Young Justice #10

Lost in the Multiverse Part 4

Brian Michael Bendis Script

John Timms (p. 1, 8-10) & Nick Derington (p. 2-7, 11-12) Art

Gabe Eltaeb & Dave Stewart Colors

Wes Abbott Letters

Timms & Eltaeb Cover

Nick Bradshaw & Alex Sinclair 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 is a rather joyful image of Bendis' creation, Naomi, triumphantly leading Young Justice. I do like the optimistic vibe of the piece, and Impulse goofily being dragged along by Teen Lantern. This is also our first look at Tim Drake's new costume as ... Drake. It's as bland and boring as his new superhero name. Anyway, there is one massive problem about this cover: Naomi doesn't join Young Justice in this issue. She barely shows up on the last page.

The variant cover (which I snagged from dc.fandom.com, as always) is fantastic. It reminds me a lot of Todd Nauck and the glorious artwork of 20 years ago. For once, Teen Lantern actually looks cool and intimidating. And the subtle gag of Impulse's foot appearing in front of him is pretty neat. Tim's still wearing his Robin costume (for the last time, I guess), and Naomi is also mistakenly included. Clearly this "Lost in the Multiverse" storyline dragged out one issue longer than Bendis originally intended.

As always, we start with a recap page, which doesn't tell us anything new. It does, however, remind me that Young Justice has been away from their Earth for 10 issues now, which is kind of ridiculous. Anyway, a big chunk of this issue is devoted to Jinny Hex's backstory, but I don't really care about that. Let's get back to the action on Earth-3.

Teen Lantern and Jinny Hex are being chased by Amazon Thunder and Luthor-El. The girls understandably feel like they've been abandoned by their teammates, until Superboy suddenly shows up, followed by an army of drones escorting Batwoman, Amethyst, Wonder Girl, Impulse and the newly named Drake. (It is absolutely insane that Tim would take the time to design, create and put on a new costume while his teammates were being attacked by some pretty powerful villains. Maybe Bart helped him. Who knows?)

Impulse gives a lengthy speech about Batwoman lending her military might to their cause, and Amethyst teases Bart for liking words. But most importantly, this distraction gives Jinny enough time to finally open her mysterious trunk that came from her ancestor, the legendary Jonah Hex. As Drake blasts Luthor-El with a bazooka, Jinny activates a device that summons a half-dozen other Jinny Hexes from the multiverse, of all shapes and sizes. 

Impulse promptly plants himself on the shoulder of the giant Jinny, and our heroes make short work of their evil counterparts. Bart ensnares his doppelgänger in a whirlwind, enabling Superboy to knock out Speed Zone. In no time at all, Teen Lantern has all the villains trapped in a green bubble and all the citizens cautiously fill the streets to cheer the victory ... and call for the execution of the bad guys. Our heroes oppose this, but mostly decide it's time for them to go home.

Bart finally tells the others that Batwoman is Stephanie Brown and she's in love with Drake. Stephanie doesn't seem too pleased by this and brusquely leads Young Justice back to her Batcave, which oddly has an Impulse-like costume and a Superman costume on display in glass tubes. Stephanie explains that Ultraman from her Earth was obsessed with their Earth, and conveniently left detailed instructions on how to get there. As they fire up the machine, Bart reports that he quickly wrapped up a bunch of loose ends off-panel — he cleaned up a school and defeated the evil Amethyst, who apparently overslept and missed the big fight.

At long last, our heroes are sent back to their correct home, arriving in Port Oswego, Oregon, where Naomi is waiting for them.

That was ... actually a bit of a letdown. Bendis has so many characters to keep track of and so many backstories to tell, that a lot of things end up being tossed to the side. One of them is the action. Ten issues in, and I'm quite underwhelmed by all the action scenes in this series. And this issue was particularly bad. What's the point of bringing in six more Jinny Hexes if they don't do anything? But somehow Stephanie Brown got an entire splash page to let a single tear trickle down her cheek. Ugh. Bendis totally forgot about Amethyst's evil double (he almost forgot about the real Amethyst). And Tim's decision to not only change his name and costume in the middle of a battle, but to also use his own last name AND the name of his evil doppelgänger, is completely inexcusable. I'm quite annoyed. Here are the ads:

Far Sector. A mind-blowing mystery at the edge of the universe.

Legion of Super-Heroes by Brian Michael Bendis and Ryan Sook.

A DC Nation interview with Geoff Johns and Gary Frank on Doomsday Clock.

Next time? Well ... I'm not quite sure. I'm going to have to take a look at the Tales of the Dark Multiverse issues and decide if they're worth covering.