Young Justice #44

World Without Young Justice Part 1: The World What Once We Knew

P. David Writer
T. Nauck Penciller
L. Stucker Inker
K. Lopez Letterer
J. Wright Colorist
D. Chameleon Separations
T. Palmer, Jr. Assistant Editor
E. Berganza Editor

This issue's part of the World Without Young Justice event cover is by Humberto Ramos, Wayne Faucher and colorist Ian Hannin. Ramos was one of the artists on World Without Grown-Ups, so it makes sense to bring him back to do the covers of the third and final act of the story against Bedlam. Unfortunately, Ramos went very loose with his style here, to the point of looking sloppy. I liked what he did on the early issues of Impulse. I like what he's currently doing on Marvel's Champions. But I do not like this cover. I will admit it's a cool concept, though, with Bedlam pulling the puppet strings of Young Justice. I just don't like the execution. It's also worth noting that Slobo/Lobo is not involved in this story at all, which is a shame.

Our story begins with 18-year-old Jason Todd nervously following a newspaper ad to the Young Justice headquarters in a run-down apartment building. Upon entering, he is immediately given a donut by an obese, wine-guzzling Wonder Girl; a dark, cleavage-showing Arrowette; and a male Secret (Billy instead of his sister Greta). Jason tells Young Justice he thinks he's supposed to be dead. He explains that his parents run the Big Ring Circus, and he's caught them working with Killer Croc. When his parents found out Jason knows their secret, his trapeze mysteriously broke. Luckily, he landed on the fat lady, then ran away, fearing for his life.

Wonder Girl is offended by this crack at the fat lady, and she's even more offended by Jason's refusal to drink her wine, calling it an insult to her god, Dionysus. Secret tries to calm Cassie down, but he's distracted by the sudden appearance of a 13-year-old boy in a hospital gown (we recognize him as Matthew Stuart, the vessel of Bedlam during World Without Grown-Ups). Billy is the only one who can see Matt, but Cissie decides to fire an arrow at the invisible intruder, anyway. The arrow flies right through Matt's chest to no effect. He gives our "heroes" an evil grin and disappears. Jason slipped out during the confusion, and Billy is the only one willing to go after him.

We then cut to the aforementioned circus, where Jason Todd's parents are arguing over his fate. Jason's dad wants to be lenient, but his stepmom insists on killing him. She visits the car of the Voodoo Princess, where Anita lies, wearing only a live boa constructor. Anita had been dating Jason, but she's more than willing to kill him to protect the circus and the crimes it conceals.

Meanwhile, Secret has caught up to Jason. The frightened gymnast tries to ward Secret away with a crucifix around his neck, but Billy explains that doesn't work on him. He explains to Jason that the police won't believe his story about his parents working with Killer Croc, and he urges the young man to cut Wonder Girl some slack. Suddenly, Jason doubles over in pain, as Anita begins a voodoo ritual with a doll wearing Jason's matching crucifix necklace. Anita stabs the doll with a dagger, causing Jason to scream out. Billy enters Jason's body and almost saves him from Anita's spell. But the Voodoo Princess was able to sense this and decided to hasten the process by simply burning the doll.

Jason becomes engulfed in blue flames that force Billy out of him. Billy tries once again to save Jason, but his corpse is quickly burned to a crisp. Matthew has appeared before Billy again, and when asked what he wants, he simply replies, "It's just ... an impulse thing." The boy laughs and disappears again, so Billy decides to return to Young Justice headquarters. Cissie and Cassie are currently playing video games (and Cissie mentions her mother's suicide). Billy tells them how their client was killed, and he believes it was the work of a magic user at Big Ring Circus. So his teammates agree to follow him to the circus to mete out some justice.

In the dead of night, Arrowette opens fire on the circus with a large, machine-gun-like device that fires flaming arrows. As the circus people tend to the spreading fire, Wonder Girl releases all the elephants and lions, which begin rampaging in the chaos. But one person who's not bothered by this is Anita, who is now wearing a skimpy bikini outfit and asking Cassie for some of her wine. Billy instantly recognizes Anita as Jason's killer, but Cassie has bonded with Anita over her wine, so she tells Billy not to kill her. She also points out that the stampeding elephants did kill Jason's parents, which she feels is enough justice for one night.

