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.

Young Justice: Outsiders – "First Impression"

Director: Mel Zwyer
Writer: Brandon Vietti

On the Watchtower on December 4, 19:09 EST, Beast Boy has called a meeting with Aquaman of the Justice League and Miss Martian, Superboy and Tigress of the Team. Joining Gar are Kid Flash, Blue Beetle, Static Shock, Wonder Girl, Geo-Force, Halo, Terra, Thirteen and Forager. Gar gives an impassioned speech about the need for a public version of the Team, citing the Justice League's failing public relations battle against Lex Luthor of the United Nations and Granny Goodness of Goode World Studios. He says that his new team will break the rules the Justice League has to adhere to, all while inspiring a new generation that has grown up under the constant threat of meta-teen trafficking.

Beast Boy shows off the social media buzz his new team caused last week from their heroics in Taos. He says they're on their way to building a revolution free from the Light's interference. Kaldur says he's given them much to think about, but Gar says they're not asking for permission from the League or Team — they were merely giving the older heroes a heads up. Joining Gar's new team are Bart, Jaime, Virgil, Cassie and Brion. The others say they're not quite ready.

Artemis is naturally worried about these six teens choosing to operate in the open like this. Gar points out that he can't hide because of his green skin and Jaime reminds everyone that the Reach exposed him to the world two years ago. Bart says that the world knew Kid Flash during Wally's day and most people assume he is still Wally now — besides, he never understood the need for secret identities. Brion says his kingdom of Markovia and the world already know what he's become, so now he wants to show them who he has become. Cassie and Virgil simply say they wanted to add some diversity to this new squad. Seeing he can't stop them, Kaldur just makes one request: that they continue to covertly answer to the Justice League through Miss Martian, who will still lead the remaining members of the Team. Beast Boy heartily agrees to that condition.

In Hollywood at 17:48 PST, Gar shows off the base for the new squad in the towering Premiere Building in the heart of downtown. Funded by his television salary, Gar calls this place The Hub, and proudly shows off its state-of-the-art computers and enough bedrooms for anyone who wants to stay there — even if they're not a member of the new squad. And so far, the Hub's residents will be Gar, Brion, Tara, Victor Stone, Violet and Fred — basically all the homeless rescues who have been staying with M'gann the past few months. M'gann, however, is worried about letting six teenagers live here unsupervised, so the one adult homeless rescue, scientist Helga Jace, volunteers to act as the Hub's "den mother."

We then jump ahead to December 7, 19:37 PST. Bart is playing against himself in air hockey, while everybody else is just kind of lounging around. M'gann is also there, for whatever reason, and she happens to be on the computer when a live video pops up of an apparent alien invasion in a small town called Brooklyn in Maine. Our heroes recognize the old Reach ship blasting up the town, which Bart angrily declares as "so moded." Beast Boy immediately hits the "troub-alert," which summons the whole squad — several of whom are wary that this might be another one of Gar's drills. Bart assures them this is real and the Reach is back, which also upsets Jaime.

M'gann shows them that Aquaman is on the scene, but as soon as he begins to fight one ship, two more show up. Before too long, Kid Flash is in Brooklyn, helping Kaldur up after a nasty hit. He's followed behind by the rest of the squad, who immediately engage the enemy (see screenshot). They also encounter three teenage girls, who serve as cross between the Scooby-Doo gang and DC's old Newsboy Legion, as they livestream the entire battle.

Luckily, Blue Beetle is able to shut down the Reach ships with a single touch, so the battle isn't too tough. But it is still exciting enough for people all around the nation to tune in, including Jay and Joan Garrick in Central City at 21:51 CST. Unfortunately, it appears that Joan is on her death bed, while Bart is happily boasting of literally crashing the mode of the Reach ships. Bart's friend, Eduardo, is also watching in Taos at 20:52 MST, showing the video to three girls he's working with.

Eventually, all three ships are brought down and their pilots are pulled out. Beast Boy formally introduces the whole squad to the girl "reporters," while Blue Beetle pulls off the masks of the pilots, revealing them to be human members of Intergang. The mayor of Brooklyn, however, is furious that these vigilantes have shown up without having gone through the proper channels and have caused some damage to the town (a single broken window on the library). He demands that the sheriff arrest the teens and Beast Boy orders his team to surrender. The sheriff reluctantly places handcuffs on our heroes, but a much larger Reach ship suddenly arrives, apparently summoned by the other smaller ships.

