Brian Michael Bendis Script
John Timms Art
Gabe Eltaeb Colors
Wes Abbott Letters
Timms and Eltaeb Cover
Jonboy Meyers Variant Cover
Brittany Holzherr Associate Editor
Mike Cotton Editor
Brian Cunningham Group Editor
Superboy created by Jerry Siegel.
By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.
Our cover shows the entire Young Justice team clinging to Superboy as he ... yells in rage? In fear? I can't tell what's going on here. Behind our heroes are two small images of a building on fire and a figure in red using heat vision(?) on a fighter jet. It's too busy and confusing. If it weren't for the text on the cover, I wouldn't have had any idea Young Justice was on an alternate Earth.
I snagged this variant cover from dc.fandom.com, and I like it a lot more than the main cover. Meyers is one of my favorites, and he does a great job here. Superboy's face is a little weird, but it's still a very nice cover.
This issue begins with a recap page, which I think is necessary, since it's been a while:
Robin, Superboy, Impulse, Wonder Girl, Jinny Hex, Amethyst, and Teen Lantern come together just in time to save the magical land of Gemworld from the out-of-control dark powers of Opal.
Young Justice have so many questions as to where the team has been and how they even remembers each other and are eager to get home to Earth to unpack it all.
But the courts of Gemworld, fearful of Amethyst's constant interference, banish the young heroes into the uncharted multiverse with no way home.
They are not on their Earth, they are on ... Earth-3: Home of the Crime Syndicate of Amerika.
Our story begins with Wonder Girl being attacked by her evil counterpart, Amaxon Thunder. The evil Superboy, Luthor-El, soon shows up, followed by the evil Impulse, Speed Zone. He promised to spare Impulse's life if he handed over a multiverse map, which bums Bart out, because that means neither of them has such a map. He then cleverly tricks Speed Zone by pulling a roadrunner/coyote move by stopping short, causing Speed Zone to continue running down into Delaware before realizing what happened.
Robin, meanwhile, is battling his evil counterpart, who calls himself Drake because it's one of the most dangerous birds. Tim, who has long struggled with the Robin/Red Robin name, is forced to admit that the name is Drake is pretty good. The evil Drake, however, pulls a gun on Robin and quotes the Dark Knight Returns: "Rubber bullets. Honest." Luckily, Impulse is able to save Robin before the bullets hit him. Bart complains about his evil version, prompting Tim to joke that he always thought Bart was the evil version. They briefly discuss their need for a multiverse map, and Bart asks if Robin's evil self gave him any clues. All Robin can say is that he calls himself Drake, which really catches Bart's attention. But before he can elaborate on this thought, Bart races off to save Amethyst — with Speed Zone in hot pursuit.
While Bart is away, Tim encounters the Earth-3 version of his girlfriend, Stephanie Brown. Here, she calls herself Batwoman, and is actually the first good guy our heroes have encountered here (she's also the narrator in the purple speech boxes throughout this issue). But Bart doesn't know that, and he promptly knocks her out from behind with another "meep meep." Bart casually resumes his conversation, telling Tim that he should start calling himself Drake, as poor Tim tends to Stephanie. To his credit, Bart does apologize once he learns Stephanie's not evil, but he still thinks it's important to get Tim's code name sorted out. Tim asks Bart to save it for when they get back home, and in the meantime, suggests they try to find this Earth's Batcave to revive Stephanie.
I've given up on the dream of this series taking a breath to explain itself. Yeah, sure, we're having fun, but I'm out of breath! And since Bendis keeps throwing so much at us, we never get a chance to process any of it. We barely know this large group of heroes we have, and now they're all fighting the Earth-3 versions of themselves. It's a fascinating concept — but we didn't get any time to explore it. What's Speed Zone's story? Why is he evil? Why is he black? Is he actually that Earth's version of Bart Allen, or just a random speedster? We'll never know.
I do like how powerful Impulse is in this series. I'd like to imagine that he knows more than he's letting on, but that might just be my wishful thinking. Deciding to change Robin's code name to Drake feels both obvious and lazy. I mean, his name already is Tim Drake. Oh well. Let's check out the new ads:
The action-packed thrill ride that inspired the graphic novel! Batman: Nightwalker.
A new edition of the classic #1 best-selling graphic novel. Batman: Hush.
A DC Nation interview with Batman: Nightwalker writers Marie Lu and Stuart Moore.
Next time: Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #2.
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