Friday, March 31, 2023

The Flash #791


The One-Minute War – Part Two: A Ten-Second Week

Script: Jeremy Adams
Pencils: Roger Cruz
Inks: Wellington Dias
Colors: Luis Guerrero
Letters: Rob Leigh
Cover: Taurin Clarke
Variant Covers: Daniel Baylis, Marco D’Alfonso, Kim Jacinto, Taurin Clarke
Editor: Chris Rosa
Group Editor: Paul Kaminski

Once again, we’re stuck with a terribly bland, generic cover. Bart, Wallace and Wally are pinned down behind a brick wall, hiding from the painfully generic Miss Murder, who, by the way, doesn’t show up until the last page of this issue. It really bugs me that a story with so much potential is laden down with these subpar covers that look like they were thrown together in one of those AI generators. And once again, none of the variant covers show Impulse, so let’s get to the story.

We pick up with the West family, where time is frozen for everyone except Wally, Irey and Linda (who has powers now because of course she does). Slightly surprising is the freezing of Jai, who somehow managed to pull down a large tree to protect the barbecue party from the worst of the blast. Last issue clearly showed that time froze before the Fraction’s spire hit the ground, but whatever.

Speaking of the spire, the first speedsters to investigate it are Kid Flash and Impulse, who have found a massive wall around the structure. Wallace tried to run up the side of the wall, but found it to be frictionless. He suggests turning their attention to finding out why they can’t slow down, but Bart insists on finding out what’s on the other side of the wall. He assures Wallace that he’s learned a few tricks through his time as a superhero, namely how to vibrate through things. But when Bart tries to show off this skill, he crashes right into the wall. Wallace admits he’d laugh if this situation wasn’t so serious. Suddenly, the wall begins to split open, releasing a seemingly endless supply of alien tanks and aircraft. Jay Garrick arrives out of nowhere and pulls Wallace and Bart behind a wall. Wallace says this is an invasion, but Jay darkly says, “No, boys … this is war.” I always thought an invasion was just a part of war, but what do I know?

Wally begins investigating the wreckage and quickly comes across Barry cradling Iris’ body. The two are promptly attacked by a Fraction fighter jet, but Wally quickly destroys it by throwing a rebar through it. Bart, Wallace and Jay, meanwhile have drawn fire from the Fraction’s forces, mainly because Bart revealed their position by waving at the aliens. Bart explains that he thought they might have been friendly aliens, but Wallace angrily points out that they have tanks. Jay suggests they retreat, but Wallace worries they won’t be able to outrun the aliens, since they seem to be moving just as fast as them.

Jay pulls the boys down just as a particularly large blast takes out the wall they were hiding behind. Coming face-to-face with a tank and dozens of ground troops, Bart wishes he just stayed in the future. Jay immediately prepares for a fight to the death, urging Wallace and Bart to be brave and proud and go down like men. Bart asks if there’s a second option, and right on cue, Jesse Quick arrives, saying there’s always a second option. I’m not exactly sure how, but she seems to flip the tank over on top of the ground troops, removing the immediate threat from our heroes. She also conveniently explains that she and Max recently encountered the Fraction on another planet and witnessed the destruction they left behind.

The Fraction, meanwhile, has begun to strip Earth of its resources, including any metahumans they can find. They are, however, surprised to learn that at least five people on Earth can keep up with their speed, so they decide to capture them all alive. One of the Fraction scouts is captured by Max, but rather than answer any of Max’s questions, he presses a button on his chest that electrocutes him. So Max decides to regroup with the others.

Jay, Jesse, Bart and Wallace all make their way to the West house, where Linda and Irey are carefully pulling their frozen barbecue guests inside. Bart asks where Wally is, and when Linda says he went into the city, both Bart and Wallace decide to go help him. But Jay says the worst thing they can do is split up right now. Max, who suddenly arrives, agrees with Jay.


Bart gives Max a big hug, making me wonder just how long it’s been since they’ve actually spent any time together. Bart jokes about having to babysit Kid Flash, and then he either senses or merely suspects that Max was recently trying to run into the Speed Force again. Max admits this is true, saying his attempt will have to wait until after they sort out this mess. Wally and Barry arrive before too long, with Barry still dramatically carrying Iris’ body. And the issue ends with the Fraction releasing the over-the-top Miss Murder, whom they apparently captured from another world.




This is still a fun story, even if it may not be written as tightly as I’d like. And despite the incredibly boring prospect of this Miss Murder person, I am still interested in seeing what’s going to happen with the Fraction and all this. Mostly, though, I am having a lot of fun with Bart and Wallace. They’re the comic relief this story needs and Adams has so far avoided the common mistake of making the comic reliefs completely inept.

The next issue in this story is The Flash: One-Minute War Special #1. Bart doesn’t appear in it, but he does show up on the incredibly beautiful cover by Serg Acuña.


This should have been the cover of last issue. I imagine it’ll be the cover for the trade paperback of this story. I also wish Acuña had drawn all these covers. I want my comics to look like this, not the computer-generated schlock Taurin Clarke is giving us. Oh well. At least Roger Cruz is turning out decent work on the interior pages, even if he can never remember what Impulse’s gloves are supposed to look like.

Next time, we’ll continue this One-Minute War in The Flash #792.

