she accidentally injured her stepfather Blake while defeating the Growing Man, but the Young Avengers helped Cassie come to terms with the incident and regain her normal size.
Meanwhile, a resurrected Clint Barton approached Hawkeye in his new identity as Ronin and goaded her into a test of their respective archery skills, with the winner claiming the rights to Kate’s bow and the Hawkeye name. Though Barton easily won the match, he later allowed Kate to steal back the bow and subsequently gave her his blessing to keep using the Hawkeye name, deeming her a worthy successor. He also urged his fellow Avengers to offer their young counterparts as much support and guidance as possible.
When the Skrulls began the overt military phase of their massive “Secret Invasion” of Earth, the Young Avengers and Runaways teamed up again to battle Skrulls in New York City. Hulkling tried to influence the invaders by revealing his true identity as the rightful heir to the Skrull throne, but the invasion’s leaders actually ordered his execution for fear that his royal heritage would divide and weaken their forces; Hulkling was rescued by the Runaway Xavin, who was also a Skrull. The Young Avengers, the Initiative and other heroes were later nearly overwhelmed by more numerous Skrull forces, but Nick Fury’s new Secret Warriors turned the tide and helped the embattled heroes escape. After resting and regrouping, the combined heroic forces ultimately helped defeat the Skrull invaders, fighting alongside the senior Avengers and many other heroes. Unfortunately, insane tycoon Norman Osborn (formerly the supercriminal Green Goblin) became a celebrated war hero when he killed the Skrulls’ queen, Veranke. Using his new influence, Osborn became the new head of the Initiative and also served as leader of his own corrupt, government-backed version of the Avengers as the Iron Patriot.
Unconventional artist Lisa Molinari, AKA Coat of Arms, an old friend of Speed’s from his juvenile detention days, found a mystical coat and decided to assemble her own team of superhumans, inspired in part by her idol Norman Osborn. Not knowing Osborn was spying on her after a chance meeting with him, Coat recruited racist size-changer Amity Hunter, AKA Big Zero, Big Zero’s synthozoid companion Egghead, addled novice mystic Enchantress (possibly Sylvie Lushton), young vigilante Danny DuBois, AKA Executioner, and the unstable mutant Christopher Colchiss, AKA Melter. Calling themselves the Young Avengers, they started operating as reckless and often ruthless New York crime-fighters. The ensuing media coverage caught the attention of the original Young Avengers, who confronted and briefly battled the new team before Patriot issued them an ultimatum: try out for the real Young Avengers or pick a new name.
Coat’s team mostly resented this situation, though Enchantress was interested in joining the original group, and Coat was happy to see Speed again. After a brief period of cooperation and interaction between the two teams, the Young Avengers decided most of the new group were not Avengers material, though they were willing to give Coat and Enchantress a chance; however, plans to recruit Enchantress suffered a setback when the original team learned she may have been a dupe unwittingly empowered by the Avengers’ old enemy Loki Laufeyson, making her potentially dangerous. Hurt and insulted by the Young Avengers delaying her admission, Enchantress sided with Coat’s team when Norman Osborn’s Avengers confronted both youth groups, warning them to register with his Initiative or be arrested. A three-way battle between the groups ended with Coat, Enchantress and Wiccan joining forces to defeat Osborn’s supremely powerful enforcer Bob Reynolds, AKA Sentry, and a confused Melter convincing his girlfriend Enchantress to teleport Coat’s group away so they could have time to think. Unable to convince each other to switch teams, Coat and Speed parted with a kiss as Coat’s group vanished. As for Osborn, deprived of his powerhouse Sentry and surprised by how formidable the Young Avengers were, he led his own wounded Avengers away, vowing the world would never learn of this incident.
Stature and Vision soon joined the Mighty Avengers, and the rest of the team divided when Asgard was under siege to help out other teams. The Young Avengers did what they could to help the Avengers, including Wiccan who stood alone against the Wrecking Crew.