Even the captured Intergang members are terrified by this huge ship blasting its lasers on the town. They confess they didn't intend to summon it, and urge the mayor to call in the Justice League. But the mayor points out that he's already called the Air Force, which has sent two drones. But the Reach ship immediately destroys the drones. Our heroes worry about the Air Force sending reinforcements, which would likely shoot down the Reach ship, causing it to crash on the town below. But the mayor stubbornly refuses to call in the Justice League, so Kaldur stands by stoically, saying his hands are tied.

Beast Boy orders his time to break free of their handcuffs, promising the mayor that he can arrest them again, after they save his town again. Our heroes promptly fly up into the Reach ship, and Kid Flash races through the entire vessel, finding it to be unmanned. But the ship's computers have targeted the Air Force's reinforcements — two jets that are manned. It's a slightly tense moment, but Blue Beetle is able to take control of the ship and crash it into a nearby frozen pond. Beast Boy then surrenders his team to the sheriff as promised, but the sheriff refuses to arrest them this time, citing the town's Good Samaritan law — statute 1616 (this show is obsessed with the number 16 and I don't know why).

Gar wraps things up with yet another speech that includes the catchy slogans of "Get on board or get out of the way" and "We are all outsiders." And with that, the new squad officially becomes the Outsiders and an online sensation. But unbeknownst to the Outsiders, this whole mission was basically set up by a secret group of Aquaman, Miss Martian, Batman, Wonder Woman and a few others. Kaldur wonders if Beast Boy should join their secret circle, but M'gann insists he's not ready.




It's incredible how this show can completely negate any positive feelings from an episode with the last two minutes. We finally have the Outsiders! They have their own headquarters and everything! And Bart gets to be on the team that this whole season is built around! But wait ... their first mission was a fraud?! None of the "adults in the room" trust our heroes?! And Kaldur and M'gann are involved in ANOTHER super secret cabal, proving that they learned NOTHING from season two, where Kaldur almost was turned into a permanent vegetable?!

Sorry. Had to rant there.

This episode was fine. This new team is kind of fun, although it's a little strange having Beast Boy be the leader. And I got really tired of his monologues. (The dialogue on this show has always been pretty bad, and it only gets worse during prolonged speeches.) The Scooby-Doo theme of this episode was equal parts charming and annoying. And Bart came off as especially stupid in this one. Last season, it came across that he was playing a character, while secretly positioning himself to save the future. In this season, it seems like Bart is genuinely dumb. And I don't like that.

Next time, we'll return to the comics with Young Justice #7.

Young Justice: Outsiders – "Illusion of Control"

Director: Christopher Berkeley
Writer: Greg Weisman

One of the things that I think killed the second season of Young Justice was its irregular release schedule. When it moved to DC's own digital platform, I had hoped the show would enjoy something more sensible and predictable — you know, one episode a week, always on the same day and time. Sadly, DC chose not to do this, opting instead to cluster episodes together, sometimes releasing three or four a week. And then they took a massive hiatus from the end of January to the beginning of July. So it's been a while since we've seen this version of Bart Allen.

In the show's time, it's been about two months since we last saw Bart baby-sitting his toddler father and aunt. Apparently Bart has since befriended Eduardo Dorado Jr. — one of the teens the Reach kidnapped in season two and gained the power of teleportation as a result of their experiments. Eduardo is currently working at a Meta-Human Youth Center in Taos, New Mexico, with his dad, and Bart (and most of the Team) has decided to lend a hand to this facility, especially as the teen abductions has not slowed down, despite the departure of the Reach.

Our episode begins in Taos on November 22 at 13:59 MST. The youth center is hosting a harvest festival and Bart is quickly throwing up some last-minute decorations. He zips right past one of the center's workers, Nathaniel Tryon, aka Neutron. He was the person who helped send Bart back to the past, so I'd imagine it would be pretty awkward for Bart to interact with this younger version of the man he once knew. But Bart does give out quick hugs to Jaime, Traci and Virgil, before giving Eduardo a slightly more special hug. He comes up from behind and leans in close — so close and so fast, in fact, that you might think Bart kissed him. But he didn't. (Believe me, I paused it and went frame by frame.)

