Dark Crisis: Young Justice #3

 The Trinity of Trauma

Meghan Fitzmartin Writer

Laura Braga Artist

Luis Guerrero Colors

Pat Brosseau Letters

Max Dunbar & Luis Guerrero Cover

Jorge Corona & Sarah Stern Variant Cover

Dave Wielgosz Editor

Ben Abernathy Group Editor

Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

Superboy created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

Our cover is a fairly intimidating image of three massive villains looming over three tiny heroes. And everybody looks pretty decent — except for Superboy, poor kid. And this is good portrayal of what this issue will be about without spoiling anything. We saw all these villains at the end of last issue, so it only made sense that this issue would focus on our heroes fighting them. Unfortunately, Dunbar seems to have made an understandable mistake here. Even though Captain Boomerang is traditionally a Flash villain, he is actually here to fight Robin. Deathstroke is for Impulse. But we’ll get more into that later.

Our variant cover is one of my favorite homages to Impulse I’ve seen in years. So much so, I actually went out and bought a physical copy of it. It’s bold, brash and in-your-face, perfectly capturing the feeling of fun and excitement I associate with Impulse. The side characters are kind of interesting. On the bottom, we have three of Bart’s biggest villains of all time: Superboy-Prime, Inertia and Deathstroke. Above them, it appears to be three different iterations of Bart through history: him grown up as the Flash, as Kid Flash, and I think that’s supposed to be one of the adult Impulses we’ve seen from time to time, most prominently in Sins of Youth. Anyway, I absolutely love this cover, even if it did give Bart green eyes instead of yellow.

Our story picks right up where last issue left off, with Deathstroke, Captain Boomerang and Lex Luthor standing over the unconscious Wonder Girl in front of the Young Justice cave. The villains taunt our heroes for a bit, and Deathstroke even puts a gun to Wonder Girl’s head to try to provoke a reaction. But Conner, Bart and Tim initially keep their distance behind a large rock. Tim doesn’t remember these three hanging out together and Bart is shocked that Tim’s focusing on that trivial detail. Conner agrees with Bart, saying they need to rush in and save Wonder Girl. But Bart clarifies, saying it feels like these three villains were chosen to hurt each of them specifically.

Bart reminds his friends that Deathstroke blew his kneecap off (actually it was Jericho in Deathstroke’s body, but we’ve already established that these creators only have a tenuous grasp on comics history), Captain Boomerang killed Tim’s dad, and, according to Bart, Conner has never gotten over the fact that he has some of Lex Luthor’s DNA. Superboy, however, just sees this as an opportunity to change how their lives turned out, so he repeats his call to take down the villains. Bart turns to the usually level-headed Tim, but Robin is still worried about Wonder Girl. Bart wisely points out that this whole thing may be a trick to stop them from investigating this strange world, and he admonishes his teammates to stop doing what they always do — react.

Despite all this sound logic and reasoning, Robin says they need to save Wonder Girl first, then promises they’ll investigate afterward. Robin and Superboy charge into battle, with Impulse reluctantly trailing behind. Wonder Girl oddly begins acting like grateful damsel in distress, as Superboy gets in a good punch on Luthor and Robin begins pummeling Boomerang. Impulse becomes this issue’s narrator as he heads for Deathstroke, admitting to himself that this fight does feel rather cathartic. Bart apparently has imagine the moment he got shot in the knee many times and has imagined exactly what he would have done differently to not let himself get hurt like that again or let Deathstroke hurt anyone else.

Impulse easily steals Deathstroke’s gun and darkly points it at his head. Luckily, Bart immediately stops himself, wondering who else knew he always secretly wanted to have another shot at Deathstroke. Creepily, Wonder Girl cheers on Impulse and encourages him to pull the trigger. Stunned, Bart takes a closer look at Wonder Girl and the world around him. By speeding up or slowing down, he can recognize that this world resembles an old computer program, oddly with “tracking lines” that lead straight to Wonder Girl, who is now acting like a ditzy cheerleader. Bart asks aloud if she is the one controlling this place.

Deathstroke mocks Impulse for not being man enough to take his revenge, so Bart throws down the gun and tells the villain he underestimated him, both then and now. Declaring himself not just a speedster or a goofy sidekick, Bart maturely says that even though Deathstroke hurt him, he didn’t destroy him. He then decides that if Robin and Superboy won’t help him, he’ll start the investigation himself. He confronts Wonder Girl, saying he knows she’s part of whatever is controlling this world. Wonder Girl, however, is still shocked that he didn’t kill Deathstroke, saying he could have stopped all of Deathstroke’s actions from here on out.

Superboy noticed what was happening and decides to suspend his battle, too, and join this conversation. But to Bart’s dismay, Conner agrees with Wonder Girl. Bart points out that Wonder Girl’s been egging them on all day, not just in this fight, but against Tora and “Boobs McGee,” as well. Conner says they decided to not investigate this world, so Bart (rather childishly) tells Conner he’s not the leader anymore because he died. Conner responds by pointing out he’s not the only one who died, and he even threatens to “knock some sense” into Bart’s “thick, dumb skull.” 

