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.

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.

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, 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 vibrating 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 too glad to finally have them back 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 has 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. Or that all characters who don’t look like me don’t deserve to be printed. Some people are incapable of avoiding 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.

Young Justice: Targets #5

“Metallic Aftertaste”

Writer: Greg Weisman

Artist: Christopher Jones

Colorist: Jason Wright

Letterer: Wes Abbott

Cover: Jones & Wright

Variant Cover: Meghan Hetrick

Editor: Ben Meares

Senior Editor: Katie Kubert

Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

Superboy created by Jerry Siegel

By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family

Our cover is a rather bland and boring image of Superboy fighting Metallo. I’m a little disappointed that Weisman is focusing so much on Superboy right after Young Justice: Phantoms featured him so prominently. I’d prefer to see some love thrown to some of the other characters who are often overlooked in this bloated universe. But that’s just me. Also, to no one’s surprise, Kid Flash is not included on the variant cover, so I’ll skip it.

We pick up with Kid Flash at Madinat Altharwati on November 11 at 22:42 UTC+2, in the tenth year since the formation of the Team. Static is apparently the leader of Mongoose Squad, which is tasked with the boring job of battling an endless army of Lex-bots, while Gorilla Squad does all the interesting stuff. Kid Flash tied up some robots with a whirlwind, but then he inexplicably took a hit from behind.

And that’s all we see of him this issue. As I mentioned previously, I consider this series to be a huge missed opportunity for Weisman. He created a massive, sprawling world with dozens of characters. But instead of exploring some of those untold stories, he stuck with the same old, same old.

Next time, we’ll return to Dark Crisis: Young Justice #5.

Dark Crisis: Young Justice #4

Listen Up!

Meghan Fitzmartin Writer

Laura Braga Artist

Luis Guerrero & Hi-Fi Colors

Pat Brosseau Letters

Max Dunbar & Luis Guerrero Cover

Serg Acuña 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 makes a pretty decent attempt at showing Young Justice fighting E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E. We have the full roster of the late-’90s JLA, plus several members of the Titans and Lobo for good measure. Lobo, of course, was briefly a member of Young Justice, not that I’d expect any of these creators to realize that. Anyway, I find this to be a rather mediocre cover. Dunbar gives everyone a stretched, squished face. At least he gives Impulse fingerless gloves — something that Braga failed to do.

The variant cover is much better. I’m not the biggest fan of the angry Wonder Girl flying right toward us, but I really enjoy the background images. It reminded me of how exciting Patrick Gleason’s art was when the Young Justice series was first revived.

Superboy is the narrator for this issue, beginning by referring to Impulse and Robin as his “frustrating best friends.” He wonders exactly why they’re fighting the JLA and Titans right now, but he’s confident that whoever’s behind this is no match for him. Robin tries to say something, but Superboy suddenly can’t hear him. Bizarrely, he reasons that this world is just as frustrated with Robin as he is. Robin’s voice eventually does come through, though, and he says that something is messing with the sound waves.

Robin tries to get his teammates to regroup, while Impulse calls this his nightmare. Superboy, meanwhile, laments that his friends don’t remember that this was the time when they were at their best — kings of the era. He tells Robin and Impulse that they can’t win this fight, so they should just stop fighting and accept this world. Superboy reasons that they were beaten, bruised and battered in the real world, but they can make a new start here. Impulse reports that Superboy’s tantrum somehow fixed the sound waves, but Robin simply wonders if Superboy’s lost his mind.

We then return to the real world, where Cassie, Cissie and Red Tornado have arrived at the abandoned Titans Tower in San Francisco, where Cassie hopes they can find some sort of transport to outer space. Cissie asks why they don’t go to Happy Harbor, but Cassie coldly says it was destroyed while Cissie was away. (This is news to me, because Brian Michael Bendis’ run ended with the entire team hanging out at Happy Harbor.) Luckily, our heroes have no troubles entering the base, but they oddly decide to visit the hall of fallen heroes, which oddly still has statues of some who have since come back to life, like Donna Troy and Conner. (Bart and Conner originally had massive golden statues in front of the tower, which they both gleefully destroyed after coming back to life. Apparently Conner had a second smaller one below.)

