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.

The Flash #75

Year One Chapter Six: Future Flash

Joshua Williamson & Howard Porter Storytellers
Hi-Fi Colorist
Steve Wands Lettering
Porter & Hi-Fi Cover
Francis Manapul Variant Cover
Andrew Marino Associate Editor
Paul Kaminski Editor
Jamie S. Rich Group Editor

Our cover shows Flash stupidly saying "Bring it!" while being surrounded by Captain Cold, Heat Wave and ... I'm not sure. Maybe the Turtle? Anyway, it's a decent enough cover, although it does represent some of the difficulties of publishing in a shared universe. Williamson wanted to make the 75th issue an extra-sized finale of his retelling of Flash's origin. But DC also wanted to start their Year of the Villain event. So what we ended up with was an issue with one main story and two short stories — one of which actually had something to do with Year of the Villain.

The variant cover is just a closeup on Captain Cold. Since it has nothing to do with Impulse and he has nothing to do with Year of the Villain, we'll skip it. (It is rather strange knowing that Bart is back in the main DC continuity, but not fully. In the past, he'd always play some sort of role in the big DC events from Zero Hour to Blackest Night. But now? Nothing.)

Our main story features Flash defeating the Turtle. And Williamson engaging in some revisionist history that kind of makes everything stupider (Wally and Wallace have now always known each other and used to hang out all the time as kids). Oh, and there's also tons of melodramatic speeches about hope. But we don't care about any of that. All we're here for is the concluding two-page spread of all the major speedsters — many of whom have not been seen for years, decades even.

It's really nice to see Impulse running alongside XS, Jay Garrick and Max Mercury. But what does it mean? It seems like Williamson is dying to use these characters — but when? And our second story doesn't help provide any clues, either.

Today

Joshua Williamson Writer
Scott Kolins Artist
Luis Guerrero Colorist
Steve Wands Lettering
Rob Levin Associate Editor
Paul Kaminski Editor
Jamie S. Rich Group Editor

This short story mainly features on Barry rebuilding the Flash Museum (while giving a long, melodramatic soliloquy about hope or something like that). He places a statue of Bart next to statues of Wally, Wallace and Avery. I find this a bit odd, since Bart hasn't interacted with any members of the Flash family since before Flashpoint. But I guess some part of Barry does remember his grandson. It'll only be a matter of time before we resolve these lingering threads.

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

Young Justice: Outsiders – "Elder Wisdom"

Director: Christopher Berkely
Writer: Paul Giacoppo

Our story picks up a little more than a week later on December 31, 9:00 CAT (Central Africa Time) in the nation of Bwundasa. U.N. Secretary Lex Luthor is holding a global warming meeting with several ambassadors, including Troia of Themyscira and Garth of Atlantis. Suddenly, the ambassadors' photo op is attacked by a group of people in black suits, declaring themselves the Bwundan Independence Front, retaliating against Luthor's choice to legitimize their country's dictator. Luckily, the Outsiders and the Team (covertly) are both on the scene.

Kid Flash makes fun of the terrorists' acronym, calling them "bif" and using that as a sound effect as he punches out three of the masked figures. Eduardo teleports onto the scene with Wonder Girl, reminding her that his hero name is El Dorado, aka the Golden One. Kid Flash catches an arrow aimed at Garth, and snarkily waves it in the air, while trying to say something snappy. But the arrow was an explosive, and it blows up before Bart can finish his one-liner. The blast sends Bart flying toward a wall, causing Eduardo to cry out "Kid!" and teleport into position to catch him before he hits the wall. Bart assures him that although he's feeling a little moded, but he'll be fine thanks to his accelerated healing.

Suddenly, the Flash shows up and takes out the rest of the terrorists. He checks in on Bart, who angrily assures his grandfather that he'll be fine. Flash calls the Watchtower, saying the crisis is over, thanks to an assist from the Outsiders, which rankles Eduardo a bit. Beast Boy diplomatically says it doesn't matter who gets the credit, but Troia wonders what Flash was doing there since the Justice League is not allowed in Bwundasa. Luthor explains to the cameras that he called in the League with the approval of the nation's president and help arrived mere minutes later. He declares this as proof that his system works and the presence of the Outsiders was unnecessary. Luthor says because of the actions of these amateurs, a child was badly hurt. Bart loudly cries out that he'll be fine, but Luthor ignores him, putting the Flash on the spot to provide more positive PR for the cameras. Flash smiles and waves and gives a quick enthusiastic line about always being happy to help, then whispers to Luthor that he doesn't want to be part of this dog-and-pony show before taking off. But Luthor got exactly what he wanted.

