Young Justice #8

Lost in the Multiverse Part 2

Brian Michael Bendis Script

John Timms Art

Gabe Eltaeb Colors

Wes Abbott Letters

Timms and Eltaeb Cover

Jonboy Meyers Variant Cover

Brittany Holzherr Associate Editor

Mike Cotton Editor

Brian Cunningham Group Editor

Superboy created by Jerry Siegel.

By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

Our cover shows the entire Young Justice team clinging to Superboy as he ... yells in rage? In fear? I can't tell what's going on here. Behind our heroes are two small images of a building on fire and a figure in red using heat vision(?) on a fighter jet. It's too busy and confusing. If it weren't for the text on the cover, I wouldn't have had any idea Young Justice was on an alternate Earth.

I snagged this variant cover from dc.fandom.com, and I like it a lot more than the main cover. Meyers is one of my favorites, and he does a great job here. Superboy's face is a little weird, but it's still a very nice cover.

This issue begins with a recap page, which I think is necessary, since it's been a while:

Robin, Superboy, Impulse, Wonder Girl, Jinny Hex, Amethyst, and Teen Lantern come together just in time to save the magical land of Gemworld from the out-of-control dark powers of Opal.

Young Justice have so many questions as to where the team has been and how they even remembers each other and are eager to get home to Earth to unpack it all.

But the courts of Gemworld, fearful of Amethyst's constant interference, banish the young heroes into the uncharted multiverse with no way home.

They are not on their Earth, they are on ... Earth-3: Home of the Crime Syndicate of Amerika.

Our story begins with Wonder Girl being attacked by her evil counterpart, Amaxon Thunder. The evil Superboy, Luthor-El, soon shows up, followed by the evil Impulse, Speed Zone. He promised to spare Impulse's life if he handed over a multiverse map, which bums Bart out, because that means neither of them has such a map. He then cleverly tricks Speed Zone by pulling a roadrunner/coyote move by stopping short, causing Speed Zone to continue running down into Delaware before realizing what happened.

Robin, meanwhile, is battling his evil counterpart, who calls himself Drake because it's one of the most dangerous birds. Tim, who has long struggled with the Robin/Red Robin name, is forced to admit that the name is Drake is pretty good. The evil Drake, however, pulls a gun on Robin and quotes the Dark Knight Returns: "Rubber bullets. Honest." Luckily, Impulse is able to save Robin before the bullets hit him. Bart complains about his evil version, prompting Tim to joke that he always thought Bart was the evil version. They briefly discuss their need for a multiverse map, and Bart asks if Robin's evil self gave him any clues. All Robin can say is that he calls himself Drake, which really catches Bart's attention. But before he can elaborate on this thought, Bart races off to save Amethyst — with Speed Zone in hot pursuit.

While Bart is away, Tim encounters the Earth-3 version of his girlfriend, Stephanie Brown. Here, she calls herself Batwoman, and is actually the first good guy our heroes have encountered here (she's also the narrator in the purple speech boxes throughout this issue). But Bart doesn't know that, and he promptly knocks her out from behind with another "meep meep." Bart casually resumes his conversation, telling Tim that he should start calling himself Drake, as poor Tim tends to Stephanie. To his credit, Bart does apologize once he learns Stephanie's not evil, but he still thinks it's important to get Tim's code name sorted out. Tim asks Bart to save it for when they get back home, and in the meantime, suggests they try to find this Earth's Batcave to revive Stephanie.

I've given up on the dream of this series taking a breath to explain itself. Yeah, sure, we're having fun, but I'm out of breath! And since Bendis keeps throwing so much at us, we never get a chance to process any of it. We barely know this large group of heroes we have, and now they're all fighting the Earth-3 versions of themselves. It's a fascinating concept — but we didn't get any time to explore it. What's Speed Zone's story? Why is he evil? Why is he black? Is he actually that Earth's version of Bart Allen, or just a random speedster? We'll never know.

I do like how powerful Impulse is in this series. I'd like to imagine that he knows more than he's letting on, but that might just be my wishful thinking. Deciding to change Robin's code name to Drake feels both obvious and lazy. I mean, his name already is Tim Drake. Oh well. Let's check out the new ads:

The action-packed thrill ride that inspired the graphic novel! Batman: Nightwalker.

