Young Justice #18

“Spoilers”

Brian Michael Bendis and David Walker Writers

Scott Godlewski (p. 2-3, 10-22) and Michael Avon Oeming (p. 4-9) Art

Gabe Eltaeb Colors

Wes Abbott Letters

John Timms and Gabe Eltaeb Cover

Derrick Chew Variant Cover

Bixie Mathieu Assistant Editor

Brittany Holzherr Editor

Jamie S. Rich Group Editor

Superbly created by Jerry Siegel.

By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

Our main cover is a rather generic image of Drake and Spoiler, racing off to face a run-of-the-mill adventure. It’s perfectly fine, but rather boring. I’ve never cared about Spoiler before, and I certainly don’t now. In fact, it kind of bugs me that we’re devoting an entire issue to her this close to the end of the series. She has had no impact on Young Justice in the previous 17 issues, so why should she get the spotlight now?

Our variant cover from dc.fandom.com is another winner. It’s bright, colorful and fun — everything that this series used to be at the beginning. Everybody looks great, except for Drake, who appears to be in his late 20s now. There is some glove confusion — both Impulse and Teen Lantern have mismatching gloves. And the inclusion of Amethyst gives me a sad chuckle. Isn’t it ironic how she was the one who brought Young Justice back together, only to be promptly forgotten — relegated to the background until gradually fading away altogether.

As our cover stated, this is a Spoiler issue. Stephanie Brown and Tim Drake team up to take down her father, Cluemaster, once and for all. Tim’s worried about what they might be facing, so he decides to call in Young Justice. We see Naomi back at home in Oregon, Jinny Hex out on the open road (somewhere) and Superboy has apparently moved into the Kents’ farm in Smallville. Sadly, we don’t see where Bart is living, but he and Teen Lantern both answer the call all the same.

However, by the time our heroes show up, the fight is already over. Superboy was worried Spoiler might kill her dad, but there was little indication this was going to happen. With the battle won, everybody heads out for burgers and fries to celebrate — as soon as Tim changes out of his stupid Drake outfit and back into his classic Robin outfit. According to Superboy, Batman and Spoiler insisted that Tim change back. Conner also claims that he had been planning an intervention of his own to kill the “Drake” identity.

Just as Naomi begins to ask where Wonder Girl is, Cassie comes crashing down from the sky. As soon as she picks herself up from the street, Cassie pleads for help, saying her grandfather, Zeus, has gone mad.

I was going to say this issue was a complete waste of time. But Drake going back to Robin makes up for some of that waste. I’d like to think that DC was responding to the fans on this, but most likely it was DC editorial telling Bendis, “Hey look, Young Justice is going to be canceled and nobody else wants to call him Drake. You’ve had your fun, but now it’s time to set things right.” Other than that, I did not care for one aspect of this comic. Even the “shocking” ending. Why are we supposed to care about Wonder Girl and Zeus? Well, I do know why. Bendis had (sort of) set up something big with Zeus, but now he has to hastily wrap up that plot thread. It’s so sad to watch this series limp along toward its conclusion.

Next time, we’ll return to a series where Bart actually gets to do something in The Flash #761.