As young hero Wiccan see his powers growing rapidly, he must find out where Scarlet Witch is to get help.
Debuting at a time when
The Avengers were fallen and scattered, a young group of heroes decided to take mantle of their icons and become
Young Avengers, formed by
Hawkeye,
Hulkling,
Patriot,
Speed,
Stature,
Vision and
Wiccan. Together they fought
Kang the Conqueror, in
Civil War,
Secret Invasion and during
Siege of Asgard.
As they were taking on racial zealot group
Sons of the Serpent, one of their members shot
Hulkling. When
Captain America,
Iron Man and
Ms. Marvel reach there, one terrorist threatens them all with a nuclear weapon strapped to his back. To protect his boyfriend, Billy Kaplan sets off a power surge, rendering all Serpent members comatose.
Given Billy have no idea of what he just did;
The Avengers suggest that he stays with them as they do not want to deal with another
Scarlet Witch situation and explained how Wanda Maximoff went crazy after losing her twin sons. Surprised by this revelation,
Wiccan concludes that he and
Speed are likely to be her lost siblings.
Also, he is frustrated that his idols never even bothered to investigate whether or not she was truly responsible and leaves. However, Cap beat him to home and convinced his parents to let him stay with
The Avengers. On their way,
Hulkling showed up insisting to stay by his side since they are partners and
Captain America simply agrees.
In their two-bed room in Avengers Tower, Teddy Altman tries to convince Billy Kaplan to agree to let
The Avengers test his power and rest of their
Young Avengers teammates arrive to rescue him just then. Although he is flattered to see his friends care for him, Billy requests them to put him back in or else he will be hounded once again.
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| Avengers – The Children's Crusade | Comics |
Stature suggests that they try to find
Scarlet Witch instead so she knows that that her kids are alive and may be able to reverse her actions, possibly bringing her father back to life. Agreeing to her point,
Magneto arrives out of nowhere to meet his grandsons and seek help from them to find his daughter as they are the only links to her.
When he attempted to take them to Wundagore Mountain in Transia,
Patriot and rest of their team opposes only to be intervened by
New Avengers.
Wiccan tries to reason with them seeing
Magneto and
Wolverine quickly getting into a heated battle but when no one was ready to listen to him, he teleports all of his friends to Transia.
Patriot is upset at Billy as he has now made them all fugitives but
Hawkeye states that they should stick together as a team. They start looking for clues at the grave of
Magneto's former wife Magda and as soon as
Wiccan begin to pick a trail of Wanda Maximoff,
Speed races to nearby village area and ran into his uncle,
Quicksilver.
What he does next is to race back at his father and starts throwing stakes at him, one of which impales a woman who looks like Wanda. It turns out to be a Doombot and everyone assumes that
Doctor Doom has kept her a prisoner all along.
Magneto believes that they couldn't find her until now probably because of
Doom's powerful magic.
Meanwhile,
The Avengers called in former member
Wonder Man to help them find Wanda but he is not willing to help seeing Logan being too eager to kill her. After a heated exchange, He punched
Wolverine down a level and he leaves to find her. Unwilling to help them find her or rejoin their ranks, Simon leaves briefly to find her as well.
Magneto suggests that they all invade Castle Doom but
Patriot and
Quicksilver opposes this idea of starting a war. Billy proposes to do a recon using magic and tries to do so at night even after everyone was against this idea. He eventually visits Latveria alone in a disguise but his cover is blown off by Wanda, who is betrothed to
Doom.
Soon as they mentioned him,
Doctor Doom appears and despite his belief, Wanda Maximoff was seemingly living here on her own free will. After knocking
Wiccan out,
Doom asks her to get married the next day. Outside of his castle,
Magneto was making plans with
Quicksilver and
Young Avengers to storm his stronghold somehow.
Doom heals up Billy and relieves him off his powers as he explains how she came to him earlier seeking help. Before
Magneto and his allies could lead an assault,
The Avengers and
Wonder Man arrive there. Curious to know about her past as
Scarlet Witch and seeing Victor behaving differently, Wanda showed him out in her wedding dress.
