Who are the Young Avengers?

(Guest Post by Jared)

**SPOILERS ahead for WandaVision finale**

It seems that Marvel is setting up a brand new Avengers team in the form of a fan favorite long running comic. This team was formed by a kid named Iron Lad from the future who came back in time to have the Avengers help him fight a time travelling Kang the Conqueror. When Iron Lad arrived he found that the Avengers had been disbanded after the Scarlet Witch lost her mind and killed several team members. Without the Avengers to aid him Iron Lad went through the Avengers files to find and build a new team, the next generation of Avengers.

Stature

Cassie Lang is our first Young Avenger to be introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She appeared as daughter of Scott Lang in both Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp. She again appeared, but now as a teenager in Endgame reunited with her missing father. We’ll see a re-casted Cassie in Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania next year in 2022 portrayed by Kathryn Newton.

In the comics Stature was not one of the original Young Avengers, but joined the team shortly after. She has the same powers as her father, however she doesn’t need a suit to grow and shrink in size. She confesses to her teammates that she repeatedly stolen Pym particles from her father for years, but only had recently begun to experience any effects.

Wiccan and Speed

The comic versions of Vision and Wanda’s twins is very convoluted, but now that they’re official in the MCU after appearing in several episodes of WandaVision, we can be confident they’ll join the Young Avengers team, but the biggest question mark is how since by the finale of WandaVision the kids have been erased and Wanda is off isolating and searching for a way to return them to reality. We hear them screaming as she’s searching the darkhold in the finale after credits scene. Are they in pain or in danger somewhere? This tease would only exist if Marvel planned for their return.

In the comics the twins are created by Wanda, and then removed from reality by Doctor Strange. Later when Iron Lad comes from the future to form the Young Avengers he finds two teenagers who mysteriously look alike, but have never met. Turns out that these two are the long lost twins whose souls had been merged with teenagers.

Their comic characters share the same powers as their MCU counterparts, magic and super-speed. Only time will tell how these will emerge on screen when their fully grown. Assuming that they age up again to teenagers and are recast, which would line up with their story in the comics.

Hawkeye

Kate Bishop first appeared alongside the original Young Avengers team after Clint Barton’s Hawkeye had been killed by the Scarlet Witch. The Young Avengers accidently ran into Bishop during a fight where she jumped in as a highly skilled archer and swordswoman. She later followed the team and insisted she join permanently. 

There’s a common misunderstanding that Barton’s daughter in the MCU will be joining the Young Avengers after her quick appearance with the bow in Endgame before she was snapped out of existence. However Bishop has no biological connection to Clint Barton’s Hawkeye in the comics. Will it be the same for the MCU? Only time will tell, but we know she is not the daughter we’ve seen several times already. 

Bishop will take on the codename Hawkeye in the upcoming Hawkeye series where she’ll costar with Jeremy Renner. Hailee Steinfeld has been cast to portray her in the upcoming series slated for late 2021.

Patriot

In the comics Eli Bradley was actually the second hero to go by the name of Patriot, the first was his grandfather who was a test subject for a super soldier serum project. When approached to join the team by Iron Lad, Bradley claimed he gamed powers through an emergency blood transfusion from his grandfather, but this was untrue. He had gained his abilities by using a street enhancement drug called Mutant Growth Hormone and later left the team.

While his future in the MCU is uncertain it’s heavily rumored that he’ll be appearing soon in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier played by Elijah Richardson. The story revolves around the US government demanding that the Captain America codename belongs to the military and can’t simply be handed over to Falcon. Since the story revolves around the super soldier serum and a new government created Captain America it seems likely we could be introduced to others who have been experimented on.

Miss America

Although she wasn’t an original member of the Young Avengers she’s become one of the most popular. America Chavez is an inter-dimensional traveler with superhuman strength and speed.

With her reality hopping powers it’s no surprise she’s rumored to be in Doctor Strange the Multiverse of Madness, this rumor has gained speed since it was announced that Xochitl Gomez has been confirmed for the cast of the film in an unknown role.

Ms. Marvel

Even though she’s never appeared as a Young Avenger in the comics it seems very likely that she’ll be joining the team in the MCU. We already have an upcoming television series starring Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan, Ms Marvel slated to premiere in late 2021. She is also confirmed to be co-starring alongside Brie Larson in Captain Marvel 2 in November of 2022.

In the comics Khan was an American Muslim from New Jersey who idolized Captain Marvel, and taking a previous codename from her now that Danvers was solely going by "Captain". Khan was introduced and then later revealed to be an Inhuman, so with the cancelled (and seemingly non-canon) television show Inhumans it’s unknown how they’ll introduce her powers for Disney+, but her powers will be unique to see as we haven’t had a elastic powers appear in the MCU yet so Khan will premiere these before even Mr. Fantastic!

Hulkling

We met both the Skrulls and the Kree in first Captain Marvel film, and the story did a 180 from the comics making the Skrulls the lesser of the two evils. We’ll see how this plays out for Hulkling as he is actually half Skrull and half Kree and destined to be the ruler of both and finally bring peace to the races.

In the comics he has absolutely no connection to the Hulk but takes on his persona for public relations as the shapeshifting Skrulls are very much hated across Earth. He typically appears as a large green man with giant gargoyle wings.

We do not have any rumors on casting, and nothing is confirmed for an MCU story as of the ending of WandaVision but there are a few places he could easily pop up that make the most sense. We have an upcoming Secret Invasion TV show with Nick Fury in production and an estimated early 2022 release. The comics Secret Invasion story revolves around several key Avengers, X-Men and world leaders that are replaced by shapeshifting Skrulls in hopes of taking over Earth. Fury finds out and goes into hiding not knowing who to trust. Since we saw Fury at the end of Far From Home and he’s working with the Skrulls we can guess as to what the story will turn out to be, but with the Skrulls being a huge player it seems like the most likely place for Hulkling to pop up! 

Hulkling is the only member of this lineup that is not announced or rumored, however with his romantic relationship to Wiccan and his status as an original Young Avenger it seems unlikely they’d leave him out of the team’s first teamup!

There are other members of the team such as a newly rebooted Vision, Kid Loki from an alternate timeline, Prodigy a former student at Xavier’s School for the Gifted, and Iron Lad who turns out to be a younger Kang the Conqueror from the future. These kids could show up down the line, but with these previous mentioned eight other Young Avengers already all but confirmed or rumored (aside from Hulkling) it seems like the lineup is pretty large as it is.