Young Justice #55

I've Got a Secret

Peter David – Writer
Todd Nauck – Penciller
Lary Stucker – Inker
Ken Lopez – Letters
Tom McCraw – Colors
Digital Chameleon – Separations
Tom Palmer, Jr. – Associate Editor
Eddie Berganza – Editor

This month's cover by ... Todd Nauck & Lary Stucker, colored by the Hories. This is the final issue of Young Justice, and there's nothing fun about that. So we get a sad, farewell image of the founding members, Superboy, Robin and Impulse, looking down on a perplexing image of human Greta carrying ghost Secret. I appreciate the sentiments of this cover, but not quite the execution. I think the  darker inks of the shadows kind of messed things up. I'm not sure if the "Big Three" in the sky are supposed to look sad or angry. They kind of come of as disgusted. Of course, I might be a bit harsh since I'm rather upset that this amazing series has to come to an end.

Our story begins with Anita taking her infant parents out to the park. But the babies won't stop crying. Anita even tries using her powers to command them to stop crying, but their minds aren't developed enough for that to work. Anita cries out in exasperation how unfair it is that she, a 15-year-old, has to take care of two babies. Slo-Bo joins her on the park bench and tells the babies to go to sleep, which they immediately do. Anita starts to thank Slo-Bo, but then sees that his eyes have gone completely black. Slo-Bo confirms he is 100% blind now, but refuses any pity.

Slo-Bo tells Anita that she shouldn't feel it's unfair that she has to care for her parents now. He points out several families in the park of adult children caring for their elderly parents, saying that's all part of the natural cycle. Slo-Bo acknowledges Anita's unique situation, but he says she actually has the best deal. Instead of caring for her parents until they die, Anita's parents have a whole lifetime to look forward to. Anita begins to cry at these words, telling Slo-Bo he's right. She also tells him she's sorry he got kicked off Young Justice because of the situation with Secret. Slo-Bo says he actually came back because of Secret. He can sense something big is about to happen and he's going to be there whether the team wants him or not. He's also brought over the Super-Cycle to give Anita a ride to the headquarters. Anita says she'll drop off her parents with Ishido then head out with Slo-Bo.

When Anita arrives home, she finds Cissie and Bonnie waiting for her. The house is a wreck, and a message in red in scrawled over all the walls: "Sorry I missed you." Bonnie says Ishido managed to call her right before Secret took him away. And luckily, the message on the wall isn't written in blood, but ketchup, in what Bonnie calls a frightening combination of deadly and whimsical. Anita decides that since Secret already came by here, this place should be safer than anywhere else, so she asks Bonnie and Cissie to watch over the babies, while she flies to the headquarters with Slo-Bo.

At the Catskills resort, Robin is stationed on the roof when a lightning strike narrowly misses him. Wonder Girl flies up to check on him, and he says the lightning was a warning shot from Secret. Cassie says she still has a hard time believing this is happening, and Robin says that one way or another, this ends tonight. Impulse is with Ray down on the grounds, and Bart asks him if he ever gets scared. Ray says he gets scared all the time, but Bart says he never gets scared for himself — only for his friends and people he loves. Bart says he thinks he doesn't care whether he lives or dies, which really scares him. Ray points out the contradiction of being scared of never being scared, to which Bart says, "I'm a mystery."

Slo-Bo then arrives with Empress, and Ray immediately tells Slo-Bo to leave. Empress defends him, and Bart asks what's wrong with his eyes. Slo-Bo refuses to answer Bart and asks Cassie if he can stay, claiming it doesn't matter to him. Cassie tells Slo-Bo to not lie, and he admits that it would mean the world to him to stay. So Cassie overrules Ray's objections and orders Slo-Bo and Empress to man the west gate. Snapper Carr and Red Tornado are watching everything from the monitor room, and Red Tornado wonders why the Spectre hasn't shown up to help. Snapper admits that he refused Spectre's help, believing this to be a matter the teenagers need to solve on their own. Red Tornado angrily says he's going to throw Snapper into Secret's oblivion himself.