When Wiccan’s powers started to rival that of the Scarlet Witch, the Avengers worried that he was on a path to become her. The Young Avengers allied with the Scarlet Witch’s father, the terrorist Erik Lensherr, AKA Magneto, and her brother Quicksilver to find and rehabilitate the missing Wanda so she could help Wiccan. On a mission led by Kate, they traveled to Latveria where they found her without her memories and powers and betrothed to Victor Von Doom, AKA Doctor Doom. Doom captured Wiccan, igniting an all-out war with the Avengers, who were in pursuit of the young heroes, the Young Avengers, Quicksilver and Magneto. The Scarlet Witch chose to help Wiccan and in making her escape ran afoul of James Howlett/Logan, AKA Wolverine, whose assassination attempt on her life was interrupted by the Young Avengers’ time-traveling founder Iron Lad. Returning to the present after receiving dire moments from the Avengers of the future, Iron Lad transports Wanda and the Young Avengers into the Timestream where they revisit her past, but they inadvertently change the past when they rescue Stature’s father, Ant-Man, seconds before he was supposed to have died. Though their plan worked and the all-powerful Scarlet Witch returned.
Horrified by her past sins, Scarlet Witch vowed to reverse the spell she cast that depowered most mutants, but the X-Men show up with a bone to pick with her. But Eli intervened and Doctor Doom took the opportunity to claim the Scarlet Witch’s reality-warping power. He battled the forces of the Young Avengers, the Avengers, the X-Men, and X-Factor. Stature used her powers to become giant-sized and attacked Doom, saving the day but losing her life in the process. Upset at losing Cassie, Iron Lad offered to bring her back by going back in time. But Vision, who had Iron Lad’s brain patterns, ordered him to do nothing. Iron Lad attacked and killed him and then fixated on his mission to save Cassie. Wiccan warned him that this was a defining moment where he would most surely become Kang the Conqueror, but Iron Lad refused to heed his friend’s advice and entered the timestream, but not before he committed to being better than Kang.
Regretful, Eli quit the team as the Patriot and moved away, as did Kate who felt responsible as their leader for what had transpired. Feeling as if they had failed, the rest of the team quit too, save Tommy who was resistant to the idea of slowing down. Months passed and the Young Avengers were soon called in by the Avengers who honored their fallen friends with a memorial statue and were acknowledged as official Avengers.
Though their induction on the team was short-lived as Wiccan urged them to disband on account of those they’d lost. Teddy and Tommy moved in with Wiccan’s parents, but Tommy couldn’t deal with how understanding the Kaplans were, so he quickly moved out. Meanwhile Kate worked with Barton. Billy soon learned that, despite their agreement to quit being Super Heroes, Teddy was out using his shapeshifting powers to mimic other heroes and hide in plain sight all to help people. They fought about it but soon made up and Billy took it a little too far when he magically brought a version of Teddy’s mother from another world. Though she ended up being an evil other-dimensional parasite called Mother, who had the power of mind-control over adults. When Billy and Teddy escaped Mother’s clutches, they sought the Avengers' aid only to find them controlled by Mother. A reincarnated Loki, known as Kid Loki, soon rescued the pair and brought them to a diner where they met America Chavez, who didn’t trust Loki as she caught him trying to mess with one Billy’s spell to bring Teddy’s mother across dimensions. Loki claimed he could help but only if Billy lent him his power. Though the group were soon attacked by Mother and her parental minions, and revealed her evil plan, to kill Billy and Teddy’s friends and feed on their souls for eternity.
The now trapped teens were rescued by Noh-Varr and Kate in his ship, and as they made their escape, the parents followed, including the parents of the teammates who were deceased. Billy was taken by a Mother-controlled faux Captain Marvel (Teddy’s father) and Loki planted the idea that Billy was using magic to make Teddy fall in love with him. Miss America liberated Billy from faux Captain Marvel’s grasp and the team regrouped. Kid Loki then convinced Billy to loan him his power, to which he did and promptly disappeared. Billy, thinking he needed to die to stop it by taking his life, was stopped by the returned Kid Loki who was there to help. With the supercharged Loki controlling Wiccan’s powers, the team defeated Mother’s monsters but only temporarily as her powers were location-based, and any time the heroes got near their parents or the locations where some of their parents had died, Mother would take over again.
