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( CHARACTER ★ INFORMATION )

DOES THIS CHARACTER MEET SKELETAL BASICS? Yes, there's Billy becoming a super hero and generally establishing himself with the Young Avengers, Billy finding Wanda and deciding to stop being a super hero, and Billy taking the cape back up and helping save the multiverse.
NAME & AGE: Billy Kaplan | He was introduced as being 16 way back in Young Avengers v1, but enough time has passed to likely put him at about 18.
CANON & CANON POINT: Comics | Marvel Earth-616 | End of Young Avengers v2, Issue 15
CANON INFORMATION: Marvel Wikia (somewhat incomplete when it comes to Young Avengers v2) | Wikipedia (fills in those v2 blanks)

PERSONALITY: As a general note, any text that LooksLikeThis represents Billy speaking magic/using his reality warping powers. Content Warning for mentions of suicidal thoughts, as well.

From a title like Young Avengers, it should come as no surprise that Billy Kaplan's story is all about growing up. It is a modern bildungsroman, in the sense that it follows Billy's growth as a superhero though the ultimately positive beginnings, great personal and emotional losses, and an eventual drift in the general direction of maturity and self-acceptance, even if he doesn't hit it completely. Coming from a fairly typical upper middle class background ("I'm Billy Kaplan. My parents are Jeff and Rebecca. He's a cardiologist. She's a psychologist. Two little brothers, both obnoxious…" - Young Avengers v1), Billy's biggest problem before he becomes a hero is dealing with being bullied in school over both being gay and a fan of typically geeky things ("I've never really had a problem with being different from other people. It's other people who have the problem with me." - YAv1). After another day of getting beat on at school, things start to change for Billy when he meets the Scarlet Witch. She encourages Billy to "[s]tand your ground…[s]ee what happens" (Young Avengers Special), which he eventually does to somewhat disastrous results. Billy initially keeps his head down and avoids the bully, but it takes another kid being picked on for Billy to find the hero inside of himself ("Maybe I couldn't stand up for myself, but for someone else…" - YA Special). Billy almost kills the bully by accident, when his powers awaken. What Billy didn't know was that he's a mutant and a spellcaster, and he's about to be recruited by Iron Lad as a founding member of the Young Avengers.

The Young Avengers are a ragtag team that forms at first because the actual Avengers weren't taking any calls ("Seven super-powered Avengers fans who only came together because the Avengers themselves had fallen apart." - Children's Crusade). They do some good out there, but they also make a lot of mistakes along the way. Conquerors are defeated, friends are sent back to the future where they will eventually become the Conqueror that was defeated, teammates are almost kidnapped, wars nearly start, the Avengers come close to disbanding them a few times and telling their parents, and this could go on and on. The key points to take away from this relate to Billy's complicated relationship with authority, the gradual discovery and development of his powers, his protectiveness when it comes to his teammates (especially Teddy), his growing interest in the Scarlet Witch, and some of his more negative personality traits.

Billy is a huge fan of the Avengers ("Jessica Jones as in Jewel?", "The Growing Man. He fought the Avengers, the Thunderbolts--" - YAv1 and also in dozens of other places), which continues to make him want to trust them. He joins the Young Avengers because he believes in protecting people (ref. bullying stuff above) and is perhaps more than a little star-struck when he meets his heroes ("It's an honor, sir." - YAv1, to Captain America). He wants to come clean with Captain America and tell him who they are, despite some of his teammates doubting how much the Avengers are on their side. Even with a lot of evidence to the contrary, Billy's first reaction is a "[t]hey wouldn't do that" (YAv1) when the Young Avengers are locked up in a training room in order to keep them safe, while the Avengers contact their parents. That relationship between Billy and authority figures continues to be complicated, especially as his friends are threatened and his powers begin to develop.

While he's protective of all his friends, Billy takes it to another level when it comes to his boyfriend, Teddy. Billy's at his most forceful and dangerous when Teddy is threatened: "He's not going anywhere" (YAv1). Billy's powers are will-based, which means that if he doesn't want to heal their maybe ally that killed Teddy's mom and hurt Teddy, it's not going to happen "[p]robably because I don't want him to heal" (YAv1). His temper can be nasty once he loses it, even to the point of doing things that don't seem quite heroic, like not being able to heal someone who's injured, no matter what else they may have done. His protective instincts and the unpredictable nature of his powers is something that later pushes the Avengers into believing that Billy could be a danger to everyone (Children's Crusade).