As the Outsiders and Team fly back home in the Bio-Ship, Miss Martian reveals that she discovered at least one of the terrorists — a young woman named Lia — was under some sort of mind control. And M'gann has decided to bring Lia back with them. Beast Boy says he feels like that whole mission was a setup, which Lia confirms. And in case her word wasn't enough, we do see Luthor communicate with some of the other "terrorists," who were actually members of the League of Shadows. He is slightly disappointed the assassins weren't able to kill Garth or Troia, but he is pleasantly pleased with the opportunity to embarrass the Outsiders on live TV.

The ship arrives in Taos at 7:15 MST, where they drop off Lia at the Meta-Human Youth Center. Eduardo's dad, however, tells his son that watching him fight those terrorists on live TV gave him quite the fright, especially after Bart got hurt. Bart again insists that he's fine, but Eduardo Sr. points out that his son doesn't have Bart' hyper metabolism and he could easily have been hurt himself. He also says that the Outsiders didn't even need to be there since the League was called in. Eduardo Jr. tries to explain that Luthor set them up, but his dad isn't buying it. He reveals that he's talked to some of the other Outsiders' parents and they also share his worries. Eduardo Jr. angrily storms away from father, telling Halo to get them out of here. She opens up a boom tube, which all of our heroes walk through (above), except M'gann, who awkwardly stays behind with Eduardo Sr., unsure of what to say.

We cut to the next day, January 1 at 14:24 PST at the Outsiders' Hub in Hollywood. Everyone is just hanging out, playing air hockey, while Wonder Girl is hoping they can get some training in. Suddenly, her mom, Helena Sandsmark, arrives, accompanied by Eduardo Sr. and Jay Garrick. Eduardo Jr. accuses his dad of hacking into the Justice League's zeta tube system to teleport to Los Angeles. He readily admits this, saying the three parents have decided it's time to talk to the Outsiders.

Gar, meanwhile, picks up a social media alert of a girl in Dublin, Ireland, specifically calling for the Outsiders to stop some of Professor Ivo's old robot monkeys from terrorizing her family. Beast Boy tells everyone to get ready, but the three adults refuse to give their permission to Bart, Eduardo and Cassie. So Beast Boy heads out with just Blue Beetle and Static Shock, hoping the others can sort things out.

Cassie says she's been a member of the Team for two years, so she doesn't understand why her mom is upset with it now. Helena says Cassie going public has changed everything, putting her directly in their enemies' crosshairs. Jay reminds them of the Watchtower's holograms of deceased heroes, many of whom were just kids their age, including Wally West. As he continues to rant about how dangerous this life is, Bart gently interrupts him by confirming what we suspected last episode. Joan Garrick did die. And now Bart says that Jay is feeling lost and alone, but there are lots of meta-teens out there who are also feeling lost and alone. Cassie and Eduardo Jr. also offer similar sentiments, and just like that, the two parents and one guardian are on board.

At 20:03 EST that evening, Lex Luthor appears on G. Gordon Godfrey's show in New York to decry the Outsiders, despite their recent success in Ireland. He says he personally witnessed the "near death" of Kid Flash yesterday and says he knows that the parents and guardians of the Outsiders are against their children's activities. Luthor goes on to lay out plans for a hero registry system to rein in these immature teenagers.

But to Luthor's surprise, Godfrey calls up recent social media posts showing the parents giving their full support to the Outsiders, including a video with Jay, Barry and Bart saying, "We are all Outsiders!" And to add insult to injury, Jay even called out Luthor's registry plan as a fascist return to failed policies of the 1950s. After the show, Luthor calls out Godfrey for betraying him like that, but Godfrey says he was fighting a losing battle, and instead gives him new ideas on how to combat the Outsiders.

At the end of the episode, we learn that once again, the Outsiders were not on a real mission. The little girl in Dublin was actually M'gann in disguise, and her "dad" was actually Batman. The factory belonged to Luthor and the robot monkeys were salvaged by Robin from a previous mission. Wonder Woman is appalled by the ease and frequency of these heroes' dishonesty toward the Outsiders, but none of them seem to care.




This show secretly has terrible dialogue. Great plot. Good character development (when it's not weighed down by too many things going on). But the dialogue is often forced and unnatural, especially in the lengthy speeches that feel scripted and rehearsed. I mean, did Cassie, Bart and Eduardo practice that speech all morning? But the bigger issue was how quickly that problem was resolved. These parents had legitimate concerns — concerns that could not have been and should not have been put to rest so easily.

I did like the running gag of everybody blowing Bart's injuries out of proportion. But I was once again deeply annoyed by the ending. Another fake mission for our Outsiders?! How can Kaldur and M'gann keep doing this?! Why can't anybody learn any lessons on this show?

Next time, we'll take a quick look at The Flash #75.