Bart loses all control and actually lunges at Conner, prompting Wonder Girl to idiotically call out, “Boys, stop! I’m not worth fighting over!” Robin finally notices what’s going on and he suddenly becomes our narrator. (Cassie and Tim each had full issues, but Bart only gets a couple of pages. I see how it is.) Tim wisely realizes he doesn’t have time to keep messing around with Captain Boomerang, but then oddly notes how he’ll have to “process this with Babs later.” (Is he referring to Barbara Gordon? Has Tim ever called her Babs?) Sadly, Tim refers to the act of dispatching of one idiot to stop two other idiots as “a day in the life of Young Justice.” Robin easily pins Captain Boomerang to a large stalactite, and nobody notices how Wonder Girl, Deathstroke and Lex Luthor are just standing around idly, while Superboy and Impulse fight.

Tim steps between Bart and Conner, ordering them to stop fighting. Bart says that Conner started it and Conner (correctly) calls Bart’s comment immature. Suddenly, Robin notices that their three villains have disappeared without a trace. Bart angrily confronts the fake Cassie once more, saying this stupid game isn’t fun. Conner calls Bart a twerp and pulls him away from Wonder Girl. Bart seems like he wants to keep fighting, but he manages to calm down … a little bit. Conner protectively wraps his arms around Wonder Girl, calling Bart a bully. Bart points out he’s just trying to get answers and asks since when does Wonder Girl need to be protected.

Conner appeals to Tim, who concedes that Bart is right that something odd is going on in this world. But Tim insanely refuses to believe Wonder Girl has anything to do with it, saying they need more data. Bart flips out at this comment, saying he’s been trying to tell them what he’s seeing, but they won’t listen to him. Bart sadly says that Tim and Conner will listen to each other, but not to him because they never have. And with that, Bart suddenly zooms away before anyone can say anything else. 

Conner tells Tim not to bother with Bart, since he’s just making everything worse. Tim is stunned by this comment, pointing out that Conner is not himself. Conner says he’s just sad about Superman’s recent death, but Tim says this is different. However, Tim struggles to get the words out, so Conner supplies his own. He believes Tim was trying to say that he’s been acting weird since he was alone for years on another planet before anyone decided to try to find him. Tim (accurately) points out that this isn’t fair, since everyone thought he was dead. Tim adds that he and Cassie went through hell without Conner. Wonder Girl finally speaks up, saying Conner doesn’t remember what happened after he died. Not wanting to rehash how he hooked up with Cassie after Conner’s death, Tim abruptly decides to take off, leaving a perplexed Conner to question Wonder Girl.

We catch up to Bart running aimlessly around the world, with some really depressing thoughts in his head. He tells himself that he doesn’t need Tim and Conner because he knew they always thought he was dumb — like everyone else — despite him surviving an encounter with Deathstroke, despite him saving the world. Bart believes everyone will only ever see him as a useless goof. In his grief, he heads to the Flash Museum, which is oddly in black-and-white. What’s more, the building seemed to be just half-built when Bart approached it at super speed, but everything’s fine when he slows down. Bart’s reminded of the virtual reality program he grew up in, which sometimes took a minute to load everything.

Suddenly, Wonder Girl shows up in the museum (which is still black-and-white, presumably because Bart is still moving at super speed). She tells Bart he has a chance to live in a world where he’s next in line to take over for the Flash and has so many fans. Right on cue, Bart suddenly notices a bunch of people wearing Impulse T-shirts (including one with a nice Todd Nauck image). Bart admits to himself that all he’s ever wanted was for people to notice him and give a crap about him and all the stuff he’s done. Bart justifiably feels a bit under appreciated for all the sacrifices he’s made. However, he knows there’s got to be a cost to living in a world like this. He tells Wonder Girl that whoever’s running this world does know a lot about him, but they’ve underestimated. He refuses to sacrifice whatever they want for this life. Wonder Girl coldly says, “So be it,” and ominously snaps her fingers.

Tim, meanwhile, has somehow reached Gotham City, which he finds nostalgically peaceful. Wonder Girl, naturally, is with him, and Tim admits to her that it’s weird to remember what it felt like to belong. But rather than speaking about his relationship with the Bat family, he voluntarily brings up Conner, saying he had no idea what it was like after he died. And the only one who understood Tim was Cassie. Cassie changes the topic back to Gotham, waxing poetically about the city’s resilience and comparing it to Tim. She tells him he doesn’t have to be so resilient, though, since this is a world where he and his friends are in line for the mantles of the next generation of heroes. She coldly adds that this is a world without Damian Wayne. Tim jumps up at that, telling Wonder Girl he’s got him wrong. He doesn’t always agree with Damian, but he’s still his brother. And even though he doesn’t know what the future holds, he’s not going to give up. Wonder Girl makes one final appeal, saying that in the real world, Tim will never become Batman. Tim asks what if he wants to go back anyway. Wonder Girl responds by snapping her fingers.