Cassie darkly says this room always felt like an inevitability, and Cissie stupidly asks why Cassie never told her about any of this. Cassie’s reaction is pretty appropriate. She tried to talk to Cissie — a bunch of times — but Cissie refused her. Cassie says that Cissie thought she was just shutting out the boys, but she was also shutting her out. Even though Cassie tried to respect Cissie’s request for distance, she couldn’t help but feeling like her old friend was treating her as though she were invisible. In her anger, Cassie destroys the Superboy statue, as Red Tornado reports that — unsurprisingly — he was unable to find a spaceship. But Cissie was prompted by the word “invisible” and asks Cassie whatever happened to Wonder Woman’s invisible jet.

Twelve hours and a trip to Themyscira later, Cassie, Cissie and Red Tornado are cruising through space in Wonder Woman’s famed jet. Apparently, Hippolyta owed Cassie a favor, even though Cassie acknowledged Hippolyta’s death in the first issue of this very series. In another stroke of convenient luck, Red Tornado just happens to possess “biometric schematics” of Bart, Conner and Tim, and has the jet scanning for their signatures. The android narrow-mindedly assumes the boys must be somewhere in this universe. 

Cissie awkwardly tries to apologize to Cassie, but is harshly rejected. Cassie says that if she wanted to be friends, she would have reached out earlier. Thankfully, Red Tornado steps in, pointing out that the two of them are friends and have been through too much to not be honest with each other. He begins to lecture Cassie on finding the balance between bottling up her anger and lashing out too much, but he’s interrupted by a swarm of bug-like aliens attacking the jet. Cassie says she’s heard of these space mites before, but she wonders what they’re doing here — as if we the audience were supposed to know where “here” was and where space mites were normally supposed to be.

We check back in on the boys, who are still locked in their battle against the JLA. Fortunately, Bart is doing some serious multitasking. The distortion with the sound waves earlier made him wonder if whoever is behind this world is doing it with vibrational frequencies. Superboy is frustrated that Impulse isn’t listening to him, which earns him a coy, “Sucks, doesn’t it?” As Superboy continues his repetitive appeal to his friends about this world being better than reality, Impulse quietly says one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen: “C=\SQRT{\FRAC{K_S}{\RHO}}” It took me a long time to figure this out, but I think Bart is reciting an equation related to the speed of light and letterer Pat Brosseau was trying to type in a fraction underneath a square root. But I think he messed up a little bit of the coding, and it came out as gibberish. I know from my experience of editing at dc.fandom.com that if you miss just one bracket, you mess the whole thing up. I assume Brosseau’s lettering program operates under similar principles. Unfortunately, if this is the mistake I think it is, then it’s a real shame that both editors overlooked what could have been a pretty neat moment of foreshadowing.

Anyway, despite Superboy’s plea that they stop fighting, he himself has continued to throw punches at the old JLA. Robin flat out asks Superboy if he’s taken too many hits to the head, saying it should be pretty obvious that this world isn’t better and it’s not even their real past. Impulse, meanwhile, keeps muttering to himself very quickly, talking about vibrating at just the right speed. Superboy ties up Wonder Woman with her own lasso and baselessly accuses Robin of having had a better life after he died. Robin is so stunned by that insane comment, that he freezes on the battlefield and has to be saved by Impulse from being pulverized by Big Barda. 

Once he recovers, Robin steals a stake of kryptonite from Batman’s utility belt and viciously stabs it through Superman’s heart. (At least, I’m pretty sure it was Superman — he was drawn so skinny, I could have sworn it was another version of Superboy.) Robin opens up about how awful it was after Superboy died, even admitting that he tried to find a way to clone him and changed his costume to honor him. Robin explains that he actually found more inspiration in the hero Superboy grew to become than the hero he was at the beginning of his career. And Robin closes his speech rather profoundly: “We aren’t our past. It’s who become after everything else falls apart. That’s what matters.” 