Young Justice: Outsiders – "Early Warning"

Director: Vinton Hueck
Writer: Greg Weisman

Our story picks up a couple of weeks after the Outsiders' big success in Maine. We start with a report from Courtney Whitmore (a young TV personality who calls herself Stargirl, but doesn't seem to actually be the Stargirl we know from the comics). She briefly mentions some of the Outsiders' exploits, but doesn't go into detail, choosing instead to highlight how popular the group has become. On December 21, Beast Boy, Geo-Force, Wonder Girl and Static Shock rescue a bunch of meta-teens from Klarion the Witch Boy. They couldn't have done it without a lot of help from Zatanna (above) who kept her presence hidden so the world wouldn't see a Justice League member on an unauthorized mission.

We don't know why Kid Flash and Blue Beetle weren't there until the very end of the episode, when the Outsiders bring the rescued teens to the Meta-Human Youth Center in Taos at 16:51 MST. Bart, Jaime, and Eduardo greet the team in their street clothes. Virgil excitedly tells them they missed a great one, before catching himself and offering condolences. Bart doesn't say anything, but gives Virgil a hug. So, although it was never explicitly stated, it appears that Bart's guardian, Joan Garrick, has died.

Eduardo says he, Bart and Jaime were talking after the funeral, and he has decided that he needs to join the Outsiders now. He says the kids at the youth center need to see "one of their own" out doing good, and Gar heartily agrees. He calls for a vote and Eduardo is unanimously and enthusiastically welcomed onto the team.




Sometimes the cost-cutting measures of the show become annoyingly apparent. Like having everybody always wear the same clothes. Or not bringing in certain voice actors for an episode. Bart didn't say anything here, which was completely out of character. Even if he was mourning Joan's death, he'd still say something to Virgil. And he'd especially say something about Eduardo joining the team. But even more frustrating was how the entire funeral of Joan was never shown or directly mentioned. I mean, we're meant to assume she died, but it's never confirmed. I know this show has a ton of characters and way too many plot lines for its own good, but some things are big enough to warrant a little more attention. And funerals are one of those things.

Next time, we'll continue Young Justice: Outsiders.

Young Justice #7

Lost in the Multiverse Part 1

Brian Michael Bendis Script
John Timms, Dan Hipp (pp. 2-3) and David Lafuente (pp. 4-6) Art
Gabe Eltaeb and Hipp (pp. 2-3) Colors
Wes Abbott Letters
Timms and Eltaeb Cover
Riley Rossmo and Ivan Plascencia Variant Cover
Brittany Holzherr Associate Editor
Mike Cotton Editor
Brian Cunningham Group Editor
Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
Superboy created by Jerry Siegel.
By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

Our cover shows Young Justice floating through the multiverse, surrounded by portals opening up to various grotesque monsters. This is a rather busy cover that sort of gives us an idea of where the story is going, albeit an inaccurate idea. As we'll soon see, our heroes aren't going to lands of dinosaurs and tentacle monsters, but rather alternate versions of their own Earth.

Our variant cover (which I had to snag from dc.fandom.com) shows a charming scene of Impulse stealing lunch from Wonder Girl and Superboy. This is exactly what I want variant covers to do. And even though I'm not the biggest fan of this style, this cover still put a big smile on my face.

This issue begins with a new recap page, which is proving increasingly necessary. Here's what it says:

Robin, Superboy, Impulse, Wonder Girl, Amethyst, Jinny Hex and Teen Lantern are cast into the multiverse from Gemworld after defeating the Dark Lord Opal but offending its ruling class.

Now reunited, Young Justice must find their way home and answer the many questions about where the team has been and how they even remember each other.

We then open with our team landing in a green field with a blue sky overhead. Impulse is naturally the first one to wake up, and he comes face-to-face with cute little "chibi" versions of the Justice League. He happily greets them with a "'sup." But the Little Justice League seems a bit on edge by the arrival of these tall teenagers, and Little Cyborg frantically begins working on a solution. Wonder Girl states the obvious — the transporter didn't send them back home — and Teen Lantern begins having a panic attack and screams uncontrollably.

Bart, however, finds the Little Justice League adorable, and excitedly exclaims that he's going to "eat them up!" Robin urges him to not tell inhabitants of any dimension that he wants to eat them, as a rule. But Bart doubles down then triples down on his cannibalistic cuteness overload when Superboy advises him to "read the dimension." Luckily, Little Cyborg is able to send our heroes away before Bart causes any real problems. Unluckily, Little Cyborg didn't know where to send them.

Our heroes are sent to another bright and colorful cartoony world, prompting Bart to cry out, "Stop the cuteness! I'm going to die!" They are immediately greeted by Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew, who definitely seem a bit weirded out by the humans, but not nearly as nervous as the Little Justice League was. Teen Lantern is still screaming, though, and now Jinny Hex is cursing, so Cassie covers both of their mouths and politely introduces Young Justice to the Zoo Crew.