Thursday, March 30, 2023

The Flash #790


The One-Minute War – Part One: Zero Point

Script: Jeremy Adams
Pencils: Roger Cruz
Inks: Matt Banning & Wellington Dias
Colors: Luis Guerrero
Letters: Rob Leigh
Cover: Taurin Clarke
Variant Covers: Daniel Bayless, Ibrahim Moustafa, Taurin Clarke
Editor: Chris Rosa
Group Editor: Paul Kaminski

Much to my surprise, Impulse is prominently featured front and center on our cover. He, Jay and Wally are trying to escape the fiery blast of a vague, alien-looking fighter jet. Unfortunately, I don’t like this cover. It looks too computery and bland. And that’s a major shame, since this is the beginning of a rather exciting story involving the entire Flash family, but this cover does not convey that at all. It’s just a generic computer-generated explosion without any context or drama. I really wish Roger Cruz could have drawn the cover, because he has an exciting, dynamic style that would have been a whole lot better here. None of the variant covers feature Bart, so we’ll just head straight into the story.

We open with a race of aliens called the Fraction approaching Earth in a ship that’s shaped like a gigantic arrow. We know they’re working for an empress and they are being guided by an invisible force toward what they call a “tributary.” We also know that they pride themselves in being able to conquer worlds before the inhabitants have a chance to fight back.

We then check in on the West family. Linda is pregnant again and Jai and Irey are happily running around the backyard as Wally hosts a barbecue for some of his non-speedster friends. But the party is interrupted by a strange sound and the feeling of static electricity on the wind. Elsewhere, Max Mercury is attempting once again to run into the Speed Force. He didn’t tell anyone he was going to do this, rationalizing that Bart will understand. Max even speculates that if he fails, and merely jumps in the future again, he’ll probably end up seeing Bart anyway. Fortunately, Max aborts his attempt at the sight of the gigantic arrow poking down through the clouds.

Jesse Quick, meanwhile, is fighting a random lion-person with Hourman when time suddenly freezes for everyone except her. Kid Flash is also busy fighting crime, just about to beat up some low-level smugglers, when Impulse interrupts the operation by zooming across the river, saying, “Hey, guys! Miss me?” Yes, Bart. We did miss you. Anyway, Bart promptly takes out all the criminals before Wallace has a chance to react.


Wallace complains that this was his bust, and Bart pretends he didn’t see him there. As Wallace keeps whining, Bart jokingly confirms that these were actually bad guys, saying, “You can only capture innocent groups so many times.” But Wallace won’t let the matter drop, accusing Bart of intentionally showing him up, perhaps because he’s mad that he’s not Kid Flash anymore. Bart tells Wallace not to flatter himself, pointing out he’s already been Kid Flash and has decided that the color yellow doesn’t work with his complexion. Wallace insists that Bart’s jealous, but Bart says Wallace is the only one here who’s jealous. Bart’s playful teasing is then interrupted by the sight of the gigantic arrow descending on the city.

We then cut to Jay Garrick, who’s drinking alone in a bar, lamenting the death of some of his old friends. And we finally catch up with Barry Allen, who’s having a fancy dinner with Iris, who seems like she’s about to propose to him. Time freezes for everyone except Barry, followed shortly by the arrow hitting the city and causing a huge explosion. And I do mean huge. This arrow/ship/tower thing is as large as half the city. And the blast from its impact knocks down all our speedsters, regardless of where they are. When Barry pulls himself out of the rubble, he is horrified to see Iris is seemingly dead. I mean, with time frozen, Barry can’t really check her pulse or anything, but it still looks pretty bad.




Well, it’s taken a few years, but someone has finally found a place for Bart in this bloated and ever-expanding Flash family: obnoxious big brother to Wallace. And I love it! Bart has never had a little brother and it’s great to see him have someone to playfully tease. Of course, I’m always going to be wondering about Bart’s civilian life — I really hoped he’d go back to Manchester, Alabama, with Max. But I really did like the little bit of Bart we got here. And the Fraction is an interesting concept. Generic name, and generic designs of the aliens, but a nice idea of using super speed to conquer an entire world in under a minute. So I’m cautiously optimistic about this story.

To be continued …

Thursday, March 16, 2023

Year in Review: 2022


The year 2022 saw an almost complete end of the two-year pandemic, which meant people went back to the theaters. Unfortunately, most of the movies they saw were either sequels or reboots. In fact, nine of the 10 highest grossing films of the year were sequels and the other one, The Batman, was a reboot. The king of the game was the long-awaited Avatar sequel, pulling in more than $2 billion. Marvel’s sequels for Doctor Strange, Black Panther and Thor all earned more than $760 million. And poor little DC could only muster one hit this year with The Batman. Black Adam and Super Pets were both pretty ugly, disappointing films.

It’s rather strange for me to be reviewing a year that ended less than three months ago, but that’s the joy I have with being nearly caught up to real time. And I would be completely caught up if I didn’t take a few months off after the birth of my second son. But now he’s nearly a year old and his older brother is about to turn 3, which makes things a little easier for me to write these little posts. And most of them are quite little these days, as Bart is almost always merely a side character wherever he shows up. There are a couple of exceptions, though.


