Members of the Young Avengers have started popping up in the MCU throughout the newest Disney Plus shows, and more are on the way (such as the upcoming introduction of Kate Bishop in Hawkeye). The Marvel fandom is abuzz with the idea of the Young Avengers joining the roster of heroes, and their appearances have been much anticipated.
While avid comics fans may be eagerly awaiting the appearance of the teenage superhero team, others who are less familiar with these storylines might be wondering: who exactly are the Young Avengers? Who are the members, and what made them form a team together? How do they fit into the wider Marvel universe? Let's take a look at all of that, and find out why so much of the fandom is clamoring for a Young Avengers appearance in the MCU.
The Members
The complicated thing about explaining the Young Avengers is that there are two main comic runs that need to be discussed: the original series from 2005 (referred to as Volume 1), and the more recent run from 2013 (Volume 2). The team has shown up in numerous iterations in between and outside of these two runs, but they're the most important in terms of the main storyline, and they spend the most time focused on the team specifically.
In Volume 1, the team consists of Iron Lad (aka Nathaniel Richards), Hulkling (Teddy Altman), Patriot (Elijah Bradley, grandson of Isaiah Bradley), Stature (Cassie Lang, daughter of Scott Lang), Kate Bishop (who takes on the mantle of Hawkeye), and Wiccan and Speed (aka Billy Kaplan and Tommy Shepherd, who are Wanda Maximoff's children that were reborn into two different families). In Volume 2, Hulkling, Wiccan, Speed, and Kate are still part of the team, and Kid Loki, Miss America (America Chavez), Marvel Boy (Noh-Varr, a Kree superhero), and Prodigy (David Alleyne) join the previous members.
Almost all of the original team members have ties to the Avengers in some way, and a lot of them have similar powers to their Avengers counterparts. Patriot injected himself with Mutant Growth Hormone to give him super soldier-like strength (to carry on his grandfather's legacy of being the first Captain America). Cassie Lang has the same growing and shrinking powers as her father, and Kate Bishop is as good an archer as the original Hawkeye. Wiccan has magical powers similar to those of the Scarlet Witch, and Speed is, well...a speedster (like his uncle Quicksilver). Hulking is a shapeshifter who possesses super strength and healing abilities, and he resembles the Hulk (he's also half Kree and half Skrull). America Chavez has the abilities of super strength and flight, and also can create portals between universes.
How Did The Young Avengers Form?
The story around these teenage heroes all started when a young man named Nathaniel Richards came from the future fleeing from Kang the Conqueror. It turned out that Nathaniel was actually a younger version of Kang who was trying to stop his future, villainous self. He went to the Avengers Mansion to seek help, but it had been abandoned after the Scarlet Witch had a breakdown and caused a lot of damage to it (and killed some of the Avengers in the process). Nathaniel then went on to form a team with young heroes related to the Avengers in some way, including Eli Bradley, Billy Kaplan, and Teddy Altman. Cassie Lang joined the team because she wanted to follow in her father's footsteps after his death (he was one of the Avengers killed by the Scarlet Witch). Kate Bishop also joined on after she helped the team fight off kidnappers at her sister's wedding.
The team caught the attention of some of the remaining Avengers, such as Captain America and Jessica Jones, who tried to stop them from fighting Kang, claiming that they were too young and inexperienced. Despite this, the team still fights against Kang and wins, though changes in the timestream forced Nathaniel to go back to his original time and become Kang the Conqueror anyways. He left his Iron Lad armor behind and connected it to an A.I. of Vision that he had found, and this new Vision (who was essentially a blank slate) joined the team in his place. The Young Avengers had their equipment confiscated by the Avengers, and were told that they were still too young to train, but they continued to fight in secret anyway, finding themselves a new base and creating their own equipment.
At one point, there is a conflict surrounding Teddy (Hulkling), as he discovers that he is the son of the Kree hero Captain Marvel (the original Mar-Vell, not Carol Danvers) and the Skrull princess Anelle, and both sides want to bring him back to their worlds, causing a massive battle between the Kree and the Skrulls on Earth. This is when Speed joins the team, as they recruit him to help rescue Teddy (this is also the storyline in which it is revealed to Billy and Tommy that they are the twin sons of the Scarlet Witch who were reborn and separated). The conflict eventually ends with Teddy and Kl'rt the Super Skrull shapeshifting into each other and trading places, so that Kl'rt would travel back to space and be shared between the races, while Teddy could stay on Earth with the Young Avengers, and particularly with Billy, whom he is dating.
In Volume 2, the group has disbanded, and Teddy has moved in with Billy's family. Billy uses his magic to search the Multiverse for a universe in which Teddy's mom is still alive in order to bring her into their reality. When he attempts this, he accidentally brings an interdimensional parasite called "Mother" back with him, who ends up infecting the Avengers and a lot of the other adults around these kids. With nowhere else to turn, Billy and Teddy are rescued by Kid Loki, and are soon joined by Miss America, Noh-Varr, Kate Bishop, and eventually Prodigy. They fight together to defeat Mother's army, but once they do, they learn that they can't stay where their parents are because the parasite will return (Mother's magic is distance-based).
This leads to a Multiverse-hopping adventure where the team travels through space and time together. Loki trains Billy to get stronger in his magic so that he'll be able to face Mother and win for good this time. In the end, Billy is able to defeat Mother in the final battle, and he is once again able to reunite with his parents after losing them to the parasite for so long. This storyline focuses on Billy and Teddy's relationship, as well as Kid Loki reckoning with the consequences of some of his actions and learning to be a better person.
That's a basic (albeit somewhat confusing) outline of what the Young Avengers are all about, who the members are, and where they got their start. As for whether or not fans will get to see them in the MCU...that remains to be seen. Plenty of the members of the Young Avengers have been introduced so far in some way or another (or will be introduced soon), but Marvel hasn't made any official statement about a Young Avengers movie or TV series. However, it seems likely that they'll explore this path soon, especially seeing as they've introduced the Multiverse and Kang the Conqueror in this Phase of the MCU. They have plenty of material to work with around this teenage team, and hopefully fans will get to see that dynamic transferred to the screen sometime soon.