Tim keeps himself as composed as possible and learns that Captain Carrot has actually had previous encounters with Superman. Conner refuses to speak in this dimension, but Bart happily introduces himself to everyone, using the Vulcan sign of peace. Pig-Iron quickly retrieves the Multiverse Mallet to send Young Justice away. Tim is skeptical that this big hammer can send them home, and Bart asks if they have anything like a big orange glove with jewels on it. But Pig-Iron proceeds to blast our heroes with a bolt of energy, proclaiming that he casts them out. Conner and Tim were both understandably worried by his choice of words, saying they want to be sent home. Cassie realizes Pig-Iron doesn't even know which Earth is their home. But it's too late, and soon Young Justice is gone once again, leaving a relieved Zoo Crew behind.

On the third planet, Bart is the first to wake up again, and ... everything appears normal. Our heroes dropped down right in front of the Hall of Justice, and Conner says he will now start talking. Tim pulls out his phone, but sees it needs to be charged. Still skeptical, he asks Bart to do a quick check of the area, which Bart accomplishes before Tim finishes speaking.

When he gets back, Bart vows to never forgive the team for not leaving him with Captain Carrot, where he clearly belongs. Cassie gets him on back on track, and Bart says he just saw normal, dumb-looking people. But he notes that it's too quiet, saying the people he saw were "veeeeery quiet." Robin notes they have company, which Impulse hopes are fans of theirs. Instead, it's a group of three joggers who oddly say, "Yooooou all got shaballs." Impulse says "Thank you?" but Superboy suggests they all get in Jinny's truck.

Conner flies the team over the city and they verify that this is a Metropolis, but not their Metropolis. Bart apologizes for leaving his multiverse map 25,000 years in the future, by accident. Amethyst apologizes to everyone, realizing that the Gemworld courts sent them on this wild trip because of her. Our team lands on a random skyscraper, and Teen Lantern taps into the Internet to see what kind of a world they're on. She finds there is a Superman, although Bart describes him as "distinguished."

Right on cue, that "distinguished" Superman arrives, accompanied by an elderly Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and old Robin and Power Girl (fans of Kingdom Come will recognize these characters). This Superman is disturbed by what he dubs Superboy's "protest shirt." Conner tries to explain that he's a clone of Superman and Lex Luthor, but that only seems to make things worse. Cassie quickly jumps in, volunteering to be put under Wonder Woman's lasso of truth to explain everything — which she does, while the rest of her teammates are placed in bubbles by Green Lantern.

Once Cassie finishes the story (which a little too much detail to build in overlapping character work), Green Lantern releases everyone, saying he has been to Gemworld himself, and says they need to figure out which Earth Young Justice belongs to on the multiverse map. Bart is surprised to learn such a map actually exists, but Superman says it doesn't. He then pulls the older heroes aside to discuss what to do with the kids, while Teen Lantern shows her teammates Internet images of Superman apparently killing Captain Marvel.

With some desperation in his voice, Robin begins to plead with Superman to send them home as quick as possible. He says he'd help the older heroes if their roles were reversed, which Bart dubs "superhero professional courtesy." But before Superman can answer, they're attacked by a group of people calling themselves the Sons and Daughters of the Bat — causing Tim to moan, "Bats. Why did it have to be bats?"

Three minutes later, our heroes have helped this Earth's heroes soundly defeat the Batman-inspired thugs. Young Justice is then taken to meet this world's version of Dr. Fate, who actually does have a multiverse map. He identifies their world as the one with all the crises, but he notes that someone there is doing something they shouldn't. Dr. Fate then sends Young Justice away, but immediately realizes he forgot to carry the two and sent them to the wrong Earth. And unfortunately, there's no way for him to fix that error.




Parallel Earths are always fun to explore, and this issue had plenty of fun and humor in it. The breakneck pace of the first six issues hasn't slowed down one bit, even though I am desperately craving some answers. Paradoxically, I feel like Impulse's story has to be told in The Flash series, but it can't, until this series gets to a good stopping point. So we're kind of stuck in limbo in that regard. Luckily, I do still enjoy Impulse in this series, but I am starting to get tired of him breaking the fourth wall. Let's check out the new ads:

The Dark Knight used to protect Gotham City. "City of Bane" begins in Batman #75.

A six-page preview of the first issue of Batman/Superman, written by Joshua Williamson.

The DC Nation interview is with Sean Murphy, writer/artist on Batman: Curse of the White Knight.

Naomi #6 also came out the same day as this issue, and it featured Impulse on the cover, but not inside. So here's what that cover looks like:

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