Impulse made a few appearances in Young Justice: Phantoms this year, along with a smattering of episodes on The Flash, a couple of random comics and, most of all, the disastrous Dark Crisis: Young Justice miniseries. But only one story made me genuinely happy. Earth-Prime: The Flash #5 was an honest-to-goodness classic Impulse story — the first we’ve had in 20 years. Even though it took place in the awful CW continuity, this issue captured everything that was fun and delightful about Impulse’s solo series from so long ago. I’m really sad I couldn’t put one of the Dark Crisis issues here, especially since those tried so hard to make Bart smart and powerful. But they were just too painful to read for a whole host of reasons.

Best Writers: Jess Carson and Emily Palizzi

For the first time, this award goes to two writers. That’s not because there’s a tie or anything, but just because the two of them wrote the best story of the year. Unlike Meghan Fitzmartin, Carson and Palizzi clearly did their research. They know exactly who Impulse is and what makes him great. Heck, they even brought back Evil Eye! I really hope the two of them get to write more Impulse stories soon.

Best Artist: Todd Nauck

My favorite artist claims this award for the fifth time, purely for the work of two variant covers. It might not be entirely fair, but nobody else really grabbed my attention. Well, Laura Braga did, but for all the wrong reasons. Nauck’s covers, however, were gorgeous, exciting and wonderfully nostalgic. He somehow managed to fit every single major Young Justice character on those covers without making them feel cramped or crowded. And most of all, Nauck told a story with those covers that I really wish Fitzmartin and Braga would have told.

Best Supporting Characters: Chameleon Boy and Saturn Girl

In another first, I’m giving this award to two characters. That’s because — as far as Bart was concerned — Chameleon Boy and Saturn Girl were essentially one person. They were always together with Bart, doing the exact same thing. And they did have a pretty fun adventure in space together. Granted, most of their interactions took place off screen, but they did spend several months together, working in secret to try to save the universe and the future. Yes, Dark Crisis did reunite Bart with his oldest and best friends, but they were all pretty big jerks to Bart that whole story. And none of them really apologized to him. But he somehow had to apologize to Cassie? I don’t know. It was a big mess. Another strong contender for this award was Bart’s CW sister, Nora. She was constantly by his side both on the show and in the comics, but usually as the bossy big sister, constantly lecturing Bart to be less impulsive. I guess I ultimately place more value in watching Chameleon Boy and Saturn Girl strategically seek out Bart because of his expertise in time travel, opposed to XS babysitting her brother because she has to.

Best Villain: Mickey Mxyzptlk 

Yes, yes, I know, Dark Crisis: Young Justice was a hot mess. And the original Mr. Mxyzptlk would have been a much better choice than inventing a son for him. But Mickey was a truly formidable foe, who impacted Bart much more than Evil Eye or Magog or even Lor-Zod. Mickey sent Bart to an alternate dimension, forcing him to reach deeper into his power set than we’ve ever seen before to not only escape, but also ensnare his captor. But mostly I liked how Mickey accurately tapped into the pain of old Young Justice fans like me, who have seen our favorite characters constantly get pushed aside by the company that produces them. Yeah, Fitzmartin could have written Mickey better, but he truly was the biggest obstacle for Impulse in the year 2022.

Next time, we’ll dive into our current year of 2023, which gives us the triumphant return of Impulse to the Flash books! Sure, he’s still just a minor character, easily lost in the shuffle of the ever-growing Flash family, but at least he’s there! I don’t know what will happen after the One-Minute War, but I’ll try to keep covering it as it happens.

Monday, March 13, 2023

Dark Crisis: Young Justice #6


Youth Ends

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
Superboy created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

Our cover is a supremely disappointing way to wrap up an absolute mess of a miniseries. It honestly feels like Dunbar just phoned this one in. Every single character looks bored, uninterested, ugly and all around … off. And putting them in front of the Hall of Justice implies that Young Justice will actually participate in the Dark Crisis event. Spoiler alert: They will not. Not in this issue or any of the Dark Crisis issues. Deep sigh. This has been a very frustrating experience.


Contrary to the credits, this variant cover is actually by Todd Nauck. (It is fitting that we’d get one more editorial mistake before the end.) I absolutely love this cover. And it almost breaks my heart by showing me what I wished this series would have been — a story that brought back Secret and Empress and Slobo and Fite ‘n Maad and Cissie’s mom and Riproar and Harm and Dante and Dis and the exploding Mount Rushmore and everything that made the Peter David/Todd Nauck series so rich and wonderful. Well, this series may have let me down, but at least it did give me some great variant covers.

Our story picks up in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island, where Red Tornado, Impulse, Wonder Girl, Robin, Superboy and Cissie King-Jones are shocked to see that Mickey Mxyzptlk has followed them back to the real world. Cassie is our narrator once again, and she vows to not lose her friends again after working so hard to get them back. She uses an unprintable swear word to describe Mickey, saying she doesn’t care how powerful he is. Oddly, though, she tells her team they can’t let Mickey escape … even though he just followed them there and has made no indication that he wants to leave. But Robin agrees with Wonder Girl, saying the amount of damage Mickey could cause to the world is too great to risk. He starts barking out orders, while Bart quietly whispers something to Cassie.