Wonder Girl has stationed herself next to Superboy, who takes the moment to tell Cassie that he loves her. She initially thinks this is a joke, but he holds her shoulders and tries, but struggles to find the right words to express his feelings. Cassie saves Kon the trouble by telling him to shut up and then kissing him. This romantic moment is interrupted, though, by the arrival of Secret. Greta has made herself rather fierce-looking with spiky armor and flaming eyes. She mocks Kon and Cassie's kiss, saying she wishes her father could be here to see it. But her dad apparently threw himself into a firepit on Apokolips one day and Secret never knew why. Cassie calls the others, and Secret delivers the first blow, knocking Wonder Girl and Superboy back with a big punch.

We then check in on Bonnie and Cissie, who are caring for Anita's parents and beginning to clean up her house. Bonnie tells Cissie that she dressed as Arrowette, joined the attack on Zandia, and killed Agua Sin Gaaz. She says Robin saw through her disguise, but she managed to fool the others. And now she feels like a monster since she has no remorse for killing the Baron. Cissie says that Cassie also saw through Bonnie's disguise because her smoking habit has left her with yellow teeth. Cissie also spoke with Anita, who said Bonnie saved her life. Bonnie begs Cissie to not become Arrowette ever again to avoid the risk of having to kill, even in self-defense. She doesn't want her daughter to be like her. Cissie says watching her mom be vulnerable, honest and caring makes her want to be like her mom for the first time in her life. She then asks Bonnie to consider giving up smoking, but Bonnie tells her not to push it.

Back at the headquarters, everyone has begun battling Secret, who has grown to the size of a giant. Ray is blasting her with light, Impulse is trying to contain her on the ground while Red Tornado does the same in the air, and Superboy and Wonder Girl are hitting Secret with large logs and rocks. Slo-Bo flies the Super-Cycle up alongside Secret to give Empress a chance to use her powers to order her to stop. But Secret says those powers only work on the living, and she knocks the cycle out of the sky. Secret tells Anita that her powers derive from a small piece of the anti-life equation that's inside her, but Darkseid wants it all, which is why she plans to pull the entirety of humanity into her. Slo-Bo and Cassie yell at Secret to stop this, but she says she's only doing what they expected her to do. Secret says she saw how all her teammates were afraid of the darkness and despair within her. She blames them for making her this way and demands to know why they did that.

Secret is answered by Tim Drake, who has taken off his Robin outfit and is approaching this monstrous ghost as an ordinary teenager. Tim admits that they screwed up with Secret, saying it was tough for them to handle being with someone who was death personified. Secret angrily refers to Robin as "Tim, or whatever name you're giving us this week" and asks him if he even knows who he is. Tim says he doesn't completely know who he is, which is an advantage of being "Young" Justice. He tells Secret he visited her mom, but decided against bringing her to the fight because she's not well. But Tim was able to tell that she misses her little girl, Greta. Secret accuses him of lying, and Superboy wants to resume the attack, but Wonder Girl tells him and the others to hold back.

Tim tells Secret that he made a mistake when he left the team. He asks Greta to look past the costumes at him and the rest of the team. They're all just a bunch of scared guys trying to leave the world in a better place than they found it. Tim says he formed Young Justice because they were all so glad they found each other and can hold on to each other as they make their way through life. They're all human — young, scared humans. Tim asks Greta to accept them for that and let them love her as best they can, or to destroy them and prove she's less than any of them. At these words, Secret lets out a loud scream and collapses on the ground.

Ishido Maad suddenly appears in Anita's house, and Secret has returned to her normal form, curled up in a fetal position and weeping. Darkseid appears and explains that Secret has expunged all the people she absorbed, leaving them with no memory of their ordeal. He is disgusted that Secret has failed him so completely, all because of a few pretty words from a mere human. Slo-Bo charges at Darkseid once again, but this time the god of Apokolips doesn't hesitate. He blasts Slo-Bo with his Omega Beams, completely vaporizing him. He then turns to punish Secret, saying her penalty will be prolonged and agonizing. As Secret is hit with the Omega Beams, her entire life flashes before her eyes. The first time she met Darkseid; Lobo becoming a teenager; being killed in the bathtub by her brother; fighting parademons on Apokolips; meeting the Spectre; becoming an adult; meeting Old Justice, meeting Impulse, Robin and Superboy for the first time; playing baseball on Myrg; eating ice cream; and playing with dolls as a little girl.

