Dark Crisis: Young Justice #1

Save Your Generation

Meghan Fitzmartin Writer

Laura Braga Artist

Luis Guerrero Colors

Pat Brosseau Letters

Luis Guerrero Cover

Todd Nauck & Matt Herms Variant Cover

Dave Wielgosz Editor

Ben Abernathy 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 Wonder Girl passively flying forward in front of images of Impulse, Robin and Superboy, each wearing a bored, disinterested expression. Oh, and there are MIA (Missing In Action) stamps across them, suggesting that the three founders of Young Justice have mysteriously disappeared. But that’s hardly surprising news, as all of these characters have mostly been absent from comics since Brian Michael Bendis ended his Young Justice run back in 2020. Anyway, this is a depressingly underwhelming cover, not reflecting a fraction of the excitement I had when DC announced a Young Justice mini-series tying into their big crossover event.

Todd Nauck’s variant, however, does capture my excitement — and then some! It’s an absolutely glorious compilation of every single major character from Nauck’s run with Peter David. Seriously, they’re ALL here! And they look great! The only thing that could have made this better was if Lary Stucker had inked it. This is one of my favorite comic book covers I’ve ever seen. I hope I can own it soon. In the meantime, I have to enjoy it on dc.fandom.com.

Our story opens at the funeral of the Justice League, held in front of the Hall of Justice. Everybody who’s anybody is there, including Godspeed, who was Bart’s arch enemy on the CW Flash show, but in this continuity I guess he’s some sort of anti-hero? Anyway, our narrator is Wonder Girl, who was already mourning the death of Hippolyta when she heard Wonder Woman had died. So Cassie is not in a good mood at all. She looks at her friends — Superboy, Robin and Impulse — oddly considering the four of them “children of the dead” who “don’t get to grieve like children.”

In her head, Cassie criticizes Conner for never having cared about anything until he died. With Tim, she sees a boy who’s stuck letting his Robin identity be his entire personality. And with Bart, Cassie admits to herself that it’s not fair to call him a screwup, but she thinks the label is still accurate. She petulantly mocks Bart for trailing behind Conner and Tim “like a puppy that hasn’t figured out how to work its legs.” These thoughts are rather dark and unfair, and unfortunately, we’re stuck with that kind of thinking for the whole issue.

In a flashback, we see Superboy, Robin and Impulse helped put the finishing touches on the 50-foot-tall gold statues of Superman, Batman and Flash in front of the Hall of Justice. Cassie recalls how Bart pushed Superboy-Prime into the Speed Force, only to emerge as an adult and be killed just a couple of months after deciding to become the Flash. Cassie also has a rather shallow moment by hoping that Conner never finds out how she hooked up with Tim after Conner died.

Returning to the present, Bart, Tim, Conner and Cassie are now awkwardly wandering around the Hall of Justice, along with a smattering of random heroes. Joining the Young Justice crew is an old friend, Cissie, whom Robin insensitively addresses as Arrowette. She is now officially retired once more, and is lamely apologizing for being really bad at texting. Cissie can’t even remember the last time they were all together in the same room. Bart reminds her it was when they got together to save Conner, and Conner asks who long ago that was. (A question I also would really like to have answered!) Cassie, meanwhile, is brooding in the background, while her inner monologue criticizes Cissie for abandoning her friends and responsibilities for a civilian life.

There’s a moment of awkward silence, where Cassie laments how they barely feel like friends anymore and are too scared to tell each other what they’re really thinking. Bart breaks the silence by wondering if they’ll get the same funeral treatment as the Justice League when they die. Conner darkly (and inaccurately) says they didn’t the last time they died. Tim and Bart sternly chastise Conner for that comment, while Cassie silently wishes she could strangle all of them. Conner apologizes, saying he’s feeling especially bad now because he hadn’t talked to Superman in a really long time. Bart empathizes with him, and starts to mention Wally’s name, but Conner rudely cuts him off, saying he doesn’t need Bart to try and make him feel better.

Cissie can tell Cassie is about to destroy something, so she pulls her aside to talk. Cassie admits she’s frustrated that all of them are pretending like the last few years didn’t happen. She says, “Half of us have died, and I just wish that some of them would have stayed dead.” As soon as she utters those cruel words, there’s a fain “bloop” sound. When Cassie turns around, Robin, Superboy and Impulse are suddenly missing.