Suddenly, Robin loses the ability to speak as his mouth seemingly disappears. So instead of attacking Mickey, everybody stands around watching, while Cassie lectures him. She calls him a child, who remakes worlds in his image because he doesn’t like free will. Mickey doesn’t deny this, explaining that he saw how Pariah faked the deaths of the Justice Leauge so they could live out their fantasies. Mickey then “siphoned” off some of Pariah’s power (I guess?) to give his favorite heroes the world they deserve. This information about Pariah and the Justice League is news to our heroes, since this miniseries hasn’t dealt with the Dark Crisis event at all.

Right on cue, Red Tornado reports an S.O.S. call from the Hall of Justice, but Cassie insists on staying put and battling the “hateful, spiteful brat.” She wildly says Young Justice is just as strong as Mickey, but Cissie reasonably points out that they’re little more than a ragtag group of misfits. Conner reminds her that the only way anyone’s defeated Mr. Mxyzptlk was to get him to say his name backward (thank you for remembering to say backward!), but they don’t think Mickey will fall for that trick. Mickey tells Conner not to bother reasoning with Cassie since she’s just a girl and she’s only ever brought them down.

We then get a flashback to just seconds earlier, when Bart was whispering to Cassie. Turns out he lent her some of his speed to slow things down for just the two of them. Bart tells Cassie he has a plan, but he needs her to distract Mickey. And Bart wisely picked Cassie for this job because he’s picked up on Mickey’s misogyny. He asks Cassie to make fun of Mickey and challenge him, while promising her that he actually does have a plan despite his goofy reputation. Cassie tells Bart he was always smarter than they gave him credit for and she’s glad that he’s stepping up, since he makes a good leader. 

Bart, however, rejects the compliment, saying this experience has shown him that he and the others didn’t always treat Cassie great. He says he was initially scared a new girl would change them and get in the way of a good thing. So he — and Conner and Tim — treated her like a third wheel. But Bart now tells Cassie that she’s more than the three of them put together. He sadly says he hopes this isn’t the end of Young Justice, because she makes a great leader. (And once again, I have no idea where Fitzmartin is coming up with this revisionist history.)

We cut back to the present, with Cassie openly mocking Mickey, suggesting he lives in an interdimensional basement. Cissie wisely warns against antagonizing an omnipotent foe, while Red Tornado and Superboy stupidly say they need to abandon this fight to help everyone else out at the Hall of Justice. Mickey makes fun of Red Tornado and Superboy, pointing out that even if they do go and help defeat the villain of Dark Crisis, they won’t be appreciated and won’t be called on until the next universe-breaking villain. He (rather accurately) prophesies that Young Justice will be forgotten again after Dark Crisis ends. Superboy then says, “Great. He’s growing.” And Wonder Girl says, “Finally ate his veggies.” But the artwork doesn’t show or suggest Mickey turning into a giant or anything like that.

Cassie says she’s willing to risk being forgotten again if it means being nothing like Mickey. She adds that he’ll never be anything like his heroes, so Mickey decides to go full-villain mode with the dark line, “So be it.” Cissie is turned into stone (except for her head, for whatever reason), the mouthless Robin has now become green (whatever that does), Superboy says he’s become invisible (even though he’s just transparent) and Red Tornado is now human. Mickey tells Cassie that she made him do this, to which she responds with a “Now, Impulse!”

Impulse suddenly appears, issuing a lame, “Not so fast, Mickey!” He says even a child knows that no one makes anyone do anything. Between Bart’s hands is a bit of taffy-like energy in the shape of an infinity sign, and I’d guess it’s rather difficult for him to hold it, but the art isn’t helping too much. Cassie says, “Get ’im, Bart” as he tries to push the infinity symbol on Mickey, dropping another lame line about giving the villain a time out. Mickey recognizes this piece of energy as a quantum entanglement trap, designed to keep him in a quantum echo chamber between atoms.

Unfortunately, Bart tells Cassie that he’s not strong enough to hold the trap together and they need more people. Mickey destroys the trap with a simple kick, saying he never bothered taking away Bart’s powers because, despite what his friends say, he’s nothing. Mickey vows to break them all one by one, prompting Wonder Girl to order Red Tornado and Impulse to protect the immobile Cissie and Robin, while she looks for Superboy. Robin is now fused to a stone, or something, and covered with vines. Impulse advises Red Tornado to stay out of the line of fire since he’s human now, but he still insists on shielding Cissie from Mickey.

Superboy realizes that nobody can see him or hear him (even though we never saw him attempt to communicate with his friends), and his powers are also gone, too. Conner can only watch helplessly as Cassie attacks Mickey with her … heat vision?! When did she get that power?! Oh, and Cissie suddenly isn’t a statue anymore and starts shooting arrows at Mickey. Anyway, Conner remembers how small and helpless Cassie seemed when he first met her, but she quickly proved she didn’t need his help. In fact, Conner realizes, Cassie didn’t need any of them, but she chose them all the same. And now he feels like they let her down. I have no idea how or why they let her down, but that’s what Bart and Conner are feeling right now.

Mickey knocks Wonder Girl out of the sky, but Superboy actually catches her. He apologizes to her and promises to never hurt her again. And even though Superboy thought nobody could hear him, Cassie does hear him, but she still can’t see him. Conner tells Cassie she deserved a better first love than him, as Mickey transforms into a giant snake, causing Bart to yell out, “I hate snakes!” Cassie quotes Game of Thrones by saying you don’t get to choose who you love and for better or worse, Conner played a part in making her the woman she is today.

