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.