Superboy hates to admit that Robin is right, but he doesn’t believe he’s worthy of being an inspiring figure anymore. Impulse, meanwhile, stupidly holds the Atom in his hands, repeatedly begging him not to grow. The Atom does grow, but then … does absolutely nothing. I guess Braga got tired of drawing him? Anyway, Superboy asks Robin what he’s supposed to say now, and Robin says he doesn’t need to say anything — just understand that it wasn’t easy when he was gone. 

Impulse’s frustration finally boils over and he reminds his two friends that Superboy wasn’t the only one who died. He points out that they don’t take him seriously, don’t ask how he’s doing, and don’t listen when he tells them something’s wrong. Impulse recounts how he was initially thrown back in time a thousand years but he didn’t care because Superboy and Robin became his best friends. And they had fun … until they started treating Impulse like a sidekick. 

At this point in his diatribe, Impulse is randomly choked by Donna Troy, but he easily escapes. Impulse continues his speech, saying he was used to being a sidekick with the Flashes, but not with Superboy and Robin. Bart then quietly says, “Okay, here goes. Hope you’re out there.” A strange little flickering of energy forms around Impulse, as he concludes his remarks by saying Superboy and Robin only care about each other.

We then cut back to the real world, where Red Tornado has flown out of the jet to battle the space mites, but there’s too many of them. Since Cassie is the only one who knows how to fly the jet, she sends Cissie out to help Red. Conveniently, Wonder Woman’s invisible jet came equipped with a space suit that fits Cissie. Even more conveniently, Cissie decided to bring her bow and arrows on this mission. However, Cissie doesn’t even get a chance to shoot an arrow, as a space mite immediately severs her line, sending the poor girl drifting off into space. Red Tornado takes off after her, and as soon as he catches Cissie, a mysterious red light suddenly appears right in front of the relieved Cassie still in the jet.

Returning to our emotionally distraught boys, Impulse steers the conversation back to the strangeness of this world, and Superboy and Robin actually participate in this discussion. Impulse points out that this place is filled with loads of memories, and Superboy and Robin put together that the memories are different — definitely not theirs. Superboy concedes that this version of the Mighty Endowed felt intentionally sexist. And Robin says he barely even remembered Tora from the first time around. Impulse asks which of their old villains could create a world like this, and we are treated to one of the most bizarre panels of this entire series.

True Young Justice fans will recognize Fite ‘n Maad, Harm and Empress. And they’ll also know that only Harm is a villain of those four. The large ominous face looming in the background was teased in an earlier issue (and we’ll soon learn who he is). But the man in red, front and center, is quite perplexing. I will freely admit that I had to do a reverse image search to figure out who he is. Turns out he’s Baron Bedlam, an old Outsiders villain. And while he was adapted for the animated Young Justice: Outsiders series, he never appeared in the original Young Justice comics. 

So what is he doing here? Simple. Fitzmartin told Braga to draw Bedlam. So Braga did a quick Google search and drew the wrong Bedlam. She was supposed to draw the imposing evil purple genie behind World Without Grown-Ups and World Without Young Justice. Not this guy. Sadly, this error got past the colorist and two editors. Not to mention the bizarre inclusion of three genuine heroes in this group. And this one is all on Fitzmartin. I’m now convinced that she only read the first handful of Young Justice issues — you know, the ones with the Mighty Endowed and Tora, and Fite ‘n Maad were slightly antagonistic toward the boys, and Empress was slowly being introduced from the shadows. Fitzmartin probably assumed that Empress was a villain, which led to the strange rant she gave Cissie in issue #2. Anyway, this single panel is a perfect representation of this miniseries. It displays an embarrassing lack of knowledge of Young Justice.