Suddenly, one of Impulse's golden energy scouts shows up and delivers a dire message: "This isn't right! It has to be stopped! It's my fault! All my fault! He made me do it! I thought I could outsmart him! You're not Young Justice ... find them! I have to find them! Help me! Help me solve this ... this crisis ... before it's too late! Hellllp meeeeeeeee ..." As the Impulse scout talked, he grew fainter, then a sickly black before suddenly disappearing with a "pap" sound. Our "heroes," however, were completely unmoved by this and decide to all go out for Chinese food.


And thus begins our first (and only) proper crossover between Young Justice, Robin, Superboy and Impulse. Sins of Youth came close, but only the Superboy title had a proper tie-in issue. I'm a little surprised that it took 44 issues for this to happen, but part of the blame may be on Robin's longtime writer Chuck Dixon, who left the book after issue #100, one month before this crossover began. Perhaps Dixon was opposed to crossovers beyond the Batman titles and DC was just waiting for him to leave to do this. I'm just speculating here, but it makes a lot of sense from a financial and a story-telling perspective to do the occasional crossover between all the solo titles of the company's most popular sidekicks and their shared group title.

Anyway, I like the abrupt nature of this story. We're immediately thrown into the middle of it, left to slowly pick up clues along the way. And the setting for this mystery is a rare treat — an in-continuity Elseworlds tale. We get to see what Secret would be like if Billy had died instead of Greta, what Wonder Girl would be like if she had the power of a god other than Zeus, and what Arrowette would be like had she given in to her darker side (remember how she was worried she'd have to become a villain dressed in black and showing off her cleavage?). And the best part of all this is that Impulse is at the center of all these changes. It actually reminds me a lot of a much larger event in 2011 called Flashpoint.

I also found the emphasis on Jason Todd to be quite interesting. Jason was the second Robin, replacing Dick Grayson after he became Nightwing. In 1988, readers voted for Jason to die, and he stayed dead until 2005. But as we see here, DC began tossing around the idea of bringing Jason back to life a couple of years before that. The high-profile Hush storyline — that brought up the serious possibility of Jason being alive — came out a year after this issue.

Our letters to the editor begin with Brian Seidman, of Oxford, Ohio, asking if Santa Claus really was killed in Young Justice #40. He liked how the cover showed the new team and the story featured the "classic" team. Brian asks for the cover to be made into a poster and for the original members of Young Justice to return for the 50th issue.

Matt is not happy with the additions of the Ray and Snapper Carr, asking instead for Impulse and Robin to return. He says he loves the work of Peter David and Todd Nauck, but without two of his favorite characters, the stories just aren't as interesting.

AmethystSerenity also asks for Robin and Impulse to return, saying they were the reason she picked up Young Justice in the first place, and that Superboy is too annoying when he tries to act like the leader. Now for the new ads:

Eat so your feet can hit the street. Tony's frozen pizzas.

Give that punching bag thingy in the back of your throat a serious beating. Tang Fruit Frenzy.

Get a clue ... for like, less! Clueless, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Grease, Top Gun, Save the Last Dance and Tommy Boy at Best Buy.

The game where you and three buddies all get to be heroes. Only thing is, one of you has to be the chick. Gauntlet Dark Legacy for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube.

The king has just begun to fight. The Scorpion King: Sword of Osiris for Game Boy Advance.

It's a lot easier to take on an army when you are one. Dungeon Siege for Microsoft.

Freedom Force. A heroic role playing game for your PC!

The Dark Knight swings into action on three new DVDs. Batman: The Animated Series — The Legend Begins, Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero, and The Batman Superman Movie.

Sometimes the job is too big for just one hero! Justice League premiere movie on video and DVD.

Pac-Man's back, and everybody's feeling it. Pac-Man World 2 for GameCube and PlayStation 2.

Westfield Comics. Over 21 years of unwavering dedication.

Crash is going small in a huge way. Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure for Game Boy Advance.

Next time, find out how Bart is behind all the changes in Impulse #85.