NYCC News: Today with the first Marvel NOW! title, Uncanny Avengers hitting retail, Marvel Comics unveiled the cover for the January debut of Young Avengers, a Marvel NOW! title written by Kieron Gillen with art by Jamie McKelvie and Mike Norton.  Gillen and McKelvie will be presiding over what Marvel calls "a reinvention of the teen superhero comic for the 21st Century" with a new saga with a cast that includes Marvel Boy, Miss America, Wiccan, Hulkling and Hawkeye.  

 

Gillen sees this new group of young superheroes as a bit older than the earlier incarnation of the Young Avengers, who were about 16.  The Marvel NOW! Young Avengers will be 18, a small, but important difference that will allow the fledgling heroes to take on more dangerous foes and predicaments.

 

By ICv2’s count this puts the number of Marvel NOW! books announced so far at 20.  Unlike DC’s "rebooting" of the DC universe with the "New 52," Marvel NOW! is a more gradual shift brought about largely by the events in the Avengers vs. X-Men event.  Unlike the clearly delineated changes in the DCU that took place last September, Marvel NOW! is a more gradual process of realignment of both of creative teams and of the heroes and villains of the Marvel universe, and unlike the case with DC, Marvel is attempting to maintain its overall continuity while refreshing its books with creator and character changes.