Now let’s return to the story. Impulse suddenly claims to know who it is, thinking it’s Mr. Mxyzptlk. (Although Bedlam would have been a good guess. He basically did the exact same thing to our heroes. Twice.) Before Bart can elaborate, a young man suddenly appears, wearing orange and purple. He says he’s excited to finally meet our heroes. Conner is shocked to see the mastermind behind this world is a kid their age (how old, exactly are they?). Also, the Watchtower, JLA and Titans have suddenly vanished, leaving our heroes surrounded by strange, swirling colors and ribbons of light. Bart realizes this isn’t actually Mr. Mxyzptlk, and the young man confirms that to be so. He’s actually Mxyzptlk’s son, Mickey. He introduces himself as Young Justice’s biggest fan and says they have to stay here to save their childhood.

I’m not happy that a new villain was created for this miniseries. Forget the fact that this has absolutely nothing to do with the main Dark Crisis storyline. Fitzmartin had the perfect foil right under her nose the whole time — the original Mr. Mxyzptlk! Did she skip the issue where Impulse, Robin and Superboy taught a young Mxy to be the fun-loving goofster he is today? It makes perfect sense to me: Mxy, who has always had a fond spot for the heroes who taught him how to have fun, is horrified at how they’ve been forgotten and neglected by the universe. He tries to create the perfect world for them, but messes it up. It’s a much cleaner and, dare I say, more satisfying story. But one that robs Fitzmartin’s ability to have someone scream, “You’re ruining my childhood!” I’ll save my thoughts on that for later.

For an issue that promised a fight between Young Justice and EVERYONE, that fight turned out to be the most boring, inconsequential part of this issue. Our heroes were never in any real danger, and the JLA members never even said a single word — missing an opportunity for some fun psychological warfare. It was just a bland background for our very redundant argument. The boys have literally been saying the exact same things for three issues now. Seriously, how many times does Superboy have to learn the same lesson? And why does he like this fake world, anyway? They keep saying that it’s better because he never died in this world, but they never show what that means.

Mostly, I’m just depressed by the overall sloppiness of this comic. There’s the unforgivable Bedlam error and the confusion of Impulse’s equation. But there was also a great deal of inconsequential moments that instantly resolved themselves. Like the sound waves problem at the beginning. Nothing bad happened because of it, but that didn’t matter because it was gone as soon as we acknowledged it. Just like Cissie drifting off into space. In fact, every single thing about the Cassie/Cissie subplot was a ridiculous waste of time. This has been an incredibly frustrating read. I do like how Impulse is the most responsible one here, and the only person actually doing something. But on the whole, I’m quite depressed with how substandard this miniseries is.

Next time, we’ll take a very brief look at Young Justice: Targets #5.

Young Justice: Targets #4

“Foreign Affairs”

Writer: Greg Weisman

Artist: Christopher Jones

Colorist: Jason Wright

Letterer: Wes Abbott

Cover: Jones & Wright

Variant Cover: Meghan Hetrick

Editor: Ben Meares

Senior Editor: Katie Kubert

Superboy created by Jerry Siegel

By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family

Our cover is a rather generic image of Wonder Girl, Superboy, Beast Boy, Stargirl and Terra fighting a horde of faceless goons in green armor. It’s … perfectly fine. But rather bland and boring. Much like this series. The variant cover doesn’t have Kid Flash on it, so I won’t worry about it.

This mini series essentially serves as a fifth season of the Young Justice animated series. We join the story on Nov. 11, almost two months after Superboy’s wedding. Beast Boy still likes to carry his therapy dog around with him everywhere, but he’s finally back doing missions, which is convenient because his ex-girlfriend, Queen Perdita, has just been kidnapped. Believing she’s being held in Bialya, Beast Boy gathers up the group of heroes we see on the cover, bizarrely dubbing them Gorilla Squad. Cyborg is now a member of the Justice League, so he can’t legally enter Bialya, but he sees nothing wrong with opening a boom tube to Madinat Altharwati for the Outsiders.

