At that age I think you can feel both invulnerable and very cynical.

Its heroes aren't government agents, they're just kids with powers who live in the same world as Captain America, trying to live up to the ideal of being an Avenger.

If it was a pop star, it would be Robyn: someone in their 30s, writing songs about teen emotions, primarily for an audience in their 20s. (Marvel Comics) 'Young Avengers is a comic about teens, and this incarnation is very much me trying to say everything I remember about being 18. This is Iron Man as Conan: he may be a genius on Earth but when he meets advanced alien civilisations, they just see him as a cute little barbarian.' Young Avengers In the sixth issue of my Iron Man run we send Tony off into a massive space opera adventure. Tony is the worst person, but he's still very appealing. Bruce Wayne pretends to be a playboy, but he doesn't actually sleep with all those supermodel girlfriends. (Marvel Comics) 'I think Tony Stark is one of the great comic characters because he is incredibly problematic. Illustration: Greg Land/Marvel Entertainment Here, Gillen gives us the lowdown on those, and all his current adventures. In 2013, he's reuniting with artist Jamie McKelvie for two hotly anticipated new books. Music saturates his work, which is possibly why it resonates beyond the Spandex fanboy community he's surely the only Marvel writer whose CV includes a comic based on a Pipettes single, and he once wrote an entire X-Men arc inspired by Stereolab's French Disko. 'Imagine if you'd never really listened to music and then suddenly realised you'd discovered a whole new wing of culture. Gillen came to comics at 25 and fell in love with the medium. The ex-videogame journalist has four new comics coming out in 2013, and is writing Marvel's flagship Iron Man title in the year of the character's 50th anniversary. Luckily, Kieron Gillen writes funnier jokes, but this looks like his Wolverine moment. T here's a joke about grumpy mutant berserker Wolverine: his powers must include teleportation, because he turns up in so many different comic books every month.

Young Avengers, Vol. 1 by Kieron Gillen