Young Justice #54

Break on Through to the Other Seid

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

This month's cover by ... Todd Nauck & Lary Stucker, colored by Tanya & Richard Horie. This is a pretty simple, but powerful image. Secret with Darkseid, the biggest bad of the DC Universe. There's nothing worse than that, right? Also, take note of Secret's eyes. Maybe she's not necessarily being possessed, but something definitely is not right in her mind.

Our story begins with Robin sitting in a dark room underneath a spotlight. He's talking to an unseen audience, telling them that the fate of the world might hinge on how well he tells this story and what this person does with that information. But before he begins, he gets a call from Wonder Girl, who's reporting on the team's investigation of the A.P.E.S. headquarters inside Mount Rushmore. Impulse briefly interrupts the call, but Wonder Girl is able to shoo him away.

Cassie reports to Robin that she, Impulse, Superboy and Ray have checked every room of the facility and found the whole place to be ominously empty. Robin asks her to keep him posted, then he begins his tale, starting with the arrival of Darkseid in the Young Justice kitchen a few weeks ago. When Darkseid asked Secret to come with him, she requested her father to join her. Darkseid instantly realized that Secret's father was being possessed by Harm, but he didn't tell this and allowed him to come along. Superboy wanted to fight Darkseid, but Wonder Girl wisely held him back. But nobody held back Slo-Bo, who charged at Darkseid, only to grabbed by the throat. Secret begged for "Doug" to let Slo-Bo go, so Darkseid threw him at Superboy, then took Secret and her dad away in a boom tube.

Superboy started fighting with Wonder Girl, blaming her for letting Secret go. Slo-Bo agreed with him, so Wonder Girl turned on Slo-Bo, saying this was all his fault because he helped break Secret's dad out of jail. She asked him if he has any sense of morality, and after thinking for a moment, Slo-Bo said he doesn't. Wonder Girl ordered him to leave, so he took off on the Super-Cycle.

Wonder Girl then began to tear down all the cameras installed for the "Super Vision" reality show. She told Ace Atchinson to leave, and Superboy agreed with her, reminding Ace that they never agreed to a website with a 24/7 live feed. Ace claimed he didn't know about the site, but Cassie insisted that he take away all his equipment in the next 10 minutes. Ray and Impulse then found Snapper Carr repairing Red Tornado, who was able to speak and provide instructions — just not move after Secret's attack. Bart was surprised to Snapper up and about so soon after being hid inside Secret, but he said he snapped out of it, asking why else would he be called "Snapper." Bart suggested that he was bitten by a radioactive lawnmower, to which Ray smacked him in the back of the head.

Robin continues his story, saying the Justice League soon came down to lecture Young Justice. Then the team was investigated by the police, but luckily the live feed on the website proved that only Secret and Slo-Bo were involved in the prison breakout. With things mostly calmed down, Cassie and Cissie visited Anita to help her care for her infant parents and discuss the situation with Secret. Slo-Bo suddenly stopped by, accusing the girls of failing to listen to Secret and support her in her time of need. He also revealed that he is now about 95% blind, relying completely on his other senses. When he was "born" on Apokolips, his vision was already blurry to begin with and has progressively been getting worse since. Slo-Bo said the blindness is just the beginning, as he can feel the rest of his body beginning to break down. He lectured the girls for a bit about their perceptions of morality, but then angrily stormed out after he tripped on the coffee table and Cissie made fun of him. Anita tried to get Slo-Bo to stay, but he flew away once again on the Super-Cycle.

Robin says that the team realized in retrospect that they could have journeyed to Apokolips to try to rescue Secret, but they were all too afraid to take on Darkseid on his home turf. Snapper contacted the Spectre, who simply said, "It will all turn out for the best." So weeks passed by, as normally as possible, but Robin realized that time passes differently on Apokolips, meaning Secret has likely spent quite a bit of time in Darkseid's presence.

A few weeks after Secret's disappearance, she reappeared in the D.E.O. headquarters, seeking revenge on the organization that once held her prisoner. She created a large, swirling whirlwind that sucked up everybody working in the building. Young Justice was able to obtain video of this, instantly recognizing it as the work of Secret and realizing that she is seeking revenge against anyone who has ever wronged her. Robin immediately called Spoiler to warn her, but as they talked, Secret made her attack. Spoiler tried to defend herself with electricity, but Secret explained that electricity never really hurt her before — it just brought back nasty memories. She said that no longer bothers her, and promptly sucked up Spoiler. She then used Spoiler's phone to tell Robin that she plans to continue pulling people into herself, including Young Justice and the rest of the world.

As Robin concludes his story, we see he's been talking to Secret's mother. But Mrs. Hayes, who is in a straitjacket and a padded room, does not appear to be in any condition to help. Her response to Robin's story was to ask if it's time for her medication. Regardless, Robin decides to try once more, repeating his story from the top.



This is a sad issue. It feels like everything is falling apart. Secret has gone evil and is abducting people. Slo-Bo is dying. And the team is completely lost and frightened. Robin's so desperate, he's turned to an insane woman. Young Justice is coming to an end, and we are dealing with the unfortunate, yet natural fallout of that. Similar to the end of the Impulse series, things are feeling a bit truncated here. Ideally, I would have loved to spend more time on the reality TV show, Slo-Bo's condition and the budding relationship between Bart and Ray. Those two were friends in the future in Ray's solo series, and they are becoming a pretty fun pair in the limited time they've had together.

DC in Demand mentions Mark Waid's current project, Empire. But the main feature is Young Justice/Titans: Graduation Day. Here's the text: "The Titans and Young Justice engage in their first — and possibly last — social mixer when a mysterious girl with unspeakable power takes down several members from each team. With even more carnage on the horizon, if the remaining heroes want to get ahead in life, they'll have to do the math and make a life-changing decision. Unfortunately, there's no multiple choice in this ultimate of tests." Now for the new ads:

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The B13 technology changed the Man of Steel's home into the City of the Future. What happens when the tech goes after the people? Superman: Metropolis.

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Next time, before we wrap up this amazing series, we're going to take a quick detour to set up the next big storyline in The Flash, which amazingly will include Impulse!