Tied up a lot of loose ends and started some new paths. Very nice transitions, character development. My only complaint is that it took the kid avengers to point out the adult hubris. Seemed heavy handed. As good as Utopia and Seige! ( )

I really wanted to like this more than I did, but the story was so convoluted and slapdash as to undermine my enjoyment on many levels.

The story arc reconciles and waves away all the baggage Brian Bendis dumped onto the Scarlet Witch but is one of the clumsiest uses of Dr. Doom I've seen since the Roger Corman FF movie.

Glad to see some resolution on the Young Avengers and Wanda, but not well done IMO. ( )

I used to be really into Marvel comics for years, but then I got bored with them and gave them up pretty much cold turkey. And then I watched three Marvel movies in a row last weekend, and I thought to myself, "you know, these movies were all pretty good, maybe I should read some more comics again and see if I can get back into this stuff, except this time I am going to buy more things for my Kindle and fewer physical books, because they are a pain in the ass to move." And this is the collection I picked up, for various reasons - 1) I remember being really excited about it before I quit reading comics, 2) I really liked the Young Avengers collections, and 3) the Scarlet Witch is one of my most favorite characters ever (along with her brother, Quicksilver) and I wanted to see how she would get put back into the Marvel universe.

And I kind of got disappointed on all three points.

The author had to retcon the Scarlet Witch a bit, which pissed me off, because I am tired of reading about how sorry she is (even though a HUGE IMPORTANT POINT is made about how she isn't the only Avenger - or X-Men - who has had a bad past or killed teammates or done horrible things). But she seems to be the one who is singled out, the worst of the worst so to speak, even though it's revealed that she was possessed by a force and she wasn't exactly in control when the House of M storyline went down. I am not sure how I feel about this at all, except that I was tired of seeing Wanda groveling and licking the boots of her former teammates. And I really dislike, in general, the whole "ooooh woman has scary powers and she can't control them" storyline, which is one of the reasons why I quit reading comics in the first place.

Also, this really doesn't feel like the original Young Avengers to me, even though the author is the same, and I just didn't get into the story at all. A lot of time hopping and timeline changing shit, and I just couldn't bring myself to care.

And the whole bit with Dr. Doom and Wanda? Oh hellllll no. No no no no no and NO. Did not like.

In retrospect, this probably wasn't the best way to try to jump back into comics, and I think it'll be a while before I pick up more. ( )

The main problem I had with this was that I didn't really know or care about the Young Avengers (I'd only encountered them in the Runaways crossovers, where I had similar feelings), and this story line didn't change my impression of them. Yes, the story deals with important things: the Scarlet Witch, the aftermath of Avengers Disassembled/House of M/Decimation. The Avengers, X-Men and Dr. Doom all appear. Ultimately, despite the high stakes and important players, the story line has little impact on the world. Sure, the Scarlet Witch has been re-found, but nothing is different than before, which makes the story feel a little pointless. ( )

This story’s got two aims at heart – firstly to bring the first Young Avengers run to a conclusion and secondly to resolve the story of what happened to the Scarlet Witch after the Avengers Disassembled/House of M storyline. The big problem here is that it can’t decide quite which of those it wants to be. It starts as a Young Avengers tale but they’re quickly overwhelmed by the introduction of the Avengers, the X-Men and Doctor Doom. Even if you try and focus on the younger team and give them a good send off the very presence of so many of Marvel’s big hitters takes any attention away from the characters ostensibly leading the story.

The second problem is in resolving the Scarlet Witch issue. That’s a potentially interesting story, with heroes conflicted over whether she should return and whether they should accept her. And that’s how it plays out for a while. The big trouble is, after a couple of epic storylines were built around her going off the rails the explanation offered as to why she went mad and affected reality so badly is a huge cop out that essentially fully absolves her. I’m not a particular fan of the operatic crossover events but this is a quick and easy solution that undermines them completely – you can understand why big superhero comics are in decline when this sort of thing happens. And that’s the fundamental problem, despite the death of a couple of characters others are resurrected. This becomes a storyline whose primary function is to restore the status quo for a couple of major characters and teams and, when the focus is on a third team as the story catalyst, that’s fundamentally unsatisfying. ( )