When speaking of the Young Avengers the onus is on the fans as they begin to lay out their expectations and hopes, since Kevin Feige has already gone the diplomatic route and said that from phase 4 on, the MCU is going to be just as open to any and all characters from the Marvel universe that are at their disposal. As far as The Young Avengers are concerned this means that any number of them could be showing up in the years to come and the assembly of the team could change up just as much as the original lineup did since if anyone’s keeping track, the original Ant-Man and Wasp didn’t exactly make the cut with the first movie, but Captain America, Hawkeye, and Black Widow did since this was how the project was put together. Letting go of the idea that things aren’t going to go as they do in the comics, at least not panel for panel, should make it clear to a lot of expectant fans that whatever they want to see might not be what they will actually get when all is said and done. Being a huge X-Men fan, the fact that the only movie that appears to be on the radar is being titled ‘The Mutants’ is kind of a slap to the old feelings of nostalgia, but oh well, unless we control the MCU, that’s how it’s going to be.
In thinking about the Young Avengers, one has to imagine that the MCU is going to keep changing in order to please the fans but also remain socially-conscious since there are more LGBTQ+ characters in the Marvel universe than ever before, and it’s going to reflect in the movies and TV shows at one point. While there’s no big deal there since it will still be filled with action and intrigue likely, there are bound to be individuals that will push back against this development. In truth, just wanting to see the Young Avengers become a reality is interesting enough to think about since one has to wonder how many there will be and who will be pushed to the audience first since there are a few of them and as is true Avenger custom, there are those that act as reserves and come and go as they please when it comes to allying with the Avengers. If anyone has read the comics, and many have, this is the thing with this team, members come and go all the time and are either a part of the team in good standing and are allowed to do their own thing whenever they need to, or are bound to the team and don’t do much else unless they’re needed for something. The Avengers isn’t a very exclusive team when one really looks at it since they’ve taken in some very interesting characters over the years.
Getting back to the whole LGBTQ+ idea though since it is something that people will want to see, we now have to wonder if this will alter how the team can function and what kind of material can be written here and there during the movies and streaming shows. Like it or not, too many things are being deemed offensive these days, so it’s easy to wonder who’s going to have a problem about one thing or another that a character says, and who might take offense to a costume, a personality, or just a simple exchange of words. This sounds silly to worry about and for most of us it’s not that big of a deal if there are troubling scenes in any of the movies or shows, but certain parts of society have deemed that a cartoon skunk was a problem, so it’s a valid concern at least right now, especially seeing that if an animated character can be taken out of rotation by the company that created and supported him for so long, then one has to wonder if the MCU is going to bend the knee in the same way if people start to harp on them for ‘troubling’ characters or situations. In the Avengers movies, there are plenty of moments that have been used as a basis for one discussion or another concerning what’s ‘wrong’ with the movie in terms of social mores and societal issues that people want to see addressed.
The concern is that this is going to eventually weaken the MCU’s content in some crucial way. That might sound like paranoia, but the continued censorship that might not be stopping anytime soon could do more damage than good if people aren’t willing to realize that fiction and storytelling are just that, FICTION and STORYTELLING. None of it is meant to be taken seriously, apart from the moral lessons that are given within each project. So if the Young Avengers do eventually make their way to the MCU, one can only hope that they’ll be allowed to exist in the same manner as those that have already been established.
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