Things get really weird for Billy again when the Young Avengers spring Tommy Shepherd from juvie and ask him to join up. Billy and Tommy appear to be practically identical , which they later find out is because they are the twin sons of The Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) and The Vision, reborn due to magic. Wanda's been missing for a while though, so despite some efforts on the part of Billy and Tommy, they can't find her anywhere. Everyone isn't entirely on board with Billy's near obsession with finding Wanda ("They were right. The Scarlet Witch murdered my dad. And Hawkeye. And the Vision-- Her own husband--" - Cassie to Billy in YAv1), but Billy can be stubborn when he hits on something and is often willing to pursue it to the point of disaster ("That's because she thought Tommy and I were dead. If she knew we were still alive--" - Billy to Cassie YAv1). He can be more than a little self-absorbed and blinded in his search for the past, to the point of not noticing the friends he's hurt until it's too late. He also has a tendency to open mouth, insert foot, with bringing up how misunderstood Wanda must be when one of his friends is Cassie, the daughter of a man that Wanda killed. He can be thoughtless in the same way with even his boyfriend Teddy, such as the time he reminded Teddy of his mother's death in an unnecessarily blunt way: "Said Captain Marvel was your dad. Yeah. I know. I was there? I also watched him kill the woman you thought was your mom. Oh, Teddy...I'm sorry. I'm sorry, that just came out. I didn't mean--" (Young Avengers Presents). Billy doesn't mean to be cruel, he's just a little insensitive when he doesn't think things through and tends to make everything about himself and his feelings.

Events that happen during Civil War, Secret Invasion, and Siege serve to strengthen and further support a lot of Billy's personality as established in Young Avengers v1 and Young Avengers Presents. Billy and the rest of the Young Avengers disobey Captain America's direct command to stay out of things in order to help the Runaways during Civil War. When Teddy, Billy, and a few of the Runaways are captured, Billy's pushed over the edge again when he's forced to watch Teddy being tortured, eventually telling their captor "I want you to die" (Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways). Again, this is another example of Billy's temper and being pushed to extremes when his friends are in great danger. When the Skrulls attack during Secret Invasion, Billy is already worried about Teddy: "Is this about you? Did the Skrulls come back for you?" (Secret Invasion: Runaways & Young Avengers). After Teddy is taken, Billy once more makes things all about himself and his pain, not even focusing on the battle still raging and leaving most of his team behind while he looks for Teddy (Billy: "Have to find...Teddy…" Tommy: "Are you even listening to me?! We're all going to die here!"). In Siege, Billy again shows off his amazing ability to make everything about himself, when he focuses on how the destruction of Asgard reminded him of a time when he hurt his dad's feelings: "He never told me those stories again after that. And now that I'm older all I can think is how I hurt him and I wish it never--" (Siege: Young Avengers). Instead of focusing on how terrible the destruction of Asgard is for all the people who call it home, Billy turns that around to how he feels about it.

Billy's desire to find Wanda finally comes to a head after Teddy's threatened during a fight and, in response, Billy puts part of Midtown to sleep without even realizing what he's done ("It wasn't the nuke that went off...it was Wiccan." - Captain America in Children's Crusade). The Avengers are concerned for rather obvious reasons ("You don't know what you're capable of, Wiccan, and neither do we." - Carol in CC), and Billy ends up as their extremely reluctant guest. This creates conflict with Billy's responses to authority, once again. He wants to believe in and trust his heroes, but they're practically keeping him under house arrest and treating him like a bomb about to go off, as Teddy points out by asking: "Is this a guest room or a holding cell?" (CC). Billy's "[i]t's just a little lacking in magic, that's all" (CC) shows that he's still uncertain about where he stands with this new development. Billy, at first somewhat reluctantly, breaks free with the help of the Young Avengers, which places him firmly against the adults that he's been a fan of and respected his entire life.

The quest for Wanda shows off a lot of Billy's worst traits. His flight from the Avengers is pretty impulsive and also involves making the questionable decision to work with Grandpa Magneto, who isn't exactly known for being the most trustworthy guy around. Billy's doesn't go into the situation entirely blind; Teddy points out that "[y]ou know Magento's using you, right?", while Billy responds with "[o]f course, he's Magneto" (CC). While we do learn some cute things about Billy's love of musicals ("Really, Billy? "The Sound of Music?"" - Kate in CC), this trend of not thinking things through continues through the mission. Billy tries to run off by himself and when that doesn't work the first time ("...but here you are, disobeying my father the moment he turns his back. I'm impressed." - Pietro in CC), he tries it again, after leaving Teddy a pretty melodramatic letter about what he's done. After finding Wanda and getting captured by Dr. Doom, Billy seems to finally realize that he's made a lot of poor decisions on this quest, but it's a little late to fix anything ("I'm an idiot." - CC).