Cissie is suddenly a statue again, and she cries out for help when the ground starts shaking. Red Tornado helps her again and Impulse saves the plant-like Robin once more, complaining that he can’t leave him alone for one minute. Mickey then finally turns himself into a giant, gloating that Young Justice can’t win. Cassie says he doesn’t really believe that. Even though everyone else takes them for granted, Cassie says Mickey knows more than anyone what they’re capable of, which is why he split them up. She says that he wouldn’t be able to defeat them if they were together and had their powers. Mickey says he’s not afraid of these barely primitive beings, so Bart challenges him to bring them all back to full power. Mickey actually agrees, saying he’ll prove just how weak they really are. With a snap of his fingers, everyone is back to normal.

Bart cries out, “Young Justice, grab the symbol!” Suddenly, everyone is “holding” the quantum entanglement trap, which is now much larger and centered directly on Mickey. The imp says he destroyed the trap, but Bart simply says energy can’t be created or destroyed, even by someone like Mickey. Bart explains that once he knew he needed the strength of others, he hid the trap in the Speed Force and waited until Mickey was cocky enough to give everyone back their powers. Bart reasoned that Mickey may be too smart to say his name backward, but he can’t escape physics. The trap is an atom split in two, responding to itself like an echo chamber, which Bart felt was most appropriate for Mickey. Suddenly, the imp is … I don’t know … sucked into the split atom? Well, whatever happened, he’s gone now.

Conner asks if they basically sent Mickey to the Phantom Zone, and Bart says this trap is even more finite and infinitesimal. He starts to reference an article he read about string theory and splitting a laser beam, but Conner cuts him off, saying all he cares is that Mickey is trapped. Red Tornado says they should now hurry off to join the fight at the Hall of Justice and Bart triumphantly says, “Young Justice prevails!” But Tim realizes he hasn’t apologized to Cassie yet. He says he’s sorry for hooking up with her after Conner died, explaining that he didn’t understand what he was feeling at the time. Cassie says some things get clearer with age and they aren’t the same kids they were back then. Of course, she admits they probably weren’t ever really kids, but she vows to make sure the next generation doesn’t go through what they did. And with that, they rush off to allegedly join the big final battle of Dark Crisis.


This story technically is concluded in Dark Crisis #7, but I won’t be covering it. Young Justice only shows up in the background after all the fighting has finished and Superboy literally asks what they missed. Their lack of involvement in that massive event was even worse than what Mickey predicted. Not like this miniseries actually cared about Dark Crisis. Or the Brian Michael Bendis run. Or the Peter David run. Or general cohesion and logical sense.

I think I’ll start there. This story — especially this issue — was a disjointed mess. I have never seen artwork this disconnected from the story. The most glaring example of this was the page where Cassie was still a stone statue at the top of the page, but then was totally fine at the bottom and firing off arrows like normal. And then two pages later, she was a statue again. Did Laura Braga just not know what Meghan Fitzmartin was doing or what? Because apart from being lazy, rushed and uninspiring, this art made the story more difficult to understand. And there was so much to be confused by.

The most confusing thing of this issue was how Bart, Conner and Tim were all tripping over each other to apologize to Cassie. And I have no idea why. They dropped some empty words about treating her like a third wheel, but that never really happened. Bart said he was worried about having a girl crash their boys club, even though one of the very first things Young Justice did was rescue a girl named Secret. Did Fitzmartin merely glance at that early cover of Young Justice where the boys were hiding behind a “No girls allowed” sign and extrapolate a whole history of abuse and neglect slung at Wonder Girl. Meghan, if you’d actually read the issues, you’d know that cover was a joke! Cassie was never mistreated by the boys! They helped her gain confidence, find her voice and even become leader of the team!

And was it so bad that Tim hooked up with Cassie after Conner died? Tim didn’t force himself on her. She willingly and knowingly agreed to go out with him. And, by the way, Meghan, this was another topic that was thoroughly dealt with in past issues. We didn’t need to rehash all that drama or present a Superboy that had mysteriously forgotten all that. It’s almost like Fitzmartin was desperate to make a scathing commentary on the past but couldn’t find any strong examples to work with. So she manufactured some. All for this moment where the three boys would sorrowfully come to Cassie on their knees and she would bravely say the trauma she endured under their neglect has only made her stronger. If you ask me, she should at least apologize for acting like a jerk to them in the first issue and wishing they were dead. But that’s just me.

I really wish we would have spent more time exploring Mickey’s point of view. He’s a lot like Superboy-Prime, but more focused on this specific problem of DC unceremoniously dumping off certain characters and replacing them with hot, new, shiny ones. I think it’s a perfectly valid complaint that deserved more room to discuss. Obviously, Mickey’s homophobic and misogynistic views are what prevents him from being a fully sympathetic character. But we could have had a real fun time talking about the power of nostalgia and the dangers of indulging too much in it. Instead, we engaged in repetitive arguments and apologies fueled by revisionist history.

