Issues Solved: The Young Avengers Live

PHOTO CREDITS: OFFICIAL POSTER

BY CHRISTINA RIVERO

Last year, I reviewed a teenage-hero series, the new volume of Young Avengers. Prior to this new volume, written by Kieron Gillen, there was an original team. When the second volume was released new characters were brought in and some old team members were taken out (no pun intended). However, there has now been a fan-made podcast released with all the past and present characters combined.

The story begins by introducing two of the many characters that will come into play. Slowly but surely, more members begin to pop up throughout the show and, towards the end, come together to fight a common enemy; this creates the perfect equation of a superhero reunion.

Being part of the show as Cassie Lang, I am able to experience firsthand how the podcast comes together and how fans respond. It makes me humble and adds to my appreciation of not only comics, but of the teamwork that is required to put a show together.

Each cast member themselves gives their own charm to the show and captures the essence of their respective characters. Mandah (America Chavez) is the mastermind behind the podcast. After setting up the auditions and piecing together the lines, along with the help of Sean Weiland (Tommy Shepherd), she has created an international success within a few short months.

“Truthfully it was because I always wanted to do some type of voice acting project, but I just couldn’t figure out what,” Mandah said. “I’m a fan of the Young Avengers, as well as other comic book series, and the idea struck me. I had been sitting on it for awhile, wondering how I’d execute it and how much effort it’d take to create something like this.”

As the audience continues to grow, there will be new and larger expectations.

“Goal number one would be to keep having this show get a positive response that it seems to be getting so far and building up that audience,” Mandah said. “The second would be to finally do a live show. Which is pretty much a live table reading of a script in front of an audience. Being that our main cast is somewhat scattered we have to work out the details more on where we’ll be bringing shows too. Above all, I’d really love to see this go onto a second season, so a year, and on. It all depends on time!”

Even though the show faces many challenges and goals, fans could not be more thrilled to listen. Many have reached out to the show’s Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook.

“For the most part I think they really like it. If someone tweets or reblogs something and I see their excitement in the tags, I take it as a good sign,” Mandah said. “Obviously not everyone is going to like it because, one, it’s a fan project and, two, even hardcore fans don’t even like some of the stuff that gets put out in canon. This project isn’t about pandering, it’s about telling a story as well as being funny with these characters. So not everyone is going to see eye to eye.”

In the cases where rude or non-understanding comments are made, there has to be a time for remembrance that this is a purely fan-based show.

“We’re just fans like you or budding voice actors,” Mandah said. “We’re not going to get things 100% right because we’re relying on the time and dedication of others to make this happen. We’re not a major production and we don’t have access to who ever we want. We have to work with what we got and do an amazing job.”

Much of this is true; however, the loving-type of fans had the opposite opinions of the show and actors. Many have expressed this on personal blogs or by racing up to the actors to hear them in character.

“People got attached quickly to Christina’s character, Cassie Lang, off the sheer innocence and sweetness she brought to her,” Mandah said. “There was a moment when Sean attended NYCC and met some Young Avengers fans who asked him to ‘do the voice’ and then recently gushed about it on their blog having gotten a chance to meet Tommy Shepherd! I find stuff like that so cool and so sweet because I know how much it means to them to have people be excited and in awe about what they do.”

Since its release on January 10^th, the podcast has drawn in hundreds of listeners and fans from around the globe. It’s inclusion of Young Avengers and Avengers characters makes it a well rounded and well liked podcast.