But Secret doesn't disappear. She is left on the ground, and now is a normal human. Darkseid says his Omega Effect can be manipulated in many ways, and he used it to turn Secret mortal. He believes there is no greater punishment than being forced to live a long, mundane life without any powers. As Darkseid takes off in a boom tube, everyone happily gathers around Greta, who rejoices over being able to breathe again. Kon jokingly tells her to stay out of Gotham if she wants to keep breathing good air, and Tim playfully takes offense to that. But Greta quickly becomes worried about Slo-Bo, so Cassie tells her that Slo-Bo was dying anyway and he went out the way he wanted to. She also offers some hope, speculating that maybe Darkseid's Omega Effect didn't kill Slo-Bo, but sent him to a better place.

And on the final page of Young Justice, we see that Cassie was pretty much right. In the 853rd century, Young Justice Legion T — Superboy, Robin and Impulse — discover a new Slo-Bo statue in their headquarters on Pluto. But Robin the Toy Wonder says they don't have time to investigate the statue, since the Millennium Chicken is attacking the Omega Cluster. As the three heroes race off to save the day, the Slo-Bo statue thinks, "Aw frag ..."

Filling this base are statues of the original Young Justice — Superboy, Robin, Impulse, Secret, Wonder Girl (in her old outfit), Arrowette, Empress, Li'l Lobo and the Ray — and their mentors, Red Tornado and Snapper Carr. Also included are many of the team's friends and allies: Batgirl, Changeling, Kid Devil, the Wonder Twins, Lagoon Boy, the Star-Spangled Kid, Damage and CM3. There are also four busts of Peter David, Todd Nauck, Lary Stucker and Eddie Berganza (all of whom stayed on the book since issue #1). Underneath Nauck's bust is a brief message: "To YJ — Thanks for all the fun! I'll miss you guys. Much love, Todd."



It's over. Impulse may be my favorite character, but Young Justice is my favorite series. This series consistently churned out solid issues that balanced humor, drama and action, and featured amazing artwork. And it's such a rarity to see a writer and artist stay together on the same book for so long — especially these days. To me, Young Justice represents everything that a comic book should be. And while I'm sad that the series was canceled prematurely, I am glad that DC didn't fire David and Nauck and try to continue Young Justice without them. It wouldn't have been the same. Those guys truly had something special going on.

This final issue was very good, as far as final issues go. David wrapped up a lot of loose ends. Superboy and Wonder Girl finally kissed. Bonnie confessed to Cissie. Slo-Bo essentially died (although I like to pretend that Young Justice One Million figured out how to cure him). And, of course, Secret experienced a type of death herself, basically being resurrected as plain, old Greta. It was a beautifully fitting conclusion to her story arc. All she wanted to be was normal. And it makes perfect sense that Darkseid, who values power above all else, would see this as the ultimate punishment.

My only complaint is that we skipped over a very important scene in this story. Secret's evil brother, Harm, had possessed her dad, which prompted her to break her dad out of jail and follow Darkseid to Apokolips. And apparently while on Apokolips, Secret's dad threw himself into a firepit. We can assume that Burt Hayes figured out he was being possessed by Harm and decided that suicide was the only way to truly get rid of that evil spirit. But dang, we really needed to see that scene! I know it's tough to cram everything in when your series is prematurely canceled, but still!

David said he hated that Young Justice got canceled, in part because he was excited to tell stories about Superboy and Impulse, who both had their series canceled before this. I really would have liked to see what he had in mind for them. This last issue featured an unusually mature and serious conversation from Bart. It didn't feel out of place, but I do wonder how much of that had to do with the approaching battle against Secret and how much had to do with DC's plans to age up Bart and turn him into Kid Flash. And maybe the two go hand in hand. But I'd like to think that if Young Justice was going to continue past this issue then David would have kept the goofy, lovable Impulse alive and well, constantly having fun with Superboy and Ray. Oh well. I guess we'll now have to look for fun moments of Kid Flash with the Teen Titans.

DC in Demand says the spirit of Young Justice will live on in the new Teen Titans series, which will be set up by Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day. It also references the new storyline beginning in The Flash #201. Now for the new ads:

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Well, that's it for comics Impulse appeared in with a publication date of May 2003. Sadly, Bart didn't make it in any of the June 2003 comics, so we'll head straight to July with Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day #1.