Young Marvel: Little X-Men, Little Avengers, Big Trouble

Marvel Babies

by Skottie Young, Dan Slott, Ruben Diaz

The Children of the Atom meet the Mitey 'Vengers in this giant-sized collection of pint-sized super heroics! There's no pacifying Cyclops and Cap, who swap "ABC" for "AVX" as the playground becomes a battleground! Then, when Mojo kidnaps Wolverine to star in his arena of death, it's Longshot, Dazzler, and the uncannily cute X-Babies to the rescue! And when these junior X-Men stand up to the Brotherhood of Mutant Bullies in a murderous game show produced by Mojo and Arcade, will they be outdone by new kids on the block - or will one of their number dissolve back into the neoplasm from which they were formed? Plus: a gallery of Skottie Young's ever-adorable Marvel NOW! variant covers!

COLLECTING: A-Babies Vs. X-Babies, Wolverine (1988) 102.5, Pint-Sized X-Babies: Murderama, X-Babies Reborn, Uncanny X-Men (1963) 461, material from Marvel Vision

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Marvel, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, X Men, Comic Book

208 pages, Paperback

First published October 8, 2013

About the author

Skottie Young has been an illustrator and cartoonist for over ten years working for entertainment and publishing companies such Marvel, Warner Bros., Image, Upper Deck, Mattel, and many more.

He is currently illustrating the New York Times Best Selling and Eisner Award Nominated adaptions of L. Frank Baum's OZ novels with writer Eric Shanower. The series has gained acclaim from both fans and critics.

Skottie currently lives in Illinois with his family, Casey, Baxter and their Saint Bernard, Emma.

Reviews

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me help everybody adjust their expectations, though I'd bet they were pretty low to begin with. For some reason, Marvel decided to publish an adorable chibi version of Avengers vs. X-Men. I don't know, do they even need a reason for that? But since it was just a single issue, they scrambled through their back catalog to find some of the old X-babies throwaway issues, so they could at least put something that looked like a decent size trade. Apparently deciding that it still wasn't enough, they added in a ton of Skottie Young's chibi covers, and called it a day. Ok then.

Don't even consider buying this book unless you're a big fan of both chibi versions of favorite characters and Skottie Young's covers. I have to say, I did like the new, Avengers vs. X-Men themed story. What can I say about a toddler Captain America starting an all-out war with a toddler Cyclops over a stolen teddy bear? The art is cute, and the story was written by somebody who knows that they were just writing a bit of adorable fluff to hopefully sell some comics. And I would have bought it. And, in case Marvel is wondering, I would buy an embarrassing number of plushies based on this book. Feel free to release adorable wee Nightcrawler for the Christmas season.

The other stories were tiresome at best, and I ended up skimming all of them after a few pages. I do have to admit that I like Skottie Young's covers, so I liked seeing so many of them in one place. Is Marvel thinking about putting out a Young art book in the future? I'd probably buy it.

Unless you like chibis and Skottie Young a lot, there's nothing good to see here. But if you do, it's a fun way to pass an afternoon.

[Dan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, everything that wasn't by Skottie Young was AWFUL.

[Bruno Carriço · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a waste of time and paper!

Having recently read Giant-Size Little Marvel: AvX, which i loved, i found this TPB in amazon and it was an insta-buy for me. If i was only just aware of the garbage i was buying...

Ok, the 1st story which covers 24 pages (out of 208!!!) is pretty decent, but was already on the Giant-Size Little Marvel: AvX that i owned. ALL THE REST IS PURE GARBAGE...
And since Marvel didn't had enough stuff to fill up a TPB,they also added 62 pages (yes, 62 out of 208) with just skottie young covers, and some idiot comic strips, which seemed completely odd (for me).

Run away from this... burn it!

PS - This book has an average rate (at this point in time) of 3.14 stars.... how is this even possible? I was so fooled by that number...

[K · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this up because Skottie Young is one of the contributors. I believe he (wrote?) and illustrated the first story in this book....baby X-Men & Avengers do battle in the middle of the night after Cyclops steals Captain America's teddy bear. It was silly & fun.

I've tried twice to read the rest of the book, and it just didn't do anything for me. Meh. I didn't bother finishing it.

[Esme 🦢 · Rating 4 out of 5]

super cute

[Sam Quixote · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cyclops has stolen Cap’s teddy, Bucky Bear – this means WAR! The A-babies take on the X-babies in a super-cute version of Marvel’s big 2012 Event, Avengers Vs. X-Men!

The A and X-babes are exactly what they sound like – baby versions of all of the Marvel characters. Why? Well, when you read the comic you realise why. It’s funny, imaginative, and the perfect foil to the incoherent, ‘roided-out, humungously boring piece of crap that was AVX. Skottie Young, the brilliant artist who draws all of those baby variant covers for Marvel, writes this wonderful story and shows he can write as well as draw like a god. Also included are a ton of his variant covers for you to enjoy.