Billy trained under Kid Loki to hone his powers and so they could defeat Mother once and for all. Prodigy and Speed got to know each other until a Patriot look alike blinked Billy’s brother Tommy, AKA Speed, out of existence. Prodigy contacted the Young Avengers to inform them about Speed’s disappearance. Miss America punched the ground, opening a portal to another dimension and the team traveled to one messed up dimension to the next searching for the bogus Patriot and Tommy. Though they ended up in Mother’s home dimension where Hulkling and Prodigy were captured. The rest of the team escaped to a desert wasteland where they met Leah of Hel, an old friend of Kid Loki’s. Meanwhile, Prodigy and Hulkling agreed that they’d rather die than be trapped there, and Prodigy kissed Hulkling. Loki admitted he was responsible for trapping Leah in Hel to protect her from himself. The team soon reunited in Mother’s home dimension and liberated Hulkling and Prodigy, making their escape thanks to Miss America’s powers.
Back on Earth, the Pseudo-Patriot made an appearance and disappeared yet again, while the team regrouped. Hulkling needed time alone to think about his relationship with Billy, while Billy trained with Loki in the use of his powers.
The Young Avengers went up against Eldritch the Prethiest, while Wiccan aged Loki up to help stop Mother, but it didn’t work. Meanwhile, Hulkling was talking to a therapist, none other than Leah of Hel who with evil exes and Pseudo-Patriot captured him. Mother sent Billy a message that she’d devour Billy and destroy their home dimension using their evil other-dimensional selves. Leah with her gang of evil exes and Pseudo-Patriot prepared to fight the Young Avengers. The Young Avengers hatched a plan to have Billy distract Mother so that the others could rescue Teddy and in the process they found out that Leah was a manifestation of Loki’s guilty conscience. As th battle raged on between the groups, Billy and Mother were locked in a magical battle while Noh-Varr broke up with Kate for his ex, who ended up being imaginary. America saved Loki who admitted to manipulating everyone. Though the Pseudo-Patriot wasn’t part of Loki’s guilt projection, leaving the Young Avengers still stuck with him and Mother. Loki, fully repowered, sent Teddy to Billy so their love could help Billy turn into the full Demiurge and break Mother’s spell, while the rest of the Young Avengers fought the alt-YAs and they won the day. Loki disappeared only to reappear at the New Year’s celebration where the Young Avengers let off some steam, celebrating their win and the end of Mother. Prodigy watched the party from afar, who had a visit from Loki and the Pseudo-Patriot who had originally kidnapped Tommy, but then returned him after a kiss from Prodigy. Tommy soon took Kate into his arms on the dance floor and they kissed. With the night coming to a close and the sun about to rise, the team resolved to have breakfast and continue on to whatever came next.
Hulkling, Marvel Boy and Prodigy investigated a blast site where Uatu the Watcher’s eye exploded, affecting the nearby population. It led to a strange ally in known criminal mastermind Parker Robbins, AKA Hood, who was apparently interested in saving lives, particularly his mother’s life. He suggested that Prodigy build a Cerebro device to scan the brains of those affected so they could determine how to help them. Prodigy believed Hood’s good intentions, and while both Hulkling and Marvel Boy were hesitant, they eventually came around to the idea of working with the criminal. Prodigy built Cerebro using technical parts provided by Hood, and the resulting device was more like a junior version to the real thing. They tested it out on their first affected subject which seemed to restore them. Meanwhile, Noh-Varr tried to call in backup in case they had to fight but the other Young Avengers were busy. He also ran a scan of the hardware and determined that Hood had betrayed them by encrypting the info so only he could read it. Noh-Varr called him out with a punch and a threat, and Hood admitted the betrayal. He explained that since what was in those people’s heads was from the Watcher, that information could potentially take down governments, rewrite borders and control the fate of the world. A brawl started between them that eventually led to Hood’s escape. But Prodigy had discovered the encryption and altered it with his own and kept the information safe.
When Wiccan and Hulkling eloped, the team reunited save Prodigy, though they all attended the couple’s official wedding later. Kate cried, realizing that they had come full circle having originally met at a wedding.
