Young Justice #1

Seven Crises

Brian Michael Bendis Script
Patrick Gleason Art
Alejandro Sanchez Colors
DC Lettering Letters
Gleason & Sanchez Cover
Jessica Chen Associate Editor
Mike Cotton & Andy Khouri Editors
Brian Cunningham & Mark Doyle Group Editors
Superboy created by Jerry Siegel.
By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

Here we are. Sixteen years after the original Young Justice series came to its tragic end, DC has finally revived the title. Not connected to the Young Justice animated series, nor a complete rebirth with a totally new cast and different tone. This is a revival of what Todd Dezago, Peter David and Todd Nauck built. And mainly because Brian Michael Bendis chose to make this series be anchored by the "big four" of Robin, Superboy, Impulse and Wonder Girl — not the angry, twisted New 52 versions of these characters, but the actual, happy pre-Flashpoint, original characters, who have somehow, someway returned to the DC universe. But we're all so overjoyed to have them back, nobody's too worried about ironing out all the details just yet.

Our main cover was originally intended to go with the third issue of this series. But a last-minute decision by one of this book's five editors gave us the full lineup for issue #1. As you can see, we have the big four accompanied by two new characters — Jinny Hex and Teen Lantern — and one nearly forgotten character, Amethyst. It is a little overwhelming to have seven characters thrown at us all at once, but it does make an exciting, colorful image. And joyful! Look at the smiles on Kon, Cassie and Bart! Can you remember the last time you saw these guys smile? Also, how appropriate is it for Bart to not be posing dramatically with his teammates in the middle of this battle, but instead capture the moment with a selfie? I've long held the belief that smartphones would be too slow for Bart in the modern era, but I guess I can forgive him using the phone for pictures. Besides, it is pretty funny.

The new Young Justice has seven team members, and the debut issue has seven covers. Sadly, not all of them prominently feature just one character like this one by Amy Reeder. This is a nice cover — I've never cared about Amethyst, but this looks decent enough. Sadly, there is a lot of wasted space, as it looks like Reeder didn't realize there wouldn't be the big Young Justice logo at the top.

Up next is our lovable Impulse by Derrick Chew. I wish I loved this cover, but I don't. It's dynamic. It's energetic. It fills up the available space. But it feels just a little too computerized. I'd prefer not to have a CGI Impulse on my comic books. He also looks a little demented. This would make a terrific Inertia, but is a bit too dangerous for Impulse. And finally, Chew gave Impulse a mishmash of Patrick Gleason's redesign and Mike Wieringo's original. As much as I love those fingerless gloves, I have to sadly accept that they are no longer part of Impulse's uniform.

Sadly, Robin and Teen Lantern had to share this Yasmine Putri cover with Wonder Girl (who did get her own variant). However, the green and the white space makes this a fantastic, artistic cover. And I don't feel too bad for Robin — he always had the Batman books more or less keeping him alive, while Superboy, Impulse and Wonder Girl all essentially faded from existence. Of course, Young Justice is bringing him back to his original Robin roots — no more of this Red Robin nonsense.

It's no surprise that one of my favorite artists, Jorge Jiménez, would create one of my favorite covers. If there's any downside, it's that this pose seriously dates this comic. For those who don't know, this is a reference to a popular meme of the time. But dated or note, I still find it hilarious. And I love how Jiménez really leaned into Superboy's new "metal" look (if you don't like it, don't worry — there is an in-story explanation for it!).

We're then treated to this glorious portrait of Wonder Girl by the incredible Doc Shaner. The angry, spiky armor of the New 52 is gone, replaced with a hip, casual outfit. But most importantly, Cassie is smiling! She's happy, laid-back and content — emotions she was not allowed to feel since Graduation Day.

Finally, we close things out with a black-and-white variant of Gleason's main cover. It's nice, still exciting and dynamic, but certainly lacking without the color. The purple, red, blue, yellow green and brown makes quite a feast for the eyes. Interestingly enough, the original solicits showed Impulse in an orange-and-white outfit. Bringing him back to the classic red was another last-minute change by one of the five editors on this book, but I kind of wish we could've seen that orange Impulse in action. It might have been pretty cool. Or not. Who knows?