When stepped outside, they see heroes are surrounded by an army of Doombots as they are trying to fight against
Doom. Amidst this chaos,
Wolverine sneaks up on Wanda and attempted to gut her down for what she did to millions of mutants before getting blasted off by
Iron Lad, who has returned back from future to save
Wiccan.
When things get heated up, he escapes into timestream with his friends and got back to the day
Jack of Hearts blew up Avengers Mansion. They see Scott Lang AKA
Ant-Man and they were able to save him before Jack explodes inevitably. Somehow they all return to present time and apparently Wanda Maximoff remembers everything now.
Regaining her powers, she conjures up a fleet of Kree ships and
Ultron robots to attack her but her sons managed to calm her down.
Beast,
Hawkeye and
Jessica Jones arrives to witness her reappearance and informs
The Avengers.
Young Avengers are worried that Logan is not ready to give her a second chance and intends to kill her.
Beast proposes that if she could restore powers of all depowered mutants who volunteers and they contacts
X-Factor.
Rictor agrees to be a guinea pig despite refusal from
Madrox and even got his powers back. She intends to do that to all mutants who wants their power back and they all notices that
X-Men are already here to get her.
A fight breaks down when
The Avengers came to take custody of her and Wanda decides to seek help from
Dr. Doom. She uses her godlike powers to access Life Force to undo her mistakes with help from her betrothed and
Wiccan. Victor Von Doom stole her power to become omnipotent and gets opposed by all heroes.
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| Deaths, Departures and Funeral |
Here is your links to buy "
Avengers – The Children's Crusade" from
Marvel Comics in issues on
Amazon.
01. Avengers - The Children's Crusade 01
02. Avengers - The Children's Crusade 02
03. Avengers - The Children's Crusade 03
04. Avengers - The Children's Crusade 04
05. Avengers - The Children's Crusade 05
06. Avengers - The Children's Crusade 06
07. Avengers - The Children's Crusade 07
08. Avengers - The Children's Crusade 08
09. Avengers - The Children's Crusade 09
10. Uncanny X-Men 526
11. Avengers - The Children's Crusade - Young Avengers
Here is your links to buy "
Avengers – The Children's Crusade" from
Marvel Comics on
Amazon.
Avengers – The Children's Crusade (Softcover)
Avengers – The Children's Crusade (Hardcover)
Set in motion following "
Avengers Disassembled" event,
Marvel Comics has been planning "
The Children's Crusade" with writer
Allan Heinberg (
Young Avengers – Family Matters,
Young Avengers – Sidekicks) and artist
Jim Cheung (
Astonishing X-Men – Life of X,
Avengers & X-Men – Axis) on board long before it was published in 2012.
Though
Young Avengers have been there during some recent major crossovers, they never had a definitive event of their own. In quest for
Scarlet Witch, who disappeared after altering reality during "
House of M" and then depowering millions of mutants in a whim,
Speed and
Wiccan has found their believed mother and reunited with her.
After a newly reformed
Magneto learns of these two from
Dr. Nemesis, he approached
Cyclops to know more about them.
Wolverine warns him to stay away from those kids before walking away but Erik Lehnsherr paid them a visit anyway. Following a tussle with
The Avengers, he even managed to enlist their help in finding his daughter.
Tension among Maximoff family has been an all time high; especially between
Magneto and
Quicksilver, considering the former tried to kill the latter last time they met. Victor Von Doom coming out as real culprit behind falling of
Avengers by manipulating Wanda from very beginning was a real surprise and so was return of
Ant-Man.
Doctor Doom ascending to godhood and becoming even more powerful than he was before by stealing
Beyonder's power before in "
Secret Wars" was a predictable threat. In a way, "
The Children's Crusade" has paved paths for "
Avengers Vs. X-Men" event with a brief yet intense skirmish within two super-hero teams, which took place afterwards.
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