Even though the cover clearly showed that there were people wearing these green armor suits, in the story, these are Lex-Bots that our heroes can brutally rip apart with reckless abandon. However, there are too many of these robots for Terra to handle while the others rush inside a warehouse. So she calls for backup. Led by Kid Flash, the insanely named Mongoose Squad arrives via Boom Tube to help battle the endless swarms of robots.

And that’s all we see of Kid Flash in this issue. Much like in Young Justice: Phantoms, Bart is merely a background character with nothing interesting to do or say. Oh well. At least he was remembered. There’s also a backup story, but, unsurprisingly, Kid Flash isn’t involved in that, either. I don’t know. There’s nothing terribly wrong with this comic. But it just feels like another forgettable, redundant episode of the show. I don’t think this mini series will improve Weisman’s chances of making a fifth season.

Next time, we’ll return to Dark Crisis: Young Justice #4.

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.

Dark Crisis: Young Justice #2

A Tale of Two Cassies

Meghan Fitzmartin Writer

Laura Braga Artist

Luis Guerrero Colors

Pat Brosseau Letters

Max Dunbar and Luis Guerrero Cover

Nikola Čižmešija 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 is a nice improvement over last issue. It’s bold and dynamic and three of the four characters on it look halfway decent. (Superboy looks like he’s 60 years old for some reason.) Yes, I am annoyed that even the digital version of this cover is forced to perpetually advertise a lame kids movie — ironically right next to the box that says this comic is for ages 13+. And I always have problems with covers that mislead or spoil. This one manages to do both. It’s instantly revealed that this Wonder Girl is a bad guy, although a fight like this doesn’t occur anywhere in this issue, or this whole series, for that matter.

The variant cover is a very nice homage to Superboy and several of the big moments in his career. I’m a little surprised by the choice of using Tim, Bart and Cassie in their Teen Titans gear, but I’m glad they’re here all the same.

This issue is narrated by Robin, who is surprised to see that the Mighty Endowed has easily thrown Wonder Girl off her. Tim’s glad to see Cassie again, but he wonders why she didn’t show up at Happy Harbor like the rest of them. He orders Impulse to keep his eyes up to avoid being hypnotized (I’m not sure if he meant that in a literal or metaphorical sense), and Tim admits it’s fun being the leader again.

Wonder Girl claims to have been in this world for a while now and is glad the boys have finally shown up. She says it’s a fun place and can’t wait to show them around. But first she needs to take care of the Mighty Endowed, which she does by lifting her high into the sky. The boys gape up at the two female figures, and Bart says he’s “loving the view.” Conner and Tim stare at Bart, who can’t believe he just said that. Surprisingly, Conner says, “The old Bart is back!” Bart correctly insists he was never like that and says they really need to figure out what’s going on. But Conner rushes back into the battle and Tim just tells Bart to not worry and try to have a little fun for a change.

So Bart reluctantly joins in the battle, and everybody gets a hit in. Finally, Wonder Girl puts down the Mighty Endowed for good, triumphantly stating that “Young Justice prevails!” Superboy asks if they’ve ever said that before, and Impulse insists they never say it again. Robin says they now need to figure out what they’re doing here, much to Impulse’s relief. Bart also points out that they didn’t see anyone actually in trouble from the Mighty Endowed — she was just waiting for them. He also asks where exactly they’re supposed to take her. Tim suggests they question her, but Wonder Girl distracts everybody with a ride in the Super-Cycle.

Bart is annoyed to be reunited with this vehicle, but Conner declares it to be the best and Tim admits he missed it. (Laura Braga, meanwhile, forgot to draw room for Bart’s and Tim’s legs, which I guess is hard when their pecs take up so much space.) Conner urges Bart to lighten up, but Bart oddly says he still has nightmares about the Super-Cycle. I only remember him hating the name of it, not the machine itself, but whatever. Tim realizes he hasn’t felt this light in a long time, and he’s happy to see Conner be filled with life once again. He’s also happy to see that Cassie is less angry than she’s been in years, but he does admit he barely remembers her being this clueless.