Even after ending up in the middle of a near war between the X-Men and Avengers over Wanda, Billy continues to show his compassionate side and plead for understanding. He tells the X-men: "I'm not saying you should pretend it never happened. But I do think you should look at the whole picture. Whatever her crimes, Wanda Maximoff has saved lives -- and saved the world -- more times than we probably ever know" (CC). However, nothing works out well here. Two of the Young Avengers, Cassie and the Vision, end up dying during the conflict. Billy blames himself entirely for what happened: "I don't know who the bad guys are anymore. The Avengers thought it was Wanda. I thought it was the Avengers. Eli thought it was Doom. But it turned out to be me. I'm the bad guy...and I have no business calling myself a Young Avenger" (CC). He sees himself as the 'bad guy' who, though his poorly thought out actions and stubbornness, created a conflict that killed his friends. The Young Avengers give up superheroing for a while, and Billy falls into depression (CC and Young Avengers v2).

Things get a lot worse before they get better. Billy's depression continues on for months, and he refuses to have anything to do with super hero stuff. Some of the other Young Avengers, including Teddy, end up going behind Billy's back to continue doing the super hero thing without upsetting him. When Billy finds out that Teddy has been going out on his own, he reacts fairly predictably: "You can't do this. My life is over, just because…" (Young Avengers v2). Teddy's response ("Shut up, Billy. Just shut up. Do you know how lucky you are?" - YAv2) forces Billy to acknowledge that he's not the only one who was hurt and that he's been ignoring his boyfriend's pain while he allowed himself to be totally consumed by his own. Billy tells Teddy that he'll make it up to him and "be the best boyfriend in every reality" (YAv2), which does not work out at all the way he planned. Billy accidentally magically invites an interdimensional parasite in the form of Teddy's dead mother to their world (it's actually Loki's fault). The Young Avengers end up on the run from their own parents, Billy becomes suicidally depressed at his lowest moments, and he begins to really think about his reality warping powers and how they might influence the people around him.

Billy continues his trend of being negatively introspective, blaming himself for everything in pretty unproductive ways: "I'm the one to blame. I find myself thinking if I had my powers…If Loki hadn't stolen them…If I could have one last spell, I know what it'd be...IWishIWasSomeoneBetter." He looks at himself and what he's done, and always finds something lacking. Billy wants to be a better person, but he's stuck between wishing and action. He's so low at this point that, when Loki suggests that killing himself would stop the trouble with the Mother parasite, Billy nearly goes through with it ("My responsibility" and "Why not? It solves everything. You said it would cancel the spell. I pull the trigger and the problem goes away." - YAv2).

However, there is some positive that happens while the Young Avengers deal with the Mother parasite. Billy finally does come to the realization that he can't stop being a super hero and neither can his friends, and that asking them to was more hurtful than helpful:

Kate: "This isn't a good time, I know. But I have to come clean. You know what we agreed after Cassie died? That we wouldn't do any more hero stuff? In addition to the accidental Skrull thing? I've been working with Clint. You know, the original Hawkeye, and I've--"
Billy: "You're a super hero, Kate. You were always a super hero. I guess we all are."

Billy also discovers that he's going to potentially rewrite the rules of magic at some point in the future, as the Demiurge. When he asks Loki "Okay. What's going on with that demiurge stuff? I mean--", Billy finds out that "You're a singular multidimensional messiah. You're going to rewrite the rules of magic and all the implication of that decision are going echo forward and backward across all realities. It's no biggie" (Loki in YAv2). Clearly, this is a big deal for Billy, but at this point in time it's more weird and unbelievable than anything else. He doesn't see his full potential, just the Billy Kaplan who got his friend killed and keeps messing up in huge ways.

Things take a dive south with his boyfriend Teddy, after Loki suggests to Teddy that dating a reality warper can be dangerous. Teddy has something of an existential crisis, wondering if his very existence comes down to Billy wanting someone like him to exist and love him. It's this building concern that brings Teddy to break up with Billy, and he leaves with Billy's "Or maybe I'll change your mind?" (YAv2) echoing in both their heads. Billy becomes a lot quieter and more withdrawn without Teddy around; Teddy has always been something of a crutch for Billy, especially during his depression. The whole situation adds to Billy's self-doubt and concern over his growing powers, but also helps him mature, too. It's not all about him, but his actions have repercussions and effect all the people he cares about. He's slowly getting better at realizing this, but it's an idea he continues to need to be beat over the head with.

