Young Justice #4

Seven Crises Part 4

Brian Michael Bendis Script
Patrick Gleason & John Timms Art
Alejandro Sanchez & Alex Sinclair Colors
Wes Abbott Letters
Gleason & Sanchez Cover
Dan Mora Variant Cover
Jessica Chen & Brittany Holzherr Associate Editors
Mike Cotton Editor
Brian Cunningham Group Editor
Superboy created by Jerry Siegel.
By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

Our cover shows Young Justice trapped ... inside Lord Opal. It's a very strange symbolic representation of the current situation our heroes have found themselves in. I think it's a fine idea, but not executed well. A rare misstep by Gleason. Also, for whatever reason, my digital copy of this comic does not include the variant cover. But that doesn't have Impulse on it, so I won't worry about it.

Our story opens with a flashback of Amethyst being rejected by the council in her efforts eliminate Lord Opal. We then return to Superboy and Impulse, who has recovered from being electrocuted. Carnelian is confused by the arrival of Superboy's supposed wife and baby, but Impulse (calling him Skeletor) demands to ask the questions. But Conner ignores Bart's pestering and the concerned queries from his wife, choosing instead to politely ask Carnelian and his men to leave them in peace. But Conner makes a slight faux pas by referring to his property. Carnelian correctly identifies Superboy as a Kryptonian and says that if he was from here, he'd know that everything belongs to Lord Opal.

Impulse takes advantage of this new piece of information, and begins pointing to random objects on the horizon, asking Carnelian if they also belong to "Dark Opie." Conner says he's missed Bart, then gives his wife a meaningful look. She quickly runs inside, calling her baby Martha. Once she's gone, Superboy addresses Carnelian's men (much to Carnelian's displeasure), asking them to run away once he shows them why they should run away. He promises no one will know, but Bart points out that he will know. Conner patiently shushes his friend, then clarifies that no one outside of this will know, after he makes his demonstration on Carnelian.

Carnelian eagerly lunges forward, vowing to show what the power of Dark Opal can do. But Superboy takes him down with a single punch, shattering Carnelian's armor to reveal a normal human in his socks and underwear. Superboy tells Carnelian's men to take him and forget this place. They promptly take off, commenting that Superboy's actually nicer than Amethyst.

Bart says, "Dude! Dude! Dude!!" Conner asks if he's here by himself, but Bart says, "No, no, no, no, no, no ... You don't get to make the questions until you tell me where babies come from." Bart quickly rephrases, saying, "Very specifically ... where did that one come from?!" Conner's wife remerges at this point, and Bart immediately introduces himself as Conner's third-best friend. He says the Speed Force lets him run around so fast, and explains that he knew she was just about to ask him that. He wants to know everything about her and Conner, starting with their first meeting, which he hopes was cute.

Conner properly introduces Bart to Lophi, telling her that Bart is also from Earth. He then asks Bart again if he's alone, and Bart confesses he doesn't know. He briefly explains how Young Justice reformed to battle the "gem guys" in Metropolis, then "zappy, pappy, shamappy," Bart ended up here. Lophi is understandably confused by all this, and Conner can't really help her. He does, however, ask Bart exactly who was with him.

We then return to the rest of Young Justice, still trapped in their underground prison cells. A couple of the guards open up the trunk in Jinny Hex's truck and are promptly destroyed by gigantic tentacles and crab claws. Suddenly, Superboy and Impulse show up and free their friends. Robin says that maybe Bart was right. Superboy starts to say Young Justice, but Bart cuts him off, insisting that Robin should say it. But Robin is stammering and can't quite get to the words Bart's been longing to hear, instead settling on a heart-warming hug with three of his oldest friends.

The hug doesn't last nearly long enough for Bart's liking, as everybody has too many questions and not enough time to answer them. Nobody saw what happened to the guards, and Superboy and Amethyst begin pushing for the team to leave as quickly as possible. We then end with another Amethyst flashback, showing how she began to suspect the rest of the Houses are working with Opal, and how she first met Robin.




That was a beautiful hug, but it seriously needed to be a full splash page. It's been years — YEARS! — since the real versions of Impulse, Superboy, Robin and Wonder Girl were all together. It's such a glorious moment — I just wanted it to be played out as massively as Bart's reunion with Conner was. Beyond that, though, this was a really fun issue. Bart is funnier than ever, dropping some all-time classic lines. And, after four issues, we've finally got the whole team together. I'll admit the Amethyst stuff is a challenge for me. I've never been interested in her, and I keep find myself growing impatient with her story, since it's pulling away from Bart's story. Oh well. Let's check out the new ads.

Shazam! in theaters April 5 and various Shazam-related graphic novels. I'm so glad we didn't get an ad for this movie on the cover like DC used to always do for its movies and shows.

They have a mission. But don't tell the Justice League. Batman and the Outsiders.

DC Nation interview with Shazam! director David F. Sandberg. Shazam! was only a modest success at the box office, but I think it was probably the best movie of the DCEU.

Next: The seventh crisis!