Young Avengers Comics Reading Guide
I love comics, but if any other industry made itself as hard to find a chronological order of events, it would be a miracle for that industry to survive.
I’m doing a reread of the Young Avengers comics (which won the GLAAD award in 2006 and again in 2014), and it’s pretty typically difficult. For example, if you search “Young Avengers 2” on Amazon, you get 8 different results, which are all from different arcs and with no indication of chronology, etc. Yikes.
So, while I’m rereading and reviewing, I thought I would create a guide to show a. the reading order and b. what each option contains, so you can mix and match based on preference and cost. I also give my opinion on if it’s important to read as part of following what’s up with the Young Avengers team.
…That said, a number of these are crossovers with other series or with major Marvel-wide events, and I can’t help with explaining the background needed for that, so I just point it out when relevant. I’m also including only Young Avengers team books, not books that the characters in separately (tracking them all down would be a massive undertaking).
| Omnibus (if N/A, no omnibus) | …Contains Trade Paperbacks | …Contains issues | Ongoing YA content? | Review |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Young Avengers: The Complete Collection Volume 1 |
Young Avengers: Sidekicks | Young Avengers #1-6 | Yes | * |
| Young Avengers: Family Matters | Young Avengers #7-12 Young Avengers Special #1 |
Yes | ||
| N/A | Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways | Civil War: Young Avengers #1-4 | So-so (event) | * |
| N/A | Young Avengers Presents | Young Avengers Presents #1-6 | Yes | * |
| N/A | Secret Invasion: Runaways / Young Avengers | Secret Invasion: Runaways / Young Avengers #1-3 | So-so (event) | * |
| N/A | Dark Reign: Young Avengers | Dark Reign: Young Avengers #1-5 | No (event) | * |
| N/A | Siege: Battlefield | Siege: Young Avengers #1 (one-shot) (Among other non-YA one-shots) |
No (event) | * |
| N/A | Young Avengers: The Children’s Crusade (AKA ‘Avengers: The Children’s Crusade’) |
Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #1-9 Avengers: The Children’s Crusade – Young Avengers #1 Uncanny X-Men #526 (excerpts) |
Yes | * |
| Young Avengers Omnibus | Young Avengers – Volume 1: Style > Substance |
Young Avengers (2013) #1-5 Marvel Now! Point One |
Yes | * |
| Young Avengers – Volume 2: Alternative Cultures |
Young Avengers (2013) #6-10 | Yes | ||
| Young Avengers – Volume 3: Mic-Drop at the Edge of Time and Space |
Young Avengers (2013) #11-15 | Yes | ||
| Original Sin or Original Sin Companion |
Original Sins (and other non-YA content) |
Original Sins #1-5 (and other non-YA content) |
No (event) | * |
tl;dr, In my opinion, you probably only really have to read Young Avengers (Heinberg & Cheung), YA Presents, Children’s Crusade, and Young Avengers (Gillen & McKelvie). If you want to get more background on characters, do the Runaways crossovers. And if you want to dive deep on full Young Avengers team content, all the info is there. I’ve linked omnibuses/TPBs on Amazon but not original issues as the table would become unreadable, but most issues should be available on Comixology or Amazon. But if you want me to help you hunt one down, drop me a line in the comments!