Of all the Marvel babies, or chibi meaning small person in a cute way!, was baby Galactus which was just an amazing visual, but all of the character designs are perfect. I actually enjoyed this one-shot more than all of the AVX stuff combined.

There are a lot of other comics included here featuring the A and X-babies but they didn’t measure up – a lot of them feature Mojo and consequently there’s a lot of talk about ratings, TVs and audiences that get old pretty fast. I read a couple of the stories here, including a disappointingly terrible contribution from Dan Slott, and then skimmed the rest.

5 stars for the A-babies Vs X-babies story, 1 star for the rest. Worth reading for the one-shot only.

[Michele · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this really just for the skottie young story, not realizing it world have work by a bunch of other people in it with terrible art and bizarre illogical tales. I'd give the first story, skottie young's, 4 stars but most of the rest of the book 1 star. there were a few good drawings. but overall, unappealing.

[The other Sandy · Rating 1 out of 5]

It pains me to give this book one star because the first issue (A-Babies vs. X-Babies #1) is five stars of adorable and I love it. However, it only comprises about 10% of this compilation, and the other issues are so uniformly terrible that the first issue isn't enough to budge my rating any higher.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a big fan of chibis,but X-babies are okay. But this collection is just that....this is a hodge podge of baby stories,and mostly pimped out covers of one of my favorite comic book illustrators, Skottie Young.

[Brylliams · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't care as much for the older versions of Young Marvel, as I mostly love Skottie Young. There was only one story by Young in this collection and it was one that was published in the other collection Young Marvel: AvX which had many more stories by Young. Pick up that one instead of this, unless you're ok with the older 90s storyline with Mojo, Arcade, and the Little X-Men.

[BlurryBug · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the first story and the art, but the rest of the stories i had a harder time connecting with. The art change didn't sit well with me either it was a little darker and harder for me to connect with
The storylines were good but in the end this was a inbetween 2-3 star read.

[Ida · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

My fave characters the X-Babies, Long Shot and Dazzler are in this book. There is the Little X-Men and the Little Avengers but nothing beats the original X-Babies from the X-Men comics. Nuff said!

[Ashly Lynne · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was terrible. I love Scottie Young, but this was marketed so falsely I'm actually pretty angry I spent so much money on this.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's pretty much just artwork. The story is ok for the first issue in the book but the rest or too....busy. Too much going on. But yeah, the art is cool.

[PuniPoli]

Dnf .. muy ridiculo y ñoño jajaja
Los dibujos si están bonitos..

[David Turko · Rating 2 out of 5]

Skottie Young's story in this volume is the only real highlight. The rest of the stories were a bit mediocre.

[Bene Vogt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Complete and utter cash grab. One story written but not drawn by young that could be rated as mildly entertaining and a half dozen absolutely terrible drivel.

[Becky B · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of stories about young X-Men and their battles against their nemesis the young Avengers, mostly pitted against each other because of their mutual nemesis, Mojo who wants to restore his network ratings and rule the world through tv enslavement.

I read another collection of Young's stories of little X-Men vs Avengers and liked it. Only one story in here was done by Skottie. I liked it. The rest, not so much. Most of it was done in more adult/old school superhero comic styles. Most of it introduced a bunch of characters and backstory I was unfamiliar with (or called characters by different little kid nicknames it took a while to figure out). And much of it was just plain weird.

Notes on content: A few minor swearwords. No sexual content, though there are some ladies with skin-tight and bathing suit-ish outfits. Mostly cartoon style violence, so everyone is ok in the next episode.

[J'aime · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first story in this book was fantastic, wonderful, amazing. In short, I loved it. Cyclops has stolen Cap’s Bucky Bear and he assembles the Avengers to rescue him. This story was such a delight with all the characters as baby versions of the regular ones. Though obviously toned down from the real AVX crossover, there is still a lot of sly adult humor that made me laugh aloud. Unfortunately, everything after that went downhill fast.

The rest of the stories involve kid versions (though not the babies from the first story) of the heroes being manipulated by some villain called Mojo; and it was a piping hot mess. The panels are unbelievably crowded, both visually and with lots and lots of text boxes, most of which are not dialog. It’s actually a chore trying to read what is happening. As another reviewer pointed out, there’s a lot of mumbo jumbo about ratings and tv that just kinda blended together. The best thing about the book is the names for the X-Babies (Wolvie, Shower, Sugah, Cyke, etc). But that is literally the only redeeming thing. The “plots” were unclear, babbling nonsense. I ended up skimming most of the material.

The books ends on a high note with an entire gallery of Skottie Young’s beautiful hero baby cover art. Overall, other than the gallery, this book was a total waste for me since I got the first story in the AVX hardcover collection anyway. Though, I will say, the amount of material is well worth the price. Too bad the same can’t be said of the quality. Sadly, not recommended. Pick up the one-shot of the first story and skip this.

