GoodRead - Young Avengers: Style > Substance

I won this late last year due to the lovely people of My Independent Bookshop over their #DearMIB contest (thank you!). I won a few books that I have been excited to read and this was one of them. I always wanted to read a graphic novel and this one just sounded like fun! And a few peeps I chatted to on Twitter said I would like this so... yeah...

This is kinda hard to explain but here we go. This series (there is only 3 volumes, if I understand it correct) follows the adventures of the Young Avengers (aka Kid Loki, Marvel Boy, Miss America, Wiccan, Hulking and Kate "Hawkeye" Bishop). After seeing his boyfriend Hulking upset, Wiccan decides to do something he really shouldn't have. This has a huge effect on the other members who are now not only bound together by Wiccan's spell but now are running (and fighting) their parents and something that looks like Hulking's dead mother.

No pressure.

Ok,am going to say it. This is my first real graphic novel and I LOVED IT! It was fast and fun! I sped through this book and I have plans to reread it before I blitz volumes two and three.

It also wasn't what I was expecting. Like I said, it was fun, but it was also really colourful and clean (I have seen some covers of other graphic novels and they have that "gritty" edge to them that I'm not sure am ready reading in graphic news). Plus, you have to love that the graphic novel didn't take itself too seriously. Not only did the humor come as quickly as the action, but when you see a two page spread of a fight scene/plan that needs a Key (and halfway through the fight, has Marvel Boy start playing "Young Hearts Run Free" by Candi Staton because he loves 60s music), you just go "Oooooh!"

I love the characters's relationships and how they were shown. Wiccan and Hulking are in a relationship and, barring one panel when they kiss, we see that they're in love with each other through panels of them holding hands. HOLDING HANDS!!! This was romantic and realistic. And with Kate and Marvel Boy, you get the feeling that while they might have feelings for each other, they very much enjoy having a post-watershed relationship. And let's not get started with Kid Loki and Miss America's relationship where she does not trust him and will, if given the chance, punch him into the next dimension...

So yes. I loved my first baby steps into the world of graphic novels and I hope, in the coming year, I will read more. And this was my starting point - good place to start if you haven't entered the world of graphic novels.