So here's the first of two parts where I'll try to compare characters of similar stature (pun intended) across the two teams. Warning: Part 1 will be those that make sense; I'll be grasping at straws (and for laughs) with Part 2. Here goes ...
The Humans
Kate Bishop (nay Hawkeye) is the resident normal human of the Young Avengers and the daughter of a wealthy family (she bankrolled the Young Avengers for the latter half of the series before it went on hiatus and all this "civil war" nonsense started). She's a skilled archer, and seems like more of the team leader than Patriot. She's also the one with the most spunk: no matter how many times the guys tried to keep her off the team in the first arc, she kept on saving their asses. She's the kind of role model girls should have.
Chase Stein fills the resident normal human role with the Runaways and is the son of evil scientists. His codename for a while was Talkback, which kinda fit in with his rough-trade personality. His original weapons of choice were his pocket knife and some high-tech gauntlets he called "fistigons" (which didn't double as sex toys, no matter how they sound). He recently inherited a dinosaur named Old Lace that he can communicate with via a telepathic link. Did I mention the dinosaur is from the future and belonged to Chase's now-dead girlfriend, who herself was the daughter of evil time-travelers? Because that's kinda important.
The Skrulls
Hulkling (aka Teddy Altman) is the half-Skrull/half-Kree member of the Young Avengers. Notably, he's the heir to the Skrull empire, and on the Kree side, well, his father was the original Captain Marvel (who was an honorary Avenger). He has no connection to the Hulk or She-Hulk except in codename. He gets his shape-changing powers from his Skrull side and his super-strength from his Kree side. Oh yeah, and he's dating Wiccan.
Xavin is the gender-bending Super Skrull-in-training and is betrothed to Karolina Dean of the Runaways. He first came to Earth seeking out Karolina, who's parents had set up the marriage before they originally came to Earth to seemingly keep the peace between the Skrulls and the Majesdanians. After Xavin showed that he could look like a girl, too (because Karolina digs chicks), Karolina agreed to the marriage and the couple went off into space. They recently returned to Earth, just in time for a teammate's death and war between the government and super-heroes. They never did get married, either.
The Witches
Wiccan (aka Billy Kaplan) is the maybe witch/maybe mutant of the Young Avengers (because he's possibly one of the Scarlet Witch's thought-spawn, which were thought to have, you know, gone the way of a bad dream). Billy's original codename was Asgardian, but Kate suggested he change it because, well, he wasn't from Asgard and, well, because he's dating Teddy. He also looks identical to teammate Speed (Tommy Shephard, who would be the Scarlet Witch's other thought-spawn).
Nico Minoru (once codenamed Sister Grimm) is the leader and resident magic user of the Runaways. She's the daughter of (you guessed it) evil wizards/witches/magicians/whatever and inherited from them the magical "Staff of One", which appears out of her abdoman only when blood is drawn. (Funny, because she already was a cutter.) She also recently joined the Scarlet Witch in the ranks of witches that have slept with robots/cyborgs. But if Nico conjures up some thought-spawn, I'm calling it a day (Joss Whedon, I'm looking right at you, buddy! Don't do it!)
The Heavy Hitters
OK, I have to admit that I really just wanted to compart Patriot and Molly because, come on, I'm comparing a straping African American super soldier with a barely pubescent girl who wears cutesy skull caps — it was just begging to happen!
Patriot (Eli Bradley) is the Young Avengers' resident stronghouse. He's the grandson of Isaiah Bradley, who was the black Captain America. While Eli gained his super-soldier powers from a blood transfusion from his grandfather, that wasn't always the story. When Eli was first introduced, he said he had a transfusion from his gramps, but he was really using some illegal drugs to give him his super-powers. It wasn't until issue 12 (the last issue before going on hiatus) that Eli actually did get said blood transfusion, which resulted in the powers he said he always had. There's also some sexual (or just flirty, but, I mean, they are teens, so hormones are running amuck) tension between Eli and Kate (who is also quite flirty with Tommy).
Molly Hayes (who wanted to call herself Princess Powerful, but Chase kept on insisting on Bruiser) is the 12-year-old mutant powerhouse of the Runaways and the daughter of evil, telepathic mutants. She's also one of the few mutants to retain their powers after the Scarlet Witch had a tiff with her daddy, and is also one of the noticably few good mutants to have never been (and not wanted to be) a member of the X-Men. You have to be insane to not like Molly: she's innocent and naive, she wears funny hats, she loves sugary cereal, and she once punched out Wolverine! Fuck, screw all that; she punched out Wolverine! That itself makes Molly one of my ultimate favorite characters ever for putting that cash cow in his place. Oh yeah, Molly also gets extremely tired after exerting her powers too much, so she naps a lot.
The Machines
Vision, well, he has a weird history. The current Vision is based on the old Vision's operating system, minus all the life experience. And his body was created from tech from the future that was brought back by Iron Lad. But considering he's partly the old Vision, which was the "father" to the Scarlet Witch's thought-spawn, and if Wiccan and Speed really are said spawn, then that means he's teammates with his gay son, his gay son's half-Skrull/half-Kree boyfriend, and his other son who's chasing after the girl who's kinda team leader, who herself is also kinda interested in the team's super soldier. And now I feel like I've just described the plot of an episode of Melrose Place ...
Victor Mancha is the "son" of Ultron, one of the Avengers deadliest enemies. He was created to be a cyborg whose machinical parts would one day become identical to his human parts, making him pretty much not noticable as a cyborg. He was also implanted with a great love and knowledge of super-heroes, so that one day he might kill them all. Yeah ... and he doesn't want that. The Runaways didn't really trust him at first, but they've seemingly come a way since he first joined up. Hey, Nico even slept with him (and she must not have been able to walk for days, considering the one time Chase saw Vic naked, he remarked on his, ahem, endowment). Although, after the latest issue of the Young Avengers/Runaways crossover, Vic didn't look so hot. In fact, he looked a little mangly. Yowza. Hope he pulls through.
Part 2 coming soon (maybe this weekend).
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