[Michael Emond · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a boring disappointment of a book. I was so close to buying it when I saw Skottie Young's cover and it being advertised as a Skottie Young book (the wonderful illustrator who does the Oz graphic novels) but luckily I did a bit more homework and found that there is very little Skottie in the book. He writes (only writes!!!) the first story (which is a best of a bad lot)and we get some of his wonderful cover collections at the end but the rest of the book is a mish mash of stories tied together by the theme of X-Babies. There is very little of quality in this book other than some nice art. The stories are pointless and not very clever or interesting and I for one never liked the idea of Mojo (the main antagonist of the X-Babies)and his World of TV ratings. Mojo is a cute one off idea for Longshot or the first X-Babies stories (which don't even appear here and were drawn by Art Adams) but the more he appears as the villain the less I want to see of him. I got this book from the library and would NEVER recommend it to anyone. If it had been all written and drawn by Skottie it could have been a wonderful book but instead it is a collection of stories that aren't worthy of being in a collection. FAIL.

[Adriana · Rating 2 out of 5]

This turned out be a bit of a disappointment.
It starts out wonderfully with a very fun battle between the baby X-Men and baby Avengers. It’s full cute puns, adorable little versions of tons of characters, and enjoyable moments. It ends with a gallery of the covers that were released for all Marvel titles at the time the Skottie Young issue came out; they’re adorable and cute. A major positive for me, but I know it turned off a bunch of people.
The problem lies in the in-between pages. Material from late 80s/early 90s suffers from the era’s problem with overdone art and poor storytelling. The layouts are a mess, the text bubbles out of order, and the stories seem like LSD dreams gone wrong. To say I skimmed most of it is an understatement.
The only way I’d recommend this book is if you’re someone who couldn’t get their hands on the Skottie Young issue and variant covers. Otherwise, don’t waste your time or money.

[Alyce Hunt · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favourite issues in this graphic novel were definitely 'A-Babies vs X-Babies' and 'Pint-Sized X-Babies: Murderama'. The game show aspect of the latter was probably one of my favourite things ever - it's such a brilliant concept, and the art style was lovely throughout.
I wasn't completely in love with the rest of the issues, but that might be because I'm not the most knowledgeable in the field of X-Men, so it felt like I was getting characters confused with each other very easily. It's my own problem though, and something that I now know that I need to work on, not a problem with the collection.
I also adored the selection of variant covers displayed at the end of the graphic novel, and thought it was the perfect way to finish it off.

[Shelley · Rating 2 out of 5]

5 stars to the Skottie Young issue of A-Babies v X-Babies, which is hilarious and awesome and gave us Bucky Bear, along with a ton of fabulous visuals. The rest, ugh. To issue that one in print, they dug through their archives to find any issues where Avengers or X-Men were de-aged, and there a few. And few are good. The Mitey Avengers, including Captain Amerikid and Hawkey, along with Wisp and others, were rather cute. And they did visit a library and liked it, despite the fact that the building was derelict because "no one reads anymore." And then there was he Mini-Marvels which had tiny Steve and an even tinier, actual baby side-kick Bucky. That was sort of hilarious. But really--meh.

[A. Nixon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was cute. I picked it up because I cannot find my A-Babies Vs X-Babies individual issue but I wanted to re-read it, so this came up. It's a collection of a lot of Mojo-centric baby-X-Men stories and I did enjoy those. The covers at the end of the book were my favourite, though (especially wee!Deadpool!), because I wasn't struggling so much to understand who the characters were when they were big.

It's a fun collection to have as a fan of the Avengers and X-men, although I'll imagine that it's not a must-have for most fans. It's cute. It's not much deeper than that.

[Memphis Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Main cover story: Cute toddler version of A v. X event. Other stories: 1990s X-Men, which has a very distinctive style some people apparently liked so much they're actually bringing it back as "X-Men '92". If you dig '90s X-Men you'll love this. I find it cluttered and garish...and now I sound like The Simpsons' comic book guy.

[Bryan W · Rating 2 out of 5]

Impulse buying will be my downfall I swear. I remember the Mojoworld stuff from when I was a kid but reading it again now after all this time divorced of its original context was surprisingly tough. The new standalone stories are fairly interesting but besides Skottie Young's artwork I can't find much to recommend unless you're looking for a coffee table artbook.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was cute, but not quite what I was expecting. It did not seem like much "new" or modern comics, just reprints of past events. The dates were confusing to me also - the last few issues seemed to be pretty new (right before the House of M) but the only dates I could find were pre-1960-something. I wish they would have been accurate and open about that information.

[Holden Attradies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute, fun, and light hearted. If you are a fan of Skottie Young's covers than you will probably like this (and enjoy them all being gathered together). If your not then there is pretty much nothing here for you.

[Amanda [Novel Addiction] · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I loved the art style, I only liked the first story in this volume. There were some seriously bad background and text color combinations that left my eyes burning a little. Overall, cute to look through, tolerable to read if you're bored.