Tim wakes up in Wayne Manor, shocked to see that Alfred is still alive. The erstwhile butler believes Master Drake has merely been dreaming, and he informs him that Young Justice is calling for Robin. Superboy wakes up on the floor of his Hawaii bedroom, which is cluttered with a VHS tape, a GameBoy and an original PlayStation. When Superboy sees his old mentor, Dubbilex, standing over him, he asks if he’s dead again. Dubbilex dryly says he isn’t, and that Young Justice needs his help.

Bart is woken up by a punching bag slamming into his face. He’s bewildered to find himself in a gym, training with Wally and Max. Bart quickly grows weary of Wally’s lengthy lecture, saying he doesn’t have to be so hard on him just because they lost Barry. Max is confused by Bart’s wording, pointing out that Bart has never met his grandfather. Bart races off to the Flash Museum in Central City, and he’s shocked to see it’s still like how he remembers it from when he was younger and still thought he had a chance at being the Flash. Even the old statue of Barry is back in front of the museum, causing Bart to ask, “When am I?”

Impulse quickly runs around the country, encountering Kyle Rayner, Artemis, Zauriel and Conner Hawke — all relics of the late ’90s/early ’00s. He eventually returns to the first headquarters of the Justice League in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island, and finds it exactly like it was when Young Justice first took it over. Bart’s also surprised to see Conner and Tim inside. Superboy is putting on his old Superman shirt, while Robin is working on the computer. Bart asks if they know whether they’ve traveled back in time or on a parallel world. Conner strangely — and darkly — suggests they might just be back to “how things should be.”

Bart asks just what Conner meant by that, but before he can answer, Tim says he believes they’ve gone back in time. He’s found evidence of Superman recently dying, Gotham being struck by an earthquake, and Lex Luthor running for president. Tim’s interrupted by an alert on the computer, and he says they’ll figure this out after they help this person in trouble. Superboy admiringly says that’s the Robin he knows, but Impulse wants them to focus on their bizarre problem. But Superboy overrules him, and Impulse eventually gives in, racing out to save the day with the original Young Justice lineup.

Meanwhile, Cassie is beginning to worry about Tim, Conner and Bart. She asked Superman’s son, Jon, to scan for them with his x-ray vision, but he couldn’t find any trace of them. Cassie tells Cissie they should go tell Wally, but Cissie refuses to offer any help whatsoever, rudely suggesting the boys are off “finding horrible coping mechanisms to process their fake dads being dead.” She walks away, saying she’s sure they’re fine because they alway are. But Cassie, who can remember that just 10 minutes ago they were literally talking about how Superboy and Impulse were killed, is still concerned.

We return to our lost boys, who have followed the trouble alert to a mysterious figure at the bottom of a crater. Superboy offers to fly down and check on the person, but Impulse stops him, saying this feels familiar. Both Superboy and Robin experience the feeling of deja vu. And all three boys are shocked to see the figure reveal herself as the Mighty Endowed, whom they encountered way back in the very first issue of Young Justice. Superboy says there’s not enough therapy in the world for this, as the large-chested woman begins charging our heroes.

We cut back to Cassie, who has traveled to Central City’s Flash Museum to speak with Wally, Wallace, Jesse and Max. It’s apparently been a few days since Bart disappeared, and all the other speedsters are busy dealing with the Dark Crisis. And unfortunately, none of them are concerned about Bart’s disappearance, even after Cassie says she believes her friends aren’t even on this planet anymore. Wally impatiently says he has no time for teen angst and believes that if Bart’s with Conner and Tim then that’s probably the best thing for him, anyway.

Wonder Girl then visited Nightwing in Blüdhaven, only to have him tell her that Tim’s just processing Bruce’s death and will “come up for air” when he’s ready. In Metropolis, Jon actually tells Cassie that he wishes he knew where Conner was, saying he’d take all the help he can get right now. Dejected, Cassie mopes on a swing set at an empty playground at night, lamenting how her generation was brought up to handle every crisis on their own like it’s no problem, even when they ask for help.

We jump back to the boys, who are actually having a hard time battling the surprisingly aggressive and powerful Mighty Endowed. She vows to kill Young Justice, to which Impulse boldly urges her on, saying that many have tried. Robin admonishes him for antagonizing the villain, adding that she’s not much of a threat, at least from his memory. Robin’s comment only enraged the Mighty Endowed, which let Impulse turn that “antagonizing” comment back on Robin. After a particularly big hit, Robin says he feels like he’s gone 10 rounds with Damian Wayne. Bart comments on how absolutely nuts this, but Conner brightly says that someone is coming to the rescue.