A new edition of the classic #1 best-selling graphic novel. Batman: Hush.

A DC Nation interview with Batman: Nightwalker writers Marie Lu and Stuart Moore.

Next time: Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #2.

Young Justice: Outsiders – "Nevermore"

Director: Mel Zwyer
Writers: Jim Krieg & Jeremy Adams

It's been a couple of weeks since the defeat of Granny Goodness, but there are still a few loose ends to wrap up for this season. So we check in on Oracle (above) in Gotham City on February 15, 18:31 EST. She's updating Black Lightning on the tenuous situation in Markovia and the coordinated response between the Outsiders, the Team and Batman's personal squad, which Black Lightning has dubbed "Batman, Inc." As Oracle speaks, members of the Outsiders (including Kid Flash) and Team are flying the Bio-Ship into Markovburg on February 16, 1:33 EET (Eastern European Time). Their mission simply is to prevent Dr. Ecks from killing the people who are loyal to King Gregor (Geo-Force's twin brother).

There are two other squads with much flashier missions, which actually get screen time. Kid Flash's group easily defeats Dr. Ecks (a man who can duplicate himself) and rescue his hostages offscreen. The other squads don't fare as well, though. They do technically stop Prince Brion's uncle from staging a coup, but they stand by helplessly as Brion murders his uncle and insanely seizes the crown for himself. Granted, a psychic named Zviad Baazovi was influencing things, but it still is rather inexcusable for all these heroes to let this happen.

We next see Kid Flash a week later on the Watchtower on February 24, 19:00 EST. He's attending a massive meeting that includes almost every conceivable hero on the show (many of whom participated via video call). Nightwing conducts the meeting, opening with an admission that he, Aquaman, Miss Martian and Batman have been running a secret task force over the past six months, coordinating missions with the League, Team and Outsiders. They all step down from their leadership positions and pick Black Lightning to be the new leader of the Justice League. Everybody is happy with this, but I can't help notice how little detail Dick, Kaldur and M'gann provided. If the Outsiders truly knew how much they had been deceived, I don't think they would have been all smiles and cheers at this meeting.

Our last glimpse of Kid Flash is in Taos on February 26, 13:13 MST. He, Eduardo and Gar are present when one of the center's meta-teens, Wendy Jones, finally agrees to remove her inhibitor collar after months of self doubt and anxiety.




And that's it. Bart didn't say a single word in this episode. In fact, he hardly moved at all. This episode was especially guilty of using still images instead of animating the sequences. I think it's alright to do that every now and then, but when it's overdone like this, it feels lazy. And rushed. This season had 26 episodes, but it really needed 52. The show runners bit off more than they could chew, probably a side effect of having spent so much down time between seasons two and three. There is word for a fourth season, but we still don't have a release date for that, even though it's almost been a year since season three ended.

I'm just really sad that Bart was relegated to a background character after having such a large impact on season two as Impulse. He got a new outfit (which is kind of dumb), became good friends with Eduardo (but maybe not in a romantic way?) and was a founding member of the Outsiders. But beyond that, he really didn't do anything. One of his guardians, Joan Garrick, did pass away, but that happened offscreen. The only bit of Bart's home life we saw was him babysitting his toddler father and aunt that one time. I just wanted more. But as an Impulse fan, I'm used to being shortchanged.

Next time, we'll return to the Young Justice comic series, which had issue #8 delayed by a month.

Young Justice: Outsiders – "Into the Breach"

Director: Vinton Hueck
Writer: Jonathan Callan

After that stirring speech to get the adults to support the Outsiders, we didn't see our heroes again for a month (both in real life and in show time). We pick up with Beast Boy, Wonder Girl, Blue Beetle, Kid Flash, El Dorado and newcomer Victor Stone (above) in Burbank, California, on January 25, 17:16 PST. They have taken the Bio-Ship to investigate Gretchen Goode's television studio, while Miss Martian and the Team hunt for Halo.