Now let’s talk about Bart. I like how he was the most serious and most clever hero in this miniseries. And he even got to sort of act like the leader of the team. All that is great stuff. In fact, it feels long overdue. But did Fitzmartin accidentally make him too powerful? The new abilities he displayed in this miniseries rival the overpowered time-traveling scouts he had back in the day. Bart now has the ability to locate specific individuals based on their unique “vibrations” and send messages to them, even if they’re in another dimension. He can also casually freeze time for at least one other person with him, and he can create impossible-to-explain “quantum traps.” And yes, that didn’t make at all. And it made even less sense when Bart’s non-speedster friends were also able to hold that trap and add power to it. I guess Fitzmartin just REALLY wanted to banish that internet troll to an echo chamber, no matter what.

Well, I should probably stop ranting now. No sense in beating a dead horse. As much as I hated this miniseries, I actually hope DC will quickly build off this. Revive the Young Justice series. Make Impulse the leader. Answer some basic continuity questions. And keep this creative team far away from it. No offense, Fitzmartin and Braga. I’m sure you’re perfectly lovely people. But I don’t want you working on my favorite characters anymore.

And so that wraps up the turbulent year of 2022. Next time will be the Year in Review before heading into 2023 and Jeremy Adams’ One-Minute War.

Friday, March 3, 2023

Young Justice: Targets #6


Yesterday’s Children: Memory Six

Writer: Greg Weisman
Artist: Christopher Jones
Colorist: Jason Wright
Letterer: Wes Abbott
Editor: Ben Meares

Our cover by Christopher Jones and Jason Wright is once again extraordinarily bland. Heroes posing like action figures in front of a void of shiny lights. Comics like this don’t have to be so boring and generic. They really could have done something deep and interesting and artistically engaging with this series. But they took the easy route and this is why we can’t have nice things.

The main story wraps up as predictably as one would expect, with absolutely no help from Kid Flash. You can barely see him as a tiny whirlwind fighting Lex-bots in one panel. I almost would have skipped reviewing this issue entirely if it weren’t for the backup story, which includes a flashback to Wally West’s funeral.


We can see Bart in the front row, far left. He’s next to a very pregnant Iris, accompanied by Barry and the Garricks. Bart doesn’t do or say anything here, but I appreciated seeing this moment that the show neglected. I also like how nobody’s wearing their superhero costumes. I always think that’s a bit tacky at funerals.

So that wraps up my very brief coverage of the extremely underwhelming Young Justice: Targets miniseries. Next time, I’ll conclude the much more complicated Dark Crisis: Young Justice.

Thursday, March 2, 2023

Dark Crisis: Young Justice #5


Don’t Meet Your Heroes

Meghan Fitzmartin Writer
Laura Braga Artist
Luis Guerrero Colorist
Josh Reed Letters
Max Dunbar & Luis Guerrero Cover
Belén Ortega & Tomeu Morley 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 prominently displays the main villain of this miniseries. Like any good villain, he thinks he’s the hero. He looks decent enough, but our heroes … not so much. Especially Superboy. Why can’t Dunbar draw him well? It’s such a downer on all his covers. The variant, as usual, is much better. But it only focuses on Robin and doesn’t include Impulse on it.

Our story picks up with Mickey introducing himself to Superboy, Robin and Impulse. He explains that he’s created the perfect world for his favorite heroes, complete with their best girl, Wonder Girl. Mickey says he considered bringing the real Cassie, but she’s gotten older and isn’t fun anymore. Impulse tells Mickey he doesn’t have the right to mess with them like this, and he tries to charge at the imp, but the ground opens up beneath him, revealing another horde of zombies. Mickey tells Bart that it’s okay to just be the comic relief — and for all of them to be the way they were when they were younger.

As a pair of zombie hands wrap themselves around Robin’s neck, as Mickey asks his favorite heroes if they don’t miss the old glory days. Conner tries to help his friends, but he oddly begins crying out, “Where is my hand?!” Even though it is clearly still attached to his wrist and looks completely normal. Tim is choking and Bart is being dragged down to the center of the Earth. And Mickey is droning on and on about how the glory days were robbed from them. He conjures images of Flash, Batman and Superman, saying these were the people who brought them up and promised them the world, but then left them to rot, replacing them with new protégés. Mickey then brings up Wallace West, Damian Wayne and Jon Kent, asking how Bart, Tim and Conner are supposed to compete with them, especially seeing as how two of them are literally their mentors’ sons.

Bart speculates that Mickey is doing all this because his dad, the real Mxyzptlk, didn’t give him enough love. Conner points out that Tim is dying, but Mickey ignores him, explaining that his dad had promised to grant him control of the fifth dimension once this generation of heroes took over. But sadly, Mickey says, their generation wasn’t set up for success and were repeatedly brought down. He brings up Deathstroke, Lex Luthor and Captain Boomerang, saying he presented them to his heroes as a gift — a chance to take out the people who caused the most damage in their lives. Mickey says their mentors never gave them that — they just said suck it up and move on.

Conner tells Mickey that he’s on the verge of killing two of his childhood heroes, so Mickey reluctantly releases Bart and Tim. As usual, Conner is more concerned with Tim than Bart, who asks how they can send this “toddler” back home to his daddy. Mickey angrily says he’s the only one who’s trying to help the Young Justice founders. He says their generation has been replaced by people he believes don’t have any right to be there. Mickey conjures images of all the prominent LGBTQ heroes in the DC Universe, including Tim’s new boyfriend, Bernard. He says he doesn’t care about these heroes, going on adventures and telling stories he didn’t ask for. Mickey even calls these new heroes ingrates, who haven’t had to work as hard as his childhood favorites, who have constantly been killed, removed from the timeline or simply forgotten about. And Mickey says he’s sick of never seeing his favorites again.