Suddenly, Oracle calls Young Justice over the Super-Cycle radio (something that never happened in the original series). She orders them to head to Metropolis to stop Tora — another minor villain from Young Justice’s early days. Tim suggests they call in some backup, like Jon Kent, Damian Wayne or even Wallace West. Wonder Girl insists they can handle Tora by themselves, adding that she hasn’t even heard of any of the people Tim just mentioned. The boys are all pretty spooked by this comment, but whereas Conner says this means they have more responsibility now, Tim seriously begins to wonder where they are.

Once our team reaches Metropolis, Impulse recognizes Tora and immediately charges into battle with Superboy. Conner asks Tora if she’s ready for a real bullfight, but Bart suggests he rethink that. Robin, however, pulls Wonder Girl aside, saying they need some answers before they keep getting distracted by fights. He asks if they’re in an alternate dimension and why they’re fighting their old villains. Wonder Girl concedes that something strange is going on, but says that she can’t figure it out — only that she’s been waiting for the rest of the team to show up. Tim feels they’re finally getting somewhere, just as Impulse and Superboy finish up with Tora. Conner is surprised that Wonder Girl and Robin didn’t want to join in on the fight, and Bart asks if Tora was always this cartoonish. Wonder Girl says that although she doesn’t have any answers, she knows someone who might.

We then return to the real Cassie Sandsmark, who is hunting down Cissie King-Jones at Cardy Boarding School (which Cassie describes as a hoity-toity place that sends its students to the Ivy League). Cissie is not thrilled when she spots Cassie, but nevertheless politely introduces her to her nonbinary friend, Liz, who says nothing, does nothing and will promptly disappear only to never be seen or mentioned again. Really makes me wonder why the creators of this book made such a big deal to introduce a character that has nothing to do with the plot whatsoever.

A little while later, Cassie continues her plea with Cissie at the archery range. Cassie insensitively says that Cissie is only practicing because that means she wants to be Arrowette again. Cissie patiently explains that she is using archery to earn a college scholarship. This angers Cassie, who can’t believe that Cissie is more concerned with college than helping her oldest friends. Cissie says she’s more worried about a world without a Justice League than a world without Conner, Bart and Tim, adding that she doesn’t have the same fond memories that Cassie does. She oddly says she only remembers fighting people the Justice League didn’t understand, like women and people from other countries who were just doing their best. (I have no idea where this comment came from, but it isn’t remotely true.)

Cassie admits they all made mistakes when they were kids, but says the world needs Tim, Bart and Conner now more than ever with the Justice League missing. Cissie says that Cassie only visits her when something’s wrong with the boys — an accusation that Cassie rejects. Cissie then insanely says she stopped being a superhero because of the toxicity. (Again, this is a flat-out lie!) She says Cassie’s life revolves around the boys and she asks who she is without them. Cissie says she didn’t want her life to end up like Cassie’s — overshadowed by three privileged idiots who had the whole world handed to them on a platter. Ultimately, though, Cissie does agree to help Cassie, but says this is the last thing she’ll ever do for Young Justice. Cassie tries to apologize, saying she didn’t realize Cissie felt this way, but Cissie coldly tells her it’s too late and slaps her hand away.

We then cut back to Bart, Conner and Tim, who appear to be riding in Impulse’s old, forgotten spaceship, The Max, to the JLA Watchtower on the Moon. The boys are greeted by the entire Justice League, and Superman even says it’s good to have them home. Tim is shocked to see the League look like it did back when they started out, and Wonder Girl coldly says it’s because it is the League. But Tim feels like he’s remembering two different truths. Before the stunned boys can even exit their ship, Wally West zooms inside and wraps his arm around Bart, saying how happy he is to see him. A confused Bart points out that Wally just saw him not too long ago, and the Wally he remembers never liked him this much.

Superman invites them all inside, and he, Wonder Girl and Superboy have a private little meeting. Superman and Wonder Girl present Superboy with a red cape, saying the world needs him and he deserves this mantle, completely ignoring Conner’s comments about Jon filling in his father’s footsteps.