Before too long, Garfield Logan arrives with his girlfriend, Queen Perdita (Bart dubs them "Gardita"). Jaime officially introduces Traci as his girlfriend, prompting Virgil to complain about being a "seventh wheel" and begin a running gag about how he needs a girlfriend. Virgil's comment makes it sound like Bart and Eduardo are a couple, but at no point in this episode do we see them directly refer to each other as boyfriends or hold hands or anything like that.

We do, however, see Bart and Eduardo share a gigantic bumper hover car, which, Bart naturally feels moves way too slow. He complains that this isn't even "slightly crash," so Eduardo takes the controls and promises to terrorize the other drivers. Bart finds this acceptable and calls Eduardo "amigo."

Later, Eduardo confides to Perdita that he's worried about a meta-teen he's been working with named Wendy. He had tried to teach her to control her wind powers, but after a near-fatal accident, she convinced herself she constantly needs to wear an inhibitor collar, which Eduardo dubs an "illusion of control." Bart then hands Eduardo an empty cotton candy stick — apparently he got too hungry on the way back from the stand and ate both the treats. Eduardo, however, is merely bemused by this.

Garfield asks Eduardo how his work is going, and Eduardo sadly wishes he could do more. Bart points out that he set up this whole festival, but Eduardo is looking for some kind of grand gesture to inspire the teens. Gar understands, saying he's frustrated by the Team's covert nature preventing them from being a source of inspiration. He begins to launch into a monologue about the need for young role models, he suddenly collapses to the ground with a wave of nausea.

Bart also falls to the ground, wondering if he ate too much cotton candy. But soon everyone else is down, and Count Vertigo calmly walks in with a random henchman, who scoops up Perdita and loads her into a helicopter. Appropriately, Bart is first back on his feet and in hot pursuit of the copter (see screenshot). But when he gets too close, he's hit with another wave of nausea from Vertigo and trips in the desert. He uses an earpiece to warn everyone to maintain their distance, and soon the whole gang is in pursuit — Blue Beetle flying with Traci in his arms, Static Shock riding a metal disc and Beast Boy flying as an eagle. Even Eduardo is there, teleporting himself along and communicating with his own earpiece, even though he's not an official member of the Team.

The chase continues until 17:31 MST, until Traci is able to use her powers to pull out the helicopter's fuel line, forcing it to land at a nearby pueblo. Everybody races into the abandoned city and Eduardo does a quick scan, but can't find anything. Bart races all around what he calls "this moded place," but also comes up empty, saying every building looks exactly the same. Jaime tries to fly above the city, but the walls seem to grow with him. Luckily, his scarab points out that he's only hovering a few feet off the ground, despite what he sees with his eyes.

Bart slaps his forehead with a "hello, Megan!" realizing that he was just running in circles the whole time. Static astutely points out that Vertigo doesn't have illusion powers, but in the meantime, Beast Boy turns into a bear to try to find his girlfriend with his nose. Almost immediately, our heroes encounter Vertigo's henchman, who actually turns out to be a lot tougher than he appears. Bart punches him a bunch of times, but only succeeds in hurting his hands. He asks what this guy is made of, to which he oddly replies, "Sugar and spice and everything nice," before knocking Bart down with a single blow.

Meanwhile, Perdita finds an opportunity to fight back and kicks Vertigo in the crotch. The illusion over the count fades away, revealing him to actually be Psimon and the henchman his girlfriend, the nearly indestructible Devastation. With Psimon injured, Devastation abandons the battle, rushes to her boyfriend's aid, and leaps away with him. Beast Boy realizes that Psimon and Devastation belong to a team called Onslaught under Queen Bee — meaning Count Vertigo was never involved and Perdita was never the target. Eduardo puts together the fact that many of the teens at the youth center were rescued from Onslaught, so the rest of that team is most likely rounding up the now defenseless metahumans.

Sure enough, our heroes' hunches were right. Bart is first on the scene, followed closely by Eduardo. They find everyone at the carnival has been knocked out with a gas, enabling the rest of Onslaught to easily load them up in large shipping crates. Bart and Eduardo rescue a couple of teens from Holocaust and Icicle. Bart gives a cheesy, heroic one-liner, which Eduardo completes, telling the villains to put themselves in the box. (Don't worry, there's nothing romantic about this instance of  people completing each other's sentences. That's just an annoying trope Greg Weisman relies on way too much.)

