Young Justice #53

Dead Man Sprinting

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

This month's cover by ... Todd Nauck & Lary Stucker, colors by Tanya & Richard Horie. This image shows the sad and frightening possibility of Secret turning against her teammates. And when you think about it, Secret really is nearly invincible, especially when she pulls people into the hellish abyss. Luckily, the fight in this issue doesn't quite reach the level depicted on the cover.

Our story picks up where last issue left off, with Robin revealing his new identity to the team — Mister Sarcastic. Wonder Girl excuses herself, shoves Robin into the girls locker room (where no cameras are) and demands to know what he's doing. Tim explains that as Robin, he wants to keep a low profile, something that would have been impossible on the "Super Vision" reality show. But he felt like he needed to maintain some kind of a presence on the team, especially for Secret. Robin tells Cassie how Secret took it personally when he left the team, and he wants to make sure she doesn't do anything foolish.

Meanwhile, Secret is hiding in her dad's prison, watching him be led to his execution. As Burt Hayes strapped into the electric chair, he's told he has been sentenced for the first degree murder of his adopted son, William Hayes. Burt corrects the warden, saying that when he killed his son, he was no longer Billy, but Harm, the super villain. Burt says he believes Harm killed his daughter, made it look like an accident, and would have caused more death and destruction if he'd allowed him to continue.

Slo-Bo casually walks through the door, explaining that he arrived in the prison via Secret's abyss teleportation, but she doesn't want to expose her father to that nightmarish mode of transportation, so it's up to Slo-Bo to bust him out the old-fashioned way. The warden calls for guards, which Slo-Bo views as a challenge and calls out louder for more guards. Soon, Slo-Bo has a full-on brawl on his hands, which he eagerly leaps into with a hook and chain. Secret appears before her dad, who begins to wonder if he's already died. Secret tells him nobody's thrown the switch yet, but as she says that, the warden does start to pull the switch down. Slo-Bo quickly tears the electric cord apart with his teeth, but is electrocuted for his efforts. Secret knocks out the warden, turns the switch off, then asks Slo-Bo why he didn't just knock out the warden or pull the switch from the wall. The fried Slo-Bo meekly realizes that that would have worked, too.

Back at the Catskills resort, Superboy and Impulse are playing their favorite game, Random Trivia. One asks a question from a card, then gives that question a random answer from another card. Kon asks Bart what got bombed on the day Franklin Roosevelt would call "the day that would live in infamy." Bart guesses Mrs. Roosevelt, but Kon's random answer is Ben Affleck. Wonder Girl explains the rules of this game to the confused Ace Atchinson, who then asks how they win it. Mister Sarcastic, who's playing a Freakazoid video game, says they don't win the game, they just kill time with it. Cassie goes to call Empress to she if she wants to hang out with them, but she's interrupted by Snapper Carr saying they have a big problem to deal with.

Anita, meanwhile, is taking care of her infant parents and sadly looking at the phone, believing her friends have forgotten about her. Ishido Maad, who's sharpening his knives, tells her that Young Justice is probably just busy, which makes Anita feel even worse to imagine her friends out saving the world without her. Anita's phone does eventually ring, but it's Cissie on the other end, who just wants to talk — not "go out and beat somebody up" as Anita suggests. Cissie is sitting in front of her computer, visiting www.ToddNauck.com, and she tells Anita how bad she feels for her having to take care of her parents. She calls it unnatural, saying parents are supposed to do everything for their kids. Bonnie is walking by with a basket of laundry when Cissie says this, so she dumps all the clothes on Cissie's head.

We then cut to the big problem Snapper mentioned, a random giant gorilla, which makes for the perfect action scene for "Super Vision." With a camera strapped to Superboy's shoulder, everybody takes a turn hitting the gorilla and getting in as many puns as possible. Impulse's contribution was to tie up the gorillas feet while saying, "This is more fun than a barrel of villains!" Mister Sarcastic delivers the finishing blow by throwing some knockout gas into the beast's mouth. Superboy says next time they fight a big ape, they should use a gigantic bunch of bananas (which they almost did during JLApe).

