Young Avengers Special #1

Young Avengers Special #1
Sorry, yet another book that I'm very late in reading. Up until the sixth page, I was enjoying it too, and then ewwwww. Cassie Lang's mother's boyfriend's guard buddies in the Stark building get all pervo. Three smiling guards, fully armed, blocking her path from taking a meeting with their boss, Tony Stark, and they say: "'Morning, Cass. Blake said you might need a ride to school." It's not so much what they say, as it is the context in which they say it, and the emotion they display while doing so. Obviously, Cassie walks to school. This just turned my stomach. Bleaah.
Still not a good enough explanation for Cassie discovering her powers - which are all the more surprising, since her father got the powers through Chemistry, didn't he? What do you think this says about anybody whose father used drugs at the time of their conception? Imagine if a dope fiend's child had the ability to trip out at will, without ever taking a hit!!! Yeah, that's about how much sense it makes. Maybe that's why I never bothered watching the OC.
Now, on page 14, we're back into this being a GOOD story. EXCELLENT bit of foreshadowing of future plotlines by Teddy's best friend referring to him as a mutant skrull, and by the display of Teddy's adulation for Captain Marvel. At the time this was published, nobody could have known...especially since the parent title is so often behind schedule.
Page 15, and the hits just keep on coming. Here we get a meeting between Billy and the Scarlet Witch, (apparently 1-3 days immediately preceding the Disassembly) who he says is his favorite Avenger. I wonder if she had any clue that he might actually be her son? Again, EXCELLENT use of foreshadowing. Page 16, she kisses him, and possibly alters his probabilities to give him a bit more confidence. In fact, could it be possible that the Scarlet Witch actually endowed Billy with his powers at that very moment? Well done. An interesting visual detail here is the URL on Billy's shirt. Usually, comicbook URLs are phony, and either don't lead anywhere, or instead lead to a website manufactured for the purposes of the book. This is a very nice placement of a real world URL into the issue. dalitnetwork.org is a real site, possibly dear to one of the contributors to this book, promoting the freeing of those Indians considered born into the lowest caste. An interesting (though hopefully unintended) allegory to Billy's empowerment in this scene.
Oh, but it was all going so well. And then we get to page 23, and the intimation that Kate Bishop was raped. Rape as a plot device. "How can we make this female character more sympathetic? I know! We'll rape her (retroactively)!" I had enough of that shit with Identity Crisis. Being a relative youngster, I don't remember Jessica Drew being raped (or if I did, I didn't understand it at the time). So, even though I can give Heinberg some points back for trying to equate the two characters in the scene, in theory weren't there better, more emotionally effective ways to do this? In fact, all implications of rape could have been left out. Here's how I would have done it: since her parents had no sons, upon her mother's death, Kate, being the youngest, began to be raised by her father as the son he would never have. Therefore, he enrolled her in all kinds of physical activities, such as martial arts and archery. The impetus for Kate to become a Young Avenger occurred when she was taken hostage in the first(?) issue of the title. Then, skipping over any implication of either character's rape, we could have gone to the question Kate poses to Jessica: "when your daughter finds out she's got powers just like her mom and dad--what are you going to tell her?" And Jessica's response "I'm going to tell her, no way. But if she's anything like me, she'll do it anyway. And if she's anything like you, I'll consider myself lucky" would be sufficient to establish an emotional connection between the characters.
Just a small nitpick: hasn't Patriot's grandmother always been shown wearing a Burkha? Maybe it's not necessary in the privacy of one's own home...but it would be nice if an editor's comment could tell us that.
I enjoyed Sinkiewicz's art on the Kate Bishop story. Pasqual Ferry's work on the Patriot story was nice. And the rest of the art wasn't bad either.
I must admit the hook of the last page's reveal was lost on me, even though I have read every issue, was that supposed to be Kang? And if so, how did he have access to Luke and Jessica's conversation?
But for the rape thing and the weak origin for Stature, I would say this issue was EXCELLENT. They'll have to settle for GOOD though - I just can't condone the use of rape as a plot device for supposed character development. It's a cop out, and a good author should never have to go that route. Rape as a plot device is only justified (as much as it can be) when the story up until that point supports it as a logical progression of events. It never works when it comes out of left field, and I hope that it never will (I'm talking to YOU Brad Meltzer).