Our story begins on a strange, alien world with barren landscapes and dragons in the sky. A mysterious person approaches Lord Opal of the Gemworld Courts, telling him about their planet's connection to Earth and the seven major crises it has endured, adversely affecting them, as well.

We then head to Earth, Metropolis, specifically, where we just barely see Superman flying away just as Jinny Hex is pulled over in her pickup truck. Her encounter with the police officer does not go well, especially as he's so worried about the shotgun in her cab and the mysterious contents hidden under a tarp in the back of her truck. Suddenly, Jinny finds herself having to save the cop from an ambush of seven colorful aliens, blasting off bolts of energy and spontaneously creating mounds of crystals. They claim to be representatives of the twelve kingdoms of Gemworld, and demand to battle Superman.

The cop tries to open fire on the invaders, but he quickly becomes encased in red crystal. So Jinny grabs her shotgun and gets one shot off before Robin suddenly arrives. Turns out that Tim Drake was driving a motorcycle and was almost hit by Jinny four minutes ago, when the cop pulled her over. Tim was forced onto the sidewalk, where he just happened to run into Cassie Sandsmark. They're both quite surprised to see each other in Metropolis and begin catching up. Cassie says she's working in Metropolis and will go to school in the fall. But before we can find out what's going on with Tim, the invaders show up. Tim immediately leaps into action, but Cassie is hesitant for some reason.

Maggie Sawyer, of Metropolis Special Crimes, is caught in the middle of this chaos on Shuster Circle. She and a couple of officers are surrounded by these aliens and clearly outmatched. Suddenly, everything turns red with swirly lightning streaks through it. A disembodied voice explains that he ran the cops and several civilians a little farther away from the action, but he figures better safe than sorry. The voice asks the cops if they know what's going on, but when the voice doesn't receive an immediate response, it begins to take off. And, naturally, that voice belongs to Impulse.

Bart took Sawyer and the others to a happy, sunny children's playground, while he calls for Superman, the Justice League and Harry Potter to deal with this threat. Maggie asks Bart who he is, to which he responds "IMPULSE" (in the original series font, by the way). Maggie doesn't know who that is, so Bart says "Kid Flash," which Maggie thinks he should have has said from the beginning. Bart didn't stick around to talk, as he quickly raced back to the city to save an old woman on an electric scooter. Even though the woman doesn't know who's talking to her, Bart strikes up a conversation, saying, "One minute I'm running to Canada to join Alpha —"

But Bart doesn't finish his story, becoming distracted by the growing crystals covering the city. He confesses he finds this random, senseless alien attack quite pretty, all while he continues rescuing people and pets, and wondering where Superman is. At one point, Bart wonders who he's talking to, and seems shocked when the little girl he's holding responds to him.

Robin and Jinny are holding their own, but Robin isn't too thrilled about Jinny's choice to use a lethal weapon in this fight. Cassie remains hidden in an alleyway, until one of the aliens grabs Robin by the throat. With tears in her eyes, Wonder Girl joins the battle, freeing Robin, but taking a big hit in the process. However, she's saved by Teen Lantern, who is hidden in a big robotic suit with a modulated voice.

As Jinny digs through her mysterious trunk for a futuristic laser blaster, Impulse suddenly rushes past Robin, carrying three pugs in his arms and on his head, a snake wrapped around his arm and balancing an upside down turtle with several crabs on top of it. Tim is shocked to see Bart, who only says, "It's happening! It's happening!" Tim asks what he means, but Cassie advises him to ignore Bart. As Impulse rescues Jimmy Olsen, he repeats the phrase.

Impulse begins wielding a firehose, fully admitting that he is impulsive, but he insists it's his "thing." Teen Lantern admits this is her first mission, and she asks Bart what he's talking about, which piques Cassie's curiosity enough to ask as well. Impulse responds, "Us! We! Duh ... YOUNG JUSTICE IS BACK!" And Bart falls to his knees in the front and center of a triumphant battle pose with Robin, Teen Lantern, Wonder Girl and Jinny Hex.

But as soon as Bart makes the five of them the official members of the team, the alien invaders decide they've made their statement and begin to retreat via a large, purple portal. Impulse leads the charge after the invaders, crying out "Young Justice assemble!" and "Young Justice united!" Robin apologizes for his friend getting too excited, and Cassie contests that she didn't officially agree to the formation of this new team. Teen Lantern is unsure whether she's included, promising to come up with a better name.