Bart points out that the Team already checked out the studio, since it has become pretty obvious that Goode is actually Granny Goodness from Apokolips. But Vic explains that since he's gotten the hang of his Father Box technology, he can essentially tap into every electronic device around the world and — more importantly for this mission — sense Apokoliptan technology. Vic's scouting has identified Goode Studios' Building 16 as a hotspot (this show really needs to dial down its obsession with the number 16). So Gar decided to take the Outsiders there, even though they're missing Static and Geo-Force.

Vic opens a boom tube inside the building and insists on coming along, even though Gar tells him he can wait in the Bio-Ship with Eduardo. But Vic feels he owes it to Violet to try to help save her. Bart does a quick recon of the warehouse and returns with a prop from Gar's TV show. This only makes Gar angry (since he hates having to work for Granny Goodness) and Jaime thinks the idea of aliens with clam-shaped heads is cheesy. Bart writes him off as having no taste, then gets down to business. He checked the whole place twice, but couldn't find anything unusual.

But Vic can sense something strange and he soon reveals a large, menacing machine that had been completely invisible. Bart jokes that this must be "Clamulon" tech, but Jaime's scarab identifies it as Apokoliptan, warning him that such tech is "not compatible." Vic tries to "speak" to the machine, but a boom tube suddenly opens up underneath our heroes, transporting them to a dusty, yellow void that causes them all a tremendous amount of pain.

Jaime's scarab is also overwhelmed by the pain and shuts down to protect itself. This leaves Jaime without his Blue Beetle armor, exposing him directly to the effects of the Void. Eduardo hears their screams and teleports right next to Bart. But before he can pull Bart out, Bart tells him to save Jaime first. So Eduardo tries, but all he can do is teleport to different spots in the void.

Suddenly, a red cube appears around Gar and a second red cube carrying Granny Goodness arrives. She offers Beast Boy the chance to defeat her in single combat for the fate of his friends, and Gar readily agrees. The two red cubes merge into one battle arena, but no matter which animal Gar turns into, he can't stand lay a hit on Granny. However, Vic manages to hack into Granny's personal robotic assistant, Overlord. Fortunately, his battle goes much better than Beast Boy's. Vic takes control of Overlord and teleports everybody back to the studio.

Beast Boy, Kid Flash and Wonder Girl take on Granny Goodness, while Vic and Blue Beetle work on destroying that large machine. Once the machine is disabled, Granny disappears into a boom tube. Vic follows, believing she'll lead him to Violet. But the tube closes before anyone else can join him. Bart then pessimistically sums up their situation: Jaime nearly died, Gar got his butt kicked, Granny escaped, they didn't find Halo and now Vic is missing. He asks if they just lost, and no one is able to answer him.

The Outsiders don't find out what happened to Vic until the next day. At their Hollywood Hub on January 26, 6:54 PST, everyone is licking their wounds in the common room, trying to not let Gar blame himself for their failure. Suddenly, a couple of boom tubes open up, revealing Vic, Violet and the rest of the Team. M'gann announces that the Justice League will soon return to Earth with hundreds of rescued meta-teens, prompting Eduardo to exclaim that the Taos center is going to need more beds and maybe more buildings.

Superboy says Granny got away, but they are confident they shut down her operations. More importantly, Vic obtained video evidence that Gretchen Goode is Granny Goodness. Gar declares him the MVP of this mission, but Vic credits Halo for freeing the Team and League from the Anti-Life Equation. Violet says she wouldn't have been able to do it without Vic, and Gar immediately nominates him to join the Outsiders. The vote is unanimous, but Superboy slows everyone down, saying that they need to make sure Vic actually wants to join them. He reasons that just because he did something heroic today, that doesn't obligate him to become a member of the Outsiders or even M'gann's Team. After a brief speech, Vic decides to join the Outsiders as Cyborg.




I think this was the first and only legitimate mission we saw the Outsiders take part in. This wasn't staged by M'gann and Kaldur or even Lex Luthor. In other words, in 24 episodes of Young Justice: Outsiders, the Outsiders only had one real mission. And even then, they didn't do that much. All the real action was done by Cyborg and Halo — far away from the team that the season is named after. I guess I should be happy with the little bit of Bart Allen this show is giving me, but it's frustrating only having crumbs. And this show will give me one more tiny little crumb.

Next time, the conclusion of Young Justice: Outsiders.