The situation with the Mother parasite resolves well for all the heroes involved. Billy becomes the Demiurge with the help of Teddy and their love for each other ("Oh, ugh. Is love really going to save us all?" - Loki in YAv2). The biggest moment showing Billy's growth is when he decides that he's not ready to become the Demiurge yet and gives up the power. Billy tells himself "You don't know what the hell you're doing. Yet" (YAv2), implying that while he may take up the power again some day, he realizes that he isn't ready for it right now. He needs to grow up and learn more, before basically becoming a god. Sometimes maturity is knowing when to take a step back and reassess, instead of jumping into things impulsively, stubbornly, and without much consideration, as he often does. Billy doesn't magically cure his depression or become a better person just because he wished for it, but on a high note Billy does realize that "it's a process. Everything's a process. But I'm ready to fight" (YAv2). He's doing okay, and he's going to fight to get even better.

COURT ALLIANCE & REASONING: Unseelie! Billy is hugely passionate in everything he does, whether it's defending a teammate or making rash decisions. He allows his impulses to rule him quite frequently, doesn't always think things through, and continually makes things all about Billy and Billy's feelings. This very impulsiveness and his powers are what make the adult super heroes around Billy nervous. Despite that, Billy ultimately fights off any attempts to control or place restrictions on him. Fighting these attempts is harder than it sounds, especially since Billy is a huge fan of and has great respect for the same people who are trying to control him. The fact that he continues to fight solidifies him as someone who doesn't accept restrictions placed on him by others.

As the Demiurge and with his reality warping powers, Billy is an agent of change in the universe. He embraces it, because that's what he is. While giving up the demiurgic power may seem an odd choice for someone who leans toward the Unseelie, it does fall right within the realm of creating your own path. Billy never intends to stop learning magic; what he wants is to learn more, because he recognizes that he's not prepared to be the Demiurge in the long term. While he hasn't figured it all out yet, Billy's going to continue to build on and follow his own personal Code. It may change in the future as he grows, but it will always be his own.

ABILITIES:
Demiurge: Billy's Demiurgic powers are not firmly defined, but this is a general list of what canon is clear on.

• Can rewrite the rules of magic
• Can erase something from existence
• Time is experienced as past/present/future happens all at once
• Can create entirely new universes

Any demiurgic abilities are currently capped 100%.

Reality Warping/Chaos Magic: Billy's powers are entirely will-based. If he wants something to happen, it usually does. While there is one reference to Billy not being able to use his powers if he cannot hear himself in Civil War, that never happens again and he often uses wordless spells. While the nature of his powers basically makes his abilities difficult to define, this is a list of how he generally uses them in canon.

• Flight/Levitation - Generally himself, but sometimes others as well. Current cap allows only for himself and up to 200 pounds, but only for two hours a day.
• Teleportation - Both himself and others. No limits have been set on this ability in canon, and he also can move between dimensions/worlds. Current cap allows for him to teleport himself and one other within Unseelie territories.
• Healing - Shown to heal others, but can likely heal himself as well. Current cap allows only for himself and moderate wounds.
• Energy Constructs - Projectiles, shields, etc made out of energy. Limited to once a day.
• Pyrokinesis/Photokinesis - Manipulate fire and light/heat. Capped to bonfire-sized.
• Enhanced Strength - Usually cast on other people. Limited to once a day.
• Conjuring - Creating things like clothes, food, or other objects out of what appears to be nothing. Nixed by current cap, with the exception of his uniform.
• Sensing Locations/Limited Clairvoyance - Pretty much only of people he knows/is closely connected to. Nixed by current cap.
• Electrokinesis - Manipulate energy in the form of lightning or electricity. Current cap limits to one bolt

Using any powers for extended periods will be draining.

INVENTORY:

• Clothing: Super hero suit. It's a gray bodysuit with panels that appear to contain swirling galaxies. Over it, Billy wears a red cape with hood. The swirling galaxies are a decorative element and don't appear to be able to do anything beyond look pretty.
• Small hoop in his left ear
• Wallet: ID, $20, MTA card
• Cell phone: Typical smartphone, disabled outside of the Station