Robin calls Impulse crazy, but he still follows him into the portal. As do the others, with Jinny in her truck. Bart says this is exactly how things like this happen, and he declares that a need has been met. Tim astutely says, "Not without Conner!" which Bart readily agrees with.

The trip through the portal is pretty rough on our heroes, and they don't all appear in the same place together. Robin, for example, wakes up in a dark room with Amethyst holding a glowing pink sword to his neck. Impulse crashed through a bunch of vines and branches. He says, "Unless Horton is about to hear a Who, I have no idea where I am." He hears someone call his name, and promptly jumps up in a fighting pose. But his eyes go wide as he sees ... Conner! Impulse embraces Superboy, promising to explain how he got here, just as soon as Conner explains how he grew his beard.

Holy. Cow.

Young Justice didn't just come back. It blasted the doors open and stormed back at a million miles an hour, never pausing to take a breath. This was so much fun. So much color. So much action. So much emotion. What a way to launch a series.

But ... was it too much? Seven characters is a lot to keep track of. And we need a lot of background information on all seven of them. This issue raised tons and tons of questions — I think Brian Michael Bendis boasted on Twitter that it raised something like 46 questions. Is there any guarantee those will all be answered? Also, Bendis loves his dialogue. Everybody is talking nonstop, even the villains. It can be a bit overwhelming. However, it is kind of nice to have a comic that takes more than 15 minutes to read, especially since the cover price is at a fairly steep $3.99.

And as for Bart? I am quite pleased. Yes, I have a million burning questions I want to have answered. But what we did get, was incredible. Bart was impulsive, talkative, friendly, fun-loving and quite effective at pulling people and pets out of harm's way. He didn't directly engage the enemy in this issue, but I don't think we should start considering him a pacifist or anything like that. He certainly feels younger than when we last saw him as Kid Flash, but he's not acting as young as Mark Waid had him back in the '90s. He actually feels a bit more like the Impulse from the Young Justice animated series — someone who knows more than he lets on. I am curious about his Alpha Flight (almost) reference. Was he just making a joke, or is there some DC Canadian team out there that Impulse wanted to join?

After 25 years, Impulse finally got a new uniform. And it's not too bad. From the side, the mask looks pretty weird — just tacked on there. And I absolutely hate the gloves. But the streamlined look is great. It's basically one solid piece all the way down to his feet. I'm very sad that his eyes are now blue instead of yellow, but his hair looks great, his feet are big, and he's a short, skinny teenager. But most importantly was how Patrick Gleason presented Impulse. He has done more for the character than any other artist since Humberto Ramos. Gleason never lets Impulse stand still — he's constantly bouncing around in strange, goofy, awkward and adorable positions, sometimes portrayed in sideways and upside-down panels. It's incredibly frantic and perfectly fitting.

To sum things up: So far, so good. Let's close with the ads.

Our first ad is for ... Young Justice. It uses the exact same image as the main cover, with the added tagline: The ultimate heroes for a new generation! And that is a great way to describe this. These are the ultimate heroes, and they have finally been brought back for old and new readers to enjoy.

Watch her unlock the DC universe's biggest secret. Naomi. A new series from the co-creator of Miles Morales. This is followed by a six-page preview of the series, which is also part of Bendis' Wonder Comics label. I don't know why Bendis needed his own label for his various stories about teenaged heroes. It makes it sound like these comics take place in a separate continuity from the mainstream DCU, but that's not the case — as we just saw in Action Comics. Oh well. I guess Bendis just needed that much more control and recognition to be pulled away from Marvel.

The DC Nation page is an interview with Patrick Gleason and includes his concept art of Impulse, Superboy and Robin. Gleason goes through each of the designs, and I absolutely love what he said about Impulse: "The way I show Bart move on the page is different than any other Flash. Since he's faster than the human eye I decided that I can't show him running. Maybe it's crazy to emphasize those little moments where he's hopping over something or driving or falling down but I think it humanizes him even more. As any longtime fan of the comics or show would know, he's always been the heart of the team and that's what I want to show in my art." Those comments prove Gleason completely understands this character, and it shows on the page.

Next time, we'll return to Young Justice: Outsiders.