As Superboy and Wonder Girl take the gorilla to S.T.A.R. Labs, Ray and Impulse race back to the headquarters. They find in the kitchen, Slo-Bo, Secret and her dad (wearing one of Snapper's superhero-themed T-shirts). Secret introduces her dad as a friend who needs to stay with them for a few days. Ray asks if Snapper is OK with that, but Secret says he's not around. Bart offers to go look for him, but Ray, sensing something is wrong with this, advises Bart to stay put. The phone starts to ring, and Ray answers it before Slo-Bo can. Cissie is on the other end, telling Ray that Secret has gone nuts and he needs to get out of there.

Ray pretends like he's talking to a telemarketer, but Burt sees through this. He leans over to Secret and tells her that Ray's going to make trouble. She insists her friends will understand, but Burt says she has no real friends, except for him. As he talks, we see that Harm is actually possessing his adoptive father. Meanwhile, Cissie tells Ray that "Super Vision" isn't just a TV show — it's also a website with a 24/7 live feed. She says that the "friend" with Secret is her dad, whom she and Slo-Bo busted off death row. Cissie says that Snapper refused to let Burt stay there, but before Cissie can tell Ray what happened to Snapper, Burt pulls the phone out of the wall.

Bart asks Secret what's going on, and she snaps at him, accusing him and all the others for failing to help her. She admits that Burt is her dad and says she couldn't let him be killed. Ray demands to know where Snapper is, to which Secret darkly says, "You don't want to know! You SO don't want to know!" As she prepares to attack, Red Tornado suddenly enters the room, telling Secret to release Snapper. So Secret angrily agrees, dropping a shaken Snapper out of a hole in her chest. She asks Red Tornado if he's happy, but he immediately creates a whirlwind in the kitchen, saying he needs to restrain Secret for her own good. He starts to give Impulse orders, but Secret enters the android's body and quickly shuts him down.

Superboy, Wonder Girl and Robin finally arrive, and Cassie orders Greta to back off. They all try to talk Secret down, but she lashes out at them for refusing to listen to her when she wanted to help her dad. She says they invaded a whole country for Empress, but they wouldn't break into one lousy jail for her. Secret begins shouting about how she has the power to level the entire place or kill everyone where they stand. She says she's tired of having everyone be afraid of her and leave her. A boom tube suddenly opens up in the kitchen. Darkseid steps out of it, telling Secret that her anger and hurt screamed to him across the void. He says she is now ready to come with him, and he promises that he is not afraid of anything and he will never leave her.



The only thing worse than Secret being manipulated by the ghost of her evil brother and turning against her teammates has to be Darkseid himself appearing in the Young Justice headquarters. It's a pretty shocking (and exciting) development. And yet it doesn't come out of nowhere. Peter David has been slowly building toward this moment for years now, so this feels right in line with Secret's character, even if it is a bit heartbreaking to witness. Sadly, there wasn't much for Impulse to do in this issue. Ideally, we would have had more time to goof off with the reality TV show. I wanted to see our teenage heroes ham it up more for the cameras and manufacture some melodrama for the ratings. But with this series quickly coming to an end, there just isn't time for such diversions.

DC in Demand focuses on Arkham Asylum: Living Hell and a bunch of other projects that we don't really care about. So let's head on to the new ads:

Winter X Games VII in Aspen.

One day you will look back at all the destruction you caused and smile. Ratchet & Clank for PlayStation 2.

Fruit, meet the shock of sour. Sour Starburst.

The best-selling title in comics keeps getting better! Batman.

The 10th annual Wizard Fan Awards.

Superman & Batman: Generations 3. An imaginary series.

"This sure ain't gonna help my hangover." Black & Bruised for GameCube and PlayStation 2.

Next time, Secret's descent to the dark side continues as she exacts her own form of revenge on all those who have wronged her in the past. Is it too late for the rest of Young Justice to help her? Find out in Young Justice #54.