Our heroes are stunned by this … well, slightly homophobic rant. Bart asks if that’s what Mickey thinks of them, and Tim even swears. Conner tries to reason with Mickey, saying they were never about … that. Bart admits they’ve had a rough go, but he says those other heroes have, too, and they’re not any less important than heroes who’ve been around longer. Tim angrily says that you don’t get to tell people they don’t belong or shouldn’t exist. He insists they all make the world better. Mickey darkly responds with, “Never meet your heroes,” and ominously snaps his fingers.

It’s hard to tell what, exactly, happens next. There’s a lot of shwooms and fwooms and … I don’t know, fire? Energy? Lightning? Well, whatever it is, it’s more than enough to spook Superboy, who, for the first time in four issues, asks how to get out of this fake world. Bart says they probably can’t leave, but he helps guide his teammates past the … uh … dangerous stuff? Anyway, Mickey keeps insisting he’s right, saying his heroes have shown him who he needs to be. Robin, in desperation, decides to throw a small bomb — not at Mickey — but at the fake Wonder Girl, who has done absolutely nothing this issue. We’re then treated to three very boring black panels that only say boom, crash and zip.

When the lights go back on, the fake Wonder Girl has a suction-cup arrow stuck to her forehead. That arrow was fired by none other than Cissie King-Jones, who apparently still has trick arrows despite being retired. Cissie is naturally joined by Cassie, Red Tornado and Wonder Woman’s invisible jet. The boys slowly pull themselves off the ground and Bart says, “Finally.” He explains that when the sound waves were messed up (for a very brief, inconsequential amount of time last issue), he decided to try messing with sound waves himself by vibrate a sign to Cassie. Inexplicably, Bart claims that every person has their own frequency, and he’s spent enough time with Cassie to know what that frequency is. Alrighty then.

Cassie apologizes for taking so long to get to Mickey’s world because it took her a while to recognize Bart’s message. She adds that they needed an explosion to actually take them to the fake world, which conveniently happened when Robin threw his small bat bomb. OK. Whatever. Mickey is naturally upset by all this, but mostly because Impulse didn’t act like the dumb goofball. For the first time this miniseries, Tim finally comes to the defense of his friend … by … oddly saying that Bart knew his teammates, which means he knew one of them would try an explosion, which implies that Bart knew all along that an explosion was necessary to reach this interdimensional world. Yeah … sure. Anyway, Robin says Impulse is more than a sidekick and Superboy adds that he’d make a pretty smart leader. Bart sheepishly says, “Maybe one day…” 

The fake Wonder Girl abruptly charges at Cassie, who just … claps her hands and … maybe strikes the fake one with lightning? Again, the art is of absolutely no help here. And when the fake Wonder Girl fades away, the sound effect literally says the word “fade” — which isn’t much more help. Suffice it to say the fake Wonder Girl is gone and Cassie calls her friends “dweebs” for believing it was real. Instead of arguing that they’ve known she was fake for quite some time now, Bart, Tim and Conner merely apologize to Cassie. Luckily, she’s more glad to finally have them back than to be mad. At the moment.

Cissie asks who the kid in the bad hat is, so Tim asks Mickey to say his name. Mickey, however, refuses to say his name, saying he can’t be easily tricked like his moron of a father. He then darkly says that none of them will get out of here alive, to which Robin confidently says they will because they’re Young Justice. Everyone begins to battle bland glowing orbs of goo, while Robin thinks to himself that the only way to defeat Mxyzptlk is to get him to say his name. Backwards. Robin (and Meghan Fitzmartin) forgot to add the backwards part to it.

Bart, meanwhile, is thinking about a more productive topic: escape. He reasons that since he was able to send a message out to Cassie and she was able to inexplicably enter the world, then they must be able to leave. Bart decides to try escaping through the Speed Force, but to his astonishment, Mickey’s glow blobs are somehow eating the Speed Force.

Meanwhile, Cissie finds herself enjoying shooting exploding arrows into the glow blobs. She admits that she missed her old friends, but regrets that she can’t tell that to Cassie. She oddly says it was too much before — being close to death and almost killing friends. Once again, I have no idea what she’s talking about, which is probably just another indicator that Fitzmartin never learned why Cissie quit being Arrowette.

Superboy reports that Robin has somehow become trapped inside a glow blob — although we never saw that happen. Luckily, Conner’s able to free him with his tactile telekinesis and one of Cissie’s arrows. Superboy then notices that Impulse is seemingly frozen in place. Cassie is able to snap Bart out of his Speed Force trance and she asks him if he could get them out of there if he had a little more power, seemingly implying that she had the ability to grant him more power. Bart says, “I’ve been looking, but I can’t find an opening to take us through —” In the very next panel, literally, Cassie says, “How about you take us through the Speed Force?” Even though she said the exact same thing Bart was saying, Bart agrees that this plan might be possible.

