Young Justice #51

Zand on the Run

Peter David Writer
Todd Nauck Penciller
Lary Stucker, Jaime Mendoza, Andrew Pepoy Inkers
Ken Lopez Letterer
Tom McCraw Colorist
Digital Chameleon Separations
Tom Palmer, Jr. Associate Ed.
Eddie Berganza Editor

This month's cover is by Todd Nauck and Lary Stucker. Colors by Tanya & Richard Horie. The image is an homage to Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 by George Pérez. In place of the Anti-Monitor, we have Lady Zand, who kind of grows big like this in the story. I think it's a pretty fun cover, but sadly, Impulse is covered up by the words "Attack ON the Fifty Ft. Woman!"And the big purple box under the DC logo was an annoying ad for some preview pages of the new Aquaman series.

Our story picks up where we left off with our main hero, Impulse. He and Ray have just defeated the Trickster, prompting Bart to say, "I'd call it trick and treat." Ray adds, "Just another case of spring forward, fall back." But Bart doesn't like this additional comment, and he accuses Ray of trying to "outquip" him. Ray takes offense at this, and before too long, the two begin attacking each other.

Turns out, this conflict was the result of two villains named Fear and Loathing (I assume they have some sort of psychic powers). Luckily, Wonder Girl, Devastation and Slo-Bo (who got wrapped up in their fight) come falling out of the sky and land on Fear and Loathing, breaking their control of Impulse and Ray. Wonder Girl and Devastation continue their personal and emotional fight, leading to Devastation throwing Cassie into Superboy and Damage. As Devastation moves in for the kill, Lady Zand appears and tells her that's enough. Devastation makes the mistake of threatening Lady Zand, who takes her out with one hit. So Slo-Bo leads an all-out attack against the leader of Zandia.

We then cut to Agua Sin Gaaz's mansion, where Empress, Ishido Maad, Secret and Bonnie King-Jones are gathering themselves up after their big fight against the Baron. Ishido, who was unconscious for most of the fight, asks if Sin Gaaz really is dead. Secret confirms this, saying she pulled him into her, listening to him screaming and calling out to his gods, who only laughed and condemned him to unbearable torment. Everyone wishes Secret hadn't gone into such detail, and they all begin to head out, first passing through a room filled with tons of babies in pods. Empress asks if these babies are alive, and Secret says she can tell that they're not. Suddenly, a disco-ball-like device from the ceiling shoots a beam through Secret's chest. She loses control of her powers, and a big, swirling hole emerges from her chest. She calls out to the other to make it stop, but Bonnie's arrows and Ishido's bullets bounce off a force field protecting the device.

Back outside, Lady Zand has somehow fused herself with the land of her country, becoming an enormous earth monster. So we get a scene similar to the cover, except Lady Zand is made of mud. As she attacks the heroes, she tells them that Agua Sin Gaaz is dead and their mission is accomplished, so she offers the chance for them to leave in peace or leave in pieces. Wonder Girl and Superboy debate whether she's telling the truth, but both are distracted by the bright lights coming from the Baron's mansion.

Secret's condition is growing worse, and she cries out that she's being turned inside out. Anita remembers how her grandfather boasted of once killing a warder before, and she fears this is a booby trap he set up for her. Ishido tries to find the power source of the device, when two lights suddenly fly out of Secret and go into two of the baby pods. The hole in Secret's chest closes up and she collapses to the ground. Ishido tries, but fails to pick her up, while Anita examines the two baby pods, becoming shocked by what she sees. Impulse shows up, saying Wonder Girl sent him to find out what's going on. He sees what Anita's looking at and says, "Whoa. Well, that's unexpected."

The battle against Lady Zand rages on, with all the other villains of Zandia retreating back to their mansions to leisurely watch the carnage while sipping drinks. Lady Zand says she can keep this going all night, so Robin theorizes that she can only use this power during the nighttime. He tells this to Wonder Girl, suggesting they fight back with light, so she orders Ray to light up the sky with everything he's got, and for everybody else to shield their eyes. Ray's worried about draining himself of energy, but he follows the order, anyway. After a huge flash of light, Lady Zand returns to her human form, and everyone else is left with a bit of a sunburn. With the fight finally over, Empress teleports out to the group, holding two babies in her arms. She says she can hardly believe it, but according to Sin Gaaz's records and Secret's confirmation, the two babies are her parents.



That was a pretty wild ending to a pretty amazing story. I do wish we could have had even more fighting scenes between all these heroes and villains, but that wasn't the focus of the story. The focus was Empress vs. Baron Sin Gaaz and his insane life creation experiments. And the continuing creepiness of Secret's abilities. And all that's great, intriguing stuff. And the art was still good, even though we had three inkers. I imagine Todd Nauck got a little behind after last month's double-sized issue, but he still managed to pencil every page — most of which were filled to the brim with dozens of characters. So all things considered, this was another impressive performance by Nauck.

DC in Demand talks about a bunch of comics we really don't care about, except the Flash, which is beginning a three-part story featuring Gorilla Grodd. The Aquaman preview came in the form of an eight-page insert in the middle of the comic book. But it only showed five pages of Aquaman #1, putting them side-by-side on three of the pages of this insert, leaving the rest for ads. And this whole insert was bookended by four more full-page ads, so pages 12 and 13 of this issue were interrupted by  12 pages of unrelated content. Very annoying.

An entirely new edition, an epic DVD experience. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Special Extended DVD Edition.

Egg Mania for Game Boy Advance, Xbox, GameCube and PlayStation 2.

Use everything at your disposal. Dispose of everything. Metroid Prime for GameCube.

It begins as a dream. Then it gets real. Haven: Call of the King for GameCube, Xbox, Game Boy Advance and PlayStation 2.

The Clone Wars are far from over. Star Wars: The Clone Wars for GameCube and PlayStation 2.

Gave peace a chance. MechAssault for Xbox.

That'll leave a mark! Tekken 4 for PlayStation 2.

You've been ready for this game since you were a little kid. Superman: The Man of Steel for Xbox.

Truth, justice, and the American way. Superman and JLA sticker books.

Unleash the power of three in a stunning new RPG. Suikoden III for PlayStation 2.

RoboTech: Battlecry for Xbox, GameCube and PlayStation 2.

Eight Legged Freaks on VHS and DVD.

Dr. Muto for PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and Game Boy Advance.

Next time, we'll cover Impulse's very brief appearance in JLA/JSA: Virtue and Vice.