Holocaust can't hit Bart or Eduardo with his fire blasts, and neither can Icicle catch them with his ice. But Bart and Eduardo are easily able to direct their enemies' blows at each other, causing Holocaust to be frozen and Icicle to be burned. The Terror Twins then arrive, and Tuppence uses a fatherbox to open a boom tube beneath Bart and Eduardo. Luckily, Eduardo teleports to safety and Bart is impressively able to run free of the tube's pull.

Tuppence creates another boom tube, but Static pulls the fatherbox away from her and tosses it into the tube. Eduardo then teleports on her back and places an inhibitor collar around her neck. Static quickly gets another collar around Tommy Terror, and all the villains are rendered unconscious. The gas starts to wear off and Eduardo notes that there's no way they can keep the press away from this. Static suggests they leave to maintain the covert nature of the Team, but Beast Boy has a different idea.

He, Blue Beetle and Kid Flash (Bart quickly threw his uniform on) stay behind and address the media directly. Beast Boy says this isn't about the limelight, and Kid Flash jokes that he's more about the "lemon light." As Beast Boy explains that he wants to show the world what meta-teens can choose to do with their powers, the rest of our heroes stay back on the sidelines. Virgil worries about breaking the rules like this, but Eduardo seems to approve of this bold, new choice.




It's about time Bart got to do something on this show. And he spent most of the time in his civilian clothes, which is great for me, since I'm not too crazy about his Kid Flash uniform. Anyway, the main plot of trying to recapture a handful of meta-teens was nowhere near as significant as Beast Boy's decision to go public about their superhero work. Sixteen episodes into this season and we finally (almost) have the beginning of the Outsiders.

But most importantly is Bart's supposedly budding romance with Eduardo. It almost seems impossible to argue that the two aren't dating, although they apparently are still in the early stages of their relationship. I was pretty surprised to see how Bart interacted with Eduardo in this episode, mainly because we've never even seen them talk to each other before. As for the prospect of making Bart gay? I'm fine with it. Fans long suspected that Bart had a crush on Jaime in season two. And in the comics world, Bart's sexuality was very rarely an important aspect of his character. Yeah, he's officially had two different girlfriends, but for the most part, he was too young or distracted to care about girls. So I guess what I'm saying is it doesn't feel like a betrayal of the core elements of Bart Allen to suddenly give him a boyfriend — if that's what this show is doing. This season will end without giving us a clear indication one way or the other on the Bart/Eduardo relationship.

Next time, we'll continue Young Justice: Outsiders with an episode called "First Impression."

Young Justice #6

Seven Crises Finale

Brian Michael Bendis Script
John Timms Art
Gabe Eltaeb Colors
Wes Abbott Letters
John Timms & Alejandro Sanchez Cover
Brittany Holzherr Associate Editor
Mike Cotton Editor
Brian Cunningham Group Editor

Our main cover is our first from our new artist. It's simple, straightforward and effective. The white background is fine since these characters are more than colorful enough on their own. The pink shards all over the place almost makes this the sequel to issue #5's cover — our heroes have broken free of the pink crystals, and, as such, Gemworld itself.

The variant cover is by Ramon Villalobos. I had to take this image from dc.fandom.com, since DC decided to be so stingy (they even seemed to delete Villalobos' credit from the digital version — there was a suspiciously empty space in the issue's credits). This feels a lot like a Frank Quitely cover — for better and worse. I like the idea behind it, but I don't think it works for me. Making Impulse a scattered, blurred image was a unique touch, though.

Our story opens with an exact repeat of last issue's recap page, so we'll skip that and head right to the part where our heroes have unexpectedly found themselves in a jungle with Lord Opal nowhere in sight. Robin admits this sudden shift terrified him, which Impulse point out is really saying something, since Robin grew up in a house with Batman. Luckily, Amethyst is able to explain that what they just experienced was a confirmation of her worst fears — whenever Lord Opal uses his powers, large parts of reality shift. Wonder Girl then spots an injured Lord Opal being carried away by his men back to his castle.

Superboy then formally introduces himself to Amethyst, saying he's heard a lot about her. Cassie and Tim are both bewildered by this statement, and they demand to know how Conner is here. Bart joins in on the questioning, asking, "And how do you have a baby?" Everybody stops and stares at Bart for a moment, who awkwardly adds, "I don't mean how do you make a baby ... I mean how did you, specifically, have one? ... A Gemworld baby and wife." Conner sarcastically thanks Bart, then begins to tell his tale.