So Red Tornado and Superboy somehow give Impulse the boost he needs (don’t ask me how), while the others protect them from Mickey. A purple bubble surrounds our team, but I have no idea who created it or how or why. Anyway, Bart suddenly tells everyone to jump, and they leap through a yellow portal, landing back in the real world. Cassie says Hippolyta is going to kill her for leaving the invisible jet behind, and I am compelled to remind everyone that this miniseries began with Cassie mourning the death of Hippolyta and never once saying anything about her coming back to life.

Anyway, our heroes find themselves in the ruins of their former cave at Happy Harbor. I still don’t know what happened to it, since it seemed perfectly fine when Brian Michael Bendis ended his Young Justice run, but whatever. Cassie says they need to hurry back to the Hall of Justice, because everyone was getting ready for something big happening, and I’m wondering how she knew that since she’s spent the past day traveling to Themyscira and through space. But it’s a moot point, anyway, because Mickey Mxyzptlk suddenly arrives behind them.


Well, we certainly have a lot to unpack here. Let’s begin with my complaints of general sloppiness. Braga’s art has become steadily worse throughout this miniseries, suggesting a rushed job to me. Bland, empty backgrounds. Stiff, repetitive poses and expressions that were likely copied and pasted. Incomprehensible action sequences. And a general lack of cohesion with the story. For example, if Superboy’s hand was supposed to disappear, then actually make it disappear!

Fitzmartin’s writing also suffers from many of the same problems. Repetitive, bland and not cohesive with any sense of established history or just plain logic. Lots of things just happen in this issue. Without any rhyme or reason. How can Red Tornado’s whirlwinds and Superboy’s tactile telekinesis help Impulse open a portal to escape from an interdimensional world? Who cares? We’re going right through the Speed Force, even though we just barely said — one panel ago — that it was impossible to go through the Speed Force! I feel like I’m going crazy here.

Bart’s talk of personal frequencies also bothered me. Yes, I did like how the previous issue set up that he was doing something sneaky and important. But this just didn’t make any sense. Especially since we didn’t get to see the exact nature of Bart’s message to Cassie. And being able to connect to other people’s frequencies is as nonsensical as it is creepy. I much would have preferred a true blast from the past and had Bart create an energy scout that could escape Mickey’s world. Bonus points if you show Bart talking about the inherent risks of creating a scout beforehand!

But that’s not what this story is about. Fitzmartin isn’t concerned with the technical details of characters using their powers in a consistent manner. What she really wants to do is tell a story about the most toxic of fans who use nostalgia to cover up their bigotry. And that’s actually an interesting story to tell. I wish this story were a bit more refined, and I wish we got to this point earlier, rather than wasting time by clumsily trying to present old Young Justice stories as problematic. But we’re here now, and I actually kind of enjoy it.

The beauty of this is that a lot of the things Mickey says are absolutely true. Bart and Conner were killed, then erased from reality, then — worst of all — were just forgotten about. Technically in continuity, but never appearing in any comics or even being mentioned. And Tim didn’t have it much easier, either, going through an awkward Red Robin phase, following an even more awkward (but mercifully brief) phase as Drake. But that’s what happens when new characters make the old ones redundant. And it genuinely hurts to see favorite characters get shoved aside. Of course, it’s a bit more complicated than that.

This miniseries has talked a lot about becoming the next generation of heroes. But what does that actually look like? Dick Grayson, DC’s original sidekick, spent decades as Robin before becoming Nightwing, then had to wait a couple decades more before he finally became Batman. But that didn’t last very long. Wally West had a nice long run as the Flash, but once Barry Allen returned, he became redundant and had to suffer through years of his own personal limbo. Geoff Johns did try to grow up Young Justice. He put them on the Teen Titans with … mixed results. DC did let Bart Allen be the Flash, but they gave that series to the wrong creators and it was hastily aborted after just a year. So what I’m saying is it’s very rare and often fleeting for a sidekick to take the mantle of their mentor.

Truthfully, I don’t think many fans of Conner, Tim and Bart ever wanted them to be Superman, Batman and the Flash. We just want more stories of them. So the whole argument that this series has been making over and over again has never had any weight to it. But Mickey’s lament of Young Justice being forgotten does strike a chord. It’s completely understandable to feel like Mickey from time to time. However, Mickey went too far by insisting the newer characters don’t deserve to exist. And he went way too far by specifically targeting the LGBTQ heroes.

No, I don’t think Meghan Fitzmartin is arguing that every fan of Young Justice is a bigot like Mickey. But the worst, most toxic corners of the internet are full of people just like him. People who consistently only seem to complain about non-white, non-straight characters. People who won’t let themselves enjoy the incredible new stories being told about Jon Kent, Yara Flor, Nubia and all the rest. As much as I love and miss Impulse, I haven’t punished myself by taking on the attitude that everything new is awful. And all characters who don’t look like me don’t deserve to be printed. Some people are incapable of accepting that mindset. And that’s who Mickey represents.

This is a rather interesting topic that deserves a lot of room to explore. Unfortunately, Fitzmartin waited until issue 5 of a 6-issue series to introduce it. This should have come up in the second issue, giving us plenty of time to discuss and debate complex ideas that actually resonate with the audience, rather than wasting time by repeating the same hollow arguments over and over again.

Next time, we’ll take the quickest of quick looks at the finale of Young Justice: Targets.