Is the MCU setting up Young Avengers? Watch these Disney+ cameos

Young Avengers assemble! But do it quietly because your show or movie hasn’t been officially announced yet. Marvel Comics fans know, however. We can read the writing on the Disney+ walls. The MCU is low-key setting up the stage for the introduction of a new superteam and we couldn’t be more excited!

Are you not familiar with the Young Avengers? The team’s name is pretty self-explanatory, but if you haven’t read the original comics you might have missed all the tantalizing Young Avengers cameos we’ve gotten so far. Lucky for you, we’re here to point them out.

Patriot

Let’s start with the most recent Young Avengers sighting in the MCU: Eli Bradley, grandson of Isaiah Bradley. We met Eli & Isaiah in a powerful sequence in the second episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The focus of the scene dealt with Bucky introducing Sam to Isaiah, a Black supersoldier nobody knew about. Eli was also there though, prompting Young Avengers fans to scream, “Look, it’s Patriot!”

In the comics, Patriot is a founding member of the Young Avengers and his superhero persona is meant to honor his grandfather – a Black Captain America erased from history.

Wiccan & Speed

Remember Wanda & Vision’s kids in WandaVision? Remember how Billy had magic powers and Tommy had superspeed? Would you be surprised at all to find out they’re members of the Young Avengers in the comics? And if you’re thinking the twins are gone from the MCU, that means you didn’t stick around for the end-credits stinger in the WandaVision finale.

In the comics, Billy & Tommy aren’t originally aware of their lineage or even of the fact that they’re related (their story is pretty convoluted) but eventually find out they’re brothers after joining the Young Avengers. It’s also worth mentioning that Wiccan became a bit of a gay icon for Marvel fans after it was revealed he was in a relationship with fellow team member Hulkling.

Stature

We’ve seen quite a bit of Cassie Lang – the future Young Avenger Stature – in the MCU. We met Cassie as Scott Lang’s young child in the two Ant-Man movies. Then “the Snap” happened and when we met Cassie again in Avengers: Endgame, she was a teenager, much to her father’s surprise. And we know Cassie is coming back for next year’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, although played by a new actress.

In the comics, Cassie gains superpowers as a side effect of secretly playing around with her father’s Pym particles. Like Scott, Cassie can shrink or increase her size, but her powers are initially tied-in to her emotions – a condition that can prove troublesome for a superhero.

Hawkeye

Nope, not Clint Barton, and not his daughter either. Even though we saw Lila Barton display some decent archery skills at the beginning of Avengers: Endgame, the successor to her father’s alter-ego is Kate Bishop. Kate will be introduced in the upcoming Hawkeye Disney+ series, and she’ll be played by Hailee Steinfeld.

Like Clint, Kate Bishop doesn’t have any superpowers in the comics. In fact, she initially meets the Young Avengers almost by accident, and ends up inviting herself to join the team. While the other heroes are initially reluctant to take her seriously, Kate eventually proves she has the skills necessary to be worthy of the Hawkeye mantle.

Miss America

We’re going to have to wait a little before we meet the MCU version of America Chavez – the Young Avengers’ Miss America – but it’s been confirmed she will be part of Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and she will be played by Xochitl Gomez. It makes sense for America to make her debut in Multiverse of Madness, since one of her powers is the ability to travel through the multiverse into other realities.

In March 2017, Miss America became Marvel’s first Latin-American LGBTQ character to star in an ongoing series. However, she was introduced into comics much earlier, in 2011, and joined the Young Avengers soon after. Powers-wise, she comes across as a young version of Captain Marvel. So, basically, a cosmic powerhouse.

Ms. Marvel

Speaking of Captain Marvel, Kamala Khan is a huge fan of the heroine. We’ll be meeting Kamala in the upcoming Ms. Marvel Disney+ show, where she’ll be played by newcomer Iman Vellani. While her superhero name is inspired by Carol Danvers’s alterego, Kamala has very different powers: superelasticity, shapeshifting, and size alteration. But she likes the name Ms. Marvel and who’s going to say no to her?

In the comics, Ms. Marvel is more often associated with the Champions, another group of young heroes. For the sake of streamlining the MCU, it’s easy to see how she’ll probably end up joining the Young Avengers instead. Much like Miss America, Ms. Marvel also made headlines for Marvel when she became the company’s first Muslim character to star in her own comic book in 2014.

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Are you excited for a potential Young Avengers movie or TV series? Let us know in the comments!