Long story short, when Conner first arrived on Gemworld, he encountered a very pregnant woman being harassed by the soldiers for being a widow. So Conner posed as her husband to protect her, in return receiving a place to stay while he waited for Young Justice to find him. Tim asks Conner what was the last thing he remembers about him, but Conner snarkily says, "That you just asked me that question." Bart astutely declares, "Such a good answer!"

Tim explains that he recently learned that somebody erased Young Justice from his memory, so he went to Metropolis to try to find Conner, which is when this whole adventure started. Bart is randomly attacked by a tiger in the background, while Cassie says she remembers everything about Young Justice. She and Tim save Bart from the tiger, while Tim points out how odd it was to hear Bart yelling "Young Justice" back in Metropolis. Unfortunately, we don't learn how much Bart remembers ... yet.

The conversation turns to Teen Lantern, whom nobody remembers. She introduces herself as 11-year-old Keli Quintela from La Paz, Bolivia. Apparently she has hacked into a Green Lantern ring and is able to use its powers without the knowledge of the Green Lantern Corps. She was in Metropolis to try to get an internship at the Hall of Justice. Jinny Hex then introduces herself, saying she inherited her great-grandpa's mysterious trunk from her deceased mother. She took it to Metropolis to try to find some answers. She shows the trunk's contents to the team, but not the readers. However, we do know there is one item labeled "Do not touch," which Impulse really wants to touch.

Amethyst tells the others she can help send them back home once they deal with Opal. She explains that his powers come from a gem of pure black opal. Before she can finish laying out all the defenses and obstacles protecting the gem, Impulse shows up with it. He went into the castle, past the "tentacle guy" and everything, and brought it back in less than a second. However, the Dark Lord Opal immediately realizes the source of his power is missing, and his castle transforms into a monstrous giant.

Superboy asks if they have a plan, and Impulse says he left it in his "late-'90s costume." So Superboy happily punches the castle in the face, while Robin asks Teen Lantern to protect the gem. When Bart hands it to her, he introduces himself with, "Hi! I'm Bart! Timber." Keli thinks his name is Bart Timber, but Bart was just calling the impending fall of the castle monster. Right on cue, the castle comes crashing down, but then begins to shoot lasers from its eyes. Cassie tells Bart to get the "opal thing" away from here, to which Bart replies, "What? Like, now?" So Cassie urges him forward by calling him "cutie."

Bart takes off with the gem, but by the time he returns, he sadly finds the fight is over. Lord Opal emerged from the castle to directly engage Young Justice once more, but was soundly defeated by their combined teamwork. As consolation, Robin lets Impulse finally shout out, "Young Justice is back!" And with that, our heroes prepare for their journey home, first stopping at Conner's farm to say goodbye to the woman who posed as his wife and her baby.

Amethyst brings Young Justice to the Gemworld Royal Meeting Hall, requesting that they thank the heroes for their work and immediately send them back to Earth before launching a full investigation into Opal's affairs. And to help smooth things out with her house, Amethyst announces she will voluntarily return to Earth, as well. The council agrees to this and loads everybody onto a platform, which teleports them away. But unbeknownst to our heroes, they were betrayed and sent somewhere else entirely.




Quite a bit happened here. Was it too much? We spent six issues building up the Dark Lord Opal, but when it came time to defeat him, everything went by so fast we really didn't get to appreciate it or let anything sink in. That's my main complaint with this series. There is so much going on — so many characters, so many questions, so many backstories — that it kind of dilutes the main story as a whole. That said, I'm still having a lot of fun here. Bart had some of the funniest lines in his entire career in this issue. And how awesome is it that he's able to sneak into castles and steal highly protected gems while his teammates are still in mid-sentence? That is an effective use of super speed. I'm still super curious about Bart's memories. Was his reference to his '90s costume a throwaway, fourth-wall-breaking line, or does Bart actually remember that he was Impulse more than 20 years ago? I hope we get the answer to that question. As of May 2020, we're still waiting. In the meantime, we have some new ads:

This issue included an astonishing eight pages of ads for Event Leviathan, written by Brian Michael Bendis.

The DC Nation interview is with John Romita Jr., artist on Superman: Year One.

Next time, we'll finally return to Young Justice: Outsiders, which had a ridiculous hiatus in the spring of 2019.