Yesterday two new books hit local comic book stores, both heavily anticipated by me and I’m sure many of you. Although I have to admit when I got my hands on them I became slightly confused. Why was Marvel introducing so many totally new young heroes to readers all at once? Arguably it could be to see who fans gravitate towards and what sticks, but isn’t that a good way for them to get lost in the shuffle.

Reading through each of the books, Avengers Academy #01 and Young Allies #01, I began to get an idea of what their plans truly were. Starting with Young Allies #01, the book kicks off with kidnapping in a small Colombian town that serves as an origin to the newly created, or newly recreated if your well versed in your Heroes Reborn Universe alumni, Toro. From there it jumps to snippets of conversation between a group of new young super villains, preparing for their New York City debut as the Bastards of Evil. From the conversation and their appearances later in the title we’re given clues about who their possible parentage may stem from. What about the other Young Allies, you ask?

We’re introduced to them right after that. If you haven’t seen the cover or some of the promo pages floating around on the internet, the Young Allies group is composed of Firestar, formerly of the New Warriors, Arana the Spider-Girl, Nomad the former Bucky from the Heroes Reborn Universe,and still relatively new hero Gravity. The group is joined by Toro once the battle begins with the Bastards of Evil, as all happen to be within close proximity to their debut attack.

The colors of Chris Sotomayor, artwork of  David Baldeon, and writing of Sean McKeever really knock this one out of the park. If you’ve been familiar with the Marvel Universe in the last few years then you’ll know most of the characters and its good to see these characters that may not be able to carry a stand alone book just yet, teamed together to hopefully form something very interesting and just as entertaining in future issues. Young Allies’s is a definite recommendation.

The next book is the new Avengers Academy #01. This book launches from the end of Siege, Dark Reign, and before that the Initiative, which introduced the idea of current Marvel Universe superheroes trying to bring up and train the new generation to be better than they were, and to be better heroes faster then they were.

Avengers Academy introduces us to the first set of recruits, each who seem to have been handpicked as recruits by Norman Osbourne during his reign as director of the Initiative. The first team is comprised of six members, Veil, a young girl with the ability to break herself down into various gaseous states, Hazmat, another female able to project radiation and toxic waste from her body, Mettle, a man possessing the ability to turn himself into a metallic form, Reptil, whose body can morph into various dinosaur parts, Striker, whose body is able to generate vast amounts of electricity and Finesse, who is a polymath, a person who seems to be able to pick up and learn nearly anything at a highly accelerated rate.

The group teaching this next generation of heroes is Hank Pym, former Ant-Man turned Wasp, Tigra, Quicksilver, Justice and Penance now back to the code name of Speedball. As Pym explains to Tigra and Quicksilver, he feels they may be the best suited to train these new cadets as each of them has strayed from the path of heroism at times do to pressure or just bad decisions or in Quicksilver’s case, having a bad parent in a person like Magneto. During an argument towards the end of the issue, Finesse, displaying her ability for lip reading is informed that their group hasn’t been picked just because someone thought they were the best suited to be the next Avengers or because some of their powers might kill them. By the last page, these new heroes know exactly why they were chosen and what their mentors really think of them.

Again, this is another solid first issue. Christos Gage has crafted another fine title with new heroes being introduced into the Marvel Universe and I think it will definitely help in introducing this generation of comic book readers and fans to newer generation of heroes they can call their own. Mike McKone and Jeromy Cox are always excellent and the designs and colors for each of the new characters are fantastic.

Like I said earlier, I wasn’t sure what Marvel was doing with two new books so similar in style coming out the same day at the same time, but I think I get it now. Young Allies is the book for you if you want characters that have been around for awhile who are getting their moment to shine together. If you liked any of these characters this is the book for you, as I feel it will probably have enough of a connection with the old school Marvel Universe and the new stuff that keeps coming to find a healthy balance. But, if you like many out there, want new superheroes, superheroes that haven’t been around since your dad was a kid or for the last twenty or so years, then Avengers Academy is the book for you. These are fresh faced heroes with no connection that we know of so far to your dad’s or even grandpa’s generation. They’re here to make a splash in the Marvel Universe and hopefully, from what I am seeing so far, they stick around for a while to come.

Both books are on sale now at your friendly neighborhood comic shop.