Cassie is depressingly laying on her bed, still in her Wonder Girl outfit. Her room is littered with junk food, and she is now beginning to wonder if her thoughtless wish for her friends’ deaths somehow caused their disappearance. Despite all the dismissals from everybody she’s talked to, Cassie can feel that Tim, Conner and Bart are in trouble. And she vows to rescue them. Suddenly, a Wonder Girl in an older costume (but not her original) arrives right on top of the Mighty Endowed.

Well, Young Justice is back. Sort of. There’s minimal references to Bendis’ disastrous run — which I’m thankful for — and only slightly more references to the Dark Crisis event. In fact, if you completely removed the funeral for the Justice League, this spin-off series would have absolutely no connection to the main event. And I kind of wish that we didn’t have that sadness weighing everything down. Grief makes people do and say things contrary to their true nature, so in an issue all about grief, almost everybody in it acts out of character. The big problem with that is most of these characters have largely been absent from comics for the past two years, and now that they’re back in their own mini-series, I want to see if this new writer has a good handle on these characters’ voices. And I can’t get a good read on that when everyone is in super-sensitive, saying-things-they-don’t-mean mode.

Fitzmartin clearly does know her history with these characters, which is such a breath of fresh air after Bendis’ ignorance was repeatedly displayed. I was impressed and surprised to see that Bart’s fight against Superboy-Prime was remembered and in continuity. I was thrilled to see that Cissie King-Jones was adamantly not Arrowette again. (Take that, Bendis!) Yes, her lack of concern over the boys’ disappearance was disappointing, but I suppose that could be chalked up to grief? I’m also sad that there wasn’t even a mention of Greta (formerly Secret). Everyone seems to forget about her.

But I did like Fitzmartin’s impulse to return us to 1999 — in a way. This comic was meant for people my age, who are yearning for that bit of nostalgia. Taking us back to Young Justice #1 was a great way to do that. Making Wonder Girl the only person concerned about Young Justice’s disappearance felt rather symbolic. Impulse has been gone/ignored/stashed away for years at a time, and nobody cared. Not even his own speedster family. Granted, I did feel it was completely against Max Mercury’s character to stand idly by with the news of Bart’s disappearance. But story-wise, that was my only real complaint with this issue.

Long-time fans of Young Justice are also in a state of grieving, accustomed to feeling lost and neglected. And even though it’s hard to read a story with such an irrationally angry narrator, Fitzmartin did a good job of speaking to those feelings of grief and neglect. The tragedy isn’t that our heroes disappeared. The tragedy is that they’ve disappeared and no one cares. Fitzmartin seems to understand this perfectly.

Unfortunately, this issue was severely hampered by the art. I’m going to be generous and assume that Braga was rushed on this project, because I sincerely hope this isn’t her best work. The characters don’t look good. At all. And I can’t even tell how old they’re supposed to be. They look more like short adults than teenagers — a complaint I haven’t made since the early ’90s. 

But what really gets me is the missed opportunities. Bart’s run across the country was the laziest, ugliest image in this comic. Just a bland, brown map with a few random red dots representing cities (I guess?) and tiny stock photos of some random ’90s character haphazardly strewn across the whole thing. I really couldn’t tell what was actually supposed to be happening in that panel.

And then there’s the Mighty Endowed. Todd Nauck cleverly used a perpetual cloud of dust to cover her cleavage, leaving us to always wonder exactly how big it was. That choice built the suspense and the humor of the situation, especially when she collapsed due to the weight of her breasts. But Braga didn’t seem to understand the purpose of that cloud of dust. Yes, it was there, but it was so small, it didn’t actually conceal anything. You could clearly see the full size and shape of those massive boobs, and it really let me down. Now, because I’ve been so slow with this review, I know how this series ends, and I can say right up front that Fitzmartin will try to explain away some inconsistencies like this. But I felt her efforts in later issues were more like hasty course corrections instead of a planned plot element.

So, for better or worse, Young Justice is back in the comics. Unfortunately, I won’t be continuing this series next time. Instead, I will return to … shudder … the CW Flash show. Wish me luck.