When we return to Conner, he has just been told by Wonder Girl about Tim’s “fling” with Cassie. Even though this topic was thoroughly hashed out in the comics, Wonder Girl explains that Conner lost a lot of memories when he was erased from existence. (I guess that falls in line with Brian Michael Bendis’ work. But it sure seems convenient when it comes to deciding which memories stayed and which were lost.) We see that Conner and Wonder Girl are now suddenly standing on top of the Daily Planet building in Metropolis, and Conner can only stare at Wonder Girl in stunned silence as she tries to explain to him that this world is better because he never died in it. Conner finally realizes that Bart was right and this Wonder Girl is not real. She tells him she was just trying to give him everything he deserves, but Conner says using that word feels a bit too much like Lex Luthor. As he rejects Wonder Girl, she regretfully says, “He’s going to be so mad.” Conner asks who she’s talking about, but instead of answering, Wonder Girl just snaps her fingers.

The boys wake up back on the JLA Watchtower, all complaining of killer headaches. Wonder Girl is standing over them, apologizing for knocking them out, but “he” has been very clear about what will happen if they don’t accept this world. Bart explains to his friends that he’s finally proven this world is a construct that’s constantly building itself like a computer program. But for whatever reason, Tim believes they’re not actually in a computer program — just an alternate world that behaves like one. Wonder Girl interrupts their deducing by telling the boys they had their chance to accept the world on their own terms. But now that they’ve rejected it, the unnamed “he” will make them accept it by force. She then opens the doors to the entire JLA (plus extras) charging in to attack.

Well, I’m not as mad as last time, so I might actually talk more about the issue. Let’s start with the three villains, who weren’t brought in to challenge our heroes, but just to provide a cathartic release by being easily defeated. They were rather odd choices. For starters, I thought this series was supposed to return us to the days of Young Justice. But Superboy didn’t learn that he had Luthor’s DNA until he became a Teen Titan. Bart wasn’t shot by Jericho (controlling Deathstroke) until after Young Justice had already disbanded. And Captain Boomerang was hired by Jean Loring to kill Jack Drake well after both of those things happened. These villains had nothing to do with the dissolution of Young Justice or the decreased prominence of our heroes in the DC Universe. 

And, frankly, none of those villains were that detrimental to our heroes. Superboy learned how to deal with the Luthor inside of him. Tim was adopted by Bruce Wayne and learned how to move on with a new family. And Bart miraculously had an artificial knee installed, which never gave him any problems whatsoever. I honestly can’t find any actual lingering grief from these specific villains. If the purpose of this story was to examine the pain of the original Young Justice series being canceled, then we should have talked about undoing that awful Graduation Day story. Or if we just wanted to pit our heroes against the villains that pushed them into obscurity, then we should have brought in Superboy-Prime and Inertia. This series has spent a lot of time talking about how awful it was that Superboy died (and it mentioned Impulse’s death a little bit, too). Superboy-Prime killed Conner. And Inertia killed Bart. They would have made much more sense than Luthor and Deathstroke here. Sadly, I can’t think of a better villain for Robin off the top of my head, so maybe instead of three tailor-made villains, just pick Prime. He ruined all three of our heroes’ lives more than just about anyone else.

It didn’t feel natural for Impulse to obsess over Deathstroke so much, let alone even consider shooting him. I’m glad he quickly threw the gun down, but pointing it at his head to begin with was way out of character for him. But this series is chock-full of out-of-character moments for our three boys. Robin the detective wouldn’t have needed that long to realize this wasn’t the real Cassie. Superboy had long shed this ridiculous immaturity — he didn’t display even a shred of it during the Bendis run, which, I assume, is still in continuity. Maybe this world itself has been subtly affecting their minds. That might explain Bart’s seemingly involuntary sexist comment from last issue. I just wish we had some dialogue about cloudy minds or maybe some sort of visual cue of purple energy hitting our heroes whenever they do something out-of-character. Because here’s the thing: I don’t know for certain that Meghan Fitzmartin realizes she’s writing these heroes out of character. I desperately need to see some indication from her that she knows they’re telling lies or doing something completely contrary to their nature. Without that, I am forced to conclude that she doesn’t know these characters.

I do really like how Bart has been the most level-headed one of the group. And his feeling of being under appreciated was the most true moment of this issue. Even Laura Braga shined brightest at this part, giving Bart a heartbreakingly sad face as he ran away from his friends and an entire universe that doesn’t care about him. I only wish that Bart had been the sole narrator of this book so we could have spent even more time on these beautifully painful thoughts.

I also must say I’m quite underwhelmed by the “temptations” being presented to our heroes. Much of this was a repeat of last issue. “You’ll get to inherit the mantle of your mentors!” Yeah … and? I mean, Bart WAS the Flash once. Issue #1 even mentioned that. Why would he get excited about taking over for Wally again? All this felt quite repetitive. Even the boys’ arguments were just circular repeats of what had started last issue. So much of this book felt like treading water. And that’s a shame because we didn’t get any updates on the real Cassie’s quest to rescue the boys.

Next time, we’ll take a quick break from this series to look at Young Justice: Targets, the comic book tie-in to the animated series.