I had to change my list a little for my Graphic Novel section because the only copy of Runaways: Pride and Joy was stolen from the library last year and I didn't want to pay for one book. But a friend of mine gave me another option. The Young Avengers. And thankfully my library had volumes 1, 2 and Civil War which includes the Runaways.
I have Vol. 1 five stars, Vol. 2. four stars, and Civil War three stars because though it involved the Runaways, the story was hard to follow and the artwork bugged me.
I really enjoyed vol. 1 and 2 because it incorporated the original Marvel characters and then also brought in a scrappy group of new characters who are pretty awesome. You have Hawkeye, Patriot, Wiccan, Hulkling, and Speed. The story is a pretty basic plotline where the Avengers had disabanded and in their wake these young heroes show up to pick up the slack, which makes both the Avengers and their parents angry.
Marvel has gotten a fair amount of backlash over the fact that they had no gay superheroes until about the last 1980's as far as I can tell. Then they slowly started to integrate them in, but still got backlash for not being as awesome at creating gay characters as DC (that's what I've read, I'm still a little behind on that research) and only recently has there been a new gay superhero who has had his own comic, but I don't really know what's going on with him either. What I did discover was that a lot of comic readers didn't like the inclusion of Teddy (Hulkling) and Billy (Wiccan-his name used to be Asguardian but when people found out about him being gay there was the worry of them making fun of his name and he changed it to Wiccan). Many readers were okay with them being gay, but didn't like the fact that their relationship seemed "transparent".
I liked their story, despite what other people said. That may have been because I don't know much about any other character relationships or how things work in the Marvel universe, but I liked them. I thought it was nice that they were already in a relationship when the story started and that yes, they were gay, but there were bigger picture issues to deal with including Patriot's drug problem, Hulkling's paternity, the fact that Wiccan and his brother (who later joined as Speed) were part of a bigger conspiracy.
The stories were great and I liked the art (except in one section where they looked way too young and shiny. It was a weird art style) but all in all I thought that it was great. I loved the part in the series when the boys are about to tell Billy's parents they're superheroes and trip over their words instead the parents basically misinterpret what they're trying to say and instead hug them, telling them "Oh! We already knew you two were in a relationship, we were just waiting for you to tell us. Welcome to the family Teddy!" It was cute and sweet and I didn't think it was strained at all. I'm still waiting to get my hands on Children's Crusade so maybe something happens in there that made people mad, but as far as I could tell I liked the fact that the boys were gay and in a relationship.
I didn't like the Young Avenger's crossover with Runaways though. The Runaways series is a lot darker than the Young Avengers and it has a weird art style that I didn't really like. But it's a big more diverse in the fact that one of their characters is transgender (not by choice but whatever) and the fact that that character's girlfriend stayed with him/her after the change even though she wasn't considered lesbian to begin with. It basically showed that attraction and love can span even the greatest of changes. But I just wasn't moved by it. I spent the majority of this comic going "okay... and I still have no idea what's going on, can the Young Avengers just come back already?"
In the end I thought the Young Avengers was a great comic, I loved Billy and Teddy, and the female characters, though typically built like female comic book women, didn't bug me as much as they usually do.
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