Wonder Girl also seems to be simultaneously meeting with Flash and Impulse privately in a room that looks like an ordinary gym, but Wally and Wonder Girl insist is full of fun trophies, such as boomerangs and cosmic treadmills. Bart asks Wally what’s going on, saying this feels like a memory, but he doesn’t remember this part. Wally brushes off that comment as “Impulse always joking,” but Bart sternly says that Barry would know he’s not joking. He tells Wally that he thinks he’s seen cracks in this world and a total lack of awareness when it comes to other people. Bart’s having trouble fully articulating the problems he’s noticing, even asking if it was always like this. But he is certain he isn’t home, so now he has to figure out what brought him and his friends here and why. Wonder Girl says it’s obvious. As she presents Bart with Wally’s mask, she tells Bart he was brought here to become the next Flash.

Naturally, Wonder Girl is also giving Robin a Batman mask at the very same time. She insists that Tim always wanted to be Batman, but Tim isn’t quite sure about that. He’s wrestled with this very problem since he became Robin, but when Damian showed up, Tim always assumed he’d get the cowl. However, Tim is now wondering what he’ll be if he’s not going to be Batman. Wonder Girl says she’s sure Spoiler would love to get back together with Tim once he becomes Batman, but Tim points out that he’s currently dating Bernard. Batman, however, insists that Stephanie Brown is Tim’s destiny, and he’ll start dating her again once he’s out of “this phase.” Tim is not at all pleased about that comment, but he keeps his thoughts  to himself in a censored swear word.

Tim, Bart and Conner meet up at the JLA table to have cheeseburgers and fries and swap notes while the three of them are alone. Bart is shocked that Batman said Tim was going through a phase, but Conner doesn’t understand what he was referring to. Tim doesn’t want to talk about it, simply saying that the real Batman would never say that. Bart says he misses Barry, explaining that he forgot how impossible it is to talk to Wally without Barry around. He starts to ask what they should do, but Conner angrily throws his hamburger down on the table. Tim tries to calm him down, pointing out that something is clearly wrong. Bart agrees, but Conner cuts him off, saying he doesn’t think anything is wrong and maybe they shouldn’t even try to go back.

Tim insists they need to go back and Bart elaborates: This isn’t their past. This world got the design wrong, seemingly going out of its way to be sexist, racist and homophobic. Bart says this is a place for immature boys — not them. But Conner persists on asking if this is the world they belong in. Frustrated, Bart turns to Tim, saying, “I said words out loud, right? You all hear me?” Tim tries a different approach: asking Conner if he actually thinks this place is real. Conner responds by throwing doubt into all reality and all memories. He says they might be in heaven, or this is the real world and their old memories were something like the Matrix. Conner concludes by saying it’s better for them here because he never died in this world. Bart then abruptly changes the subject by asking where Cassie is.

The real Cassie, meanwhile, is rather randomly battling Red Volcano. Apparently she and Cissie were unable to find Red Tornado, so they went to his evil “brother” instead. Cassie is quickly encased in molten lava, while Cissie watches helplessly from afar, knowing her arrows are completely ineffective in this situation. Luckily, Red Tornado conveniently arrives in the nick of time and deactivates Red Volcano with a single stroke. Cassie asks for Red Tornado’s help, and he readily agrees, surprisingly giving the two girls big, rib-crushing hugs.

We cut back to Bart, Tim and Conner, who were unable to find Wonder Girl anywhere on the Watchtower. So they return to Earth to cruise around in the Super-Cycle, wondering where Cassie likes to go when she’s upset. Bart coldly assumes they hurt her feeling by being bad friends, and all of them feel a bit guilty. Tim suggests they split up. He says he last saw Cassie with him and Batman, so he offers to head to Gotham City to look for her. But Conner says she couldn’t have been with Robin and Batman, because she was last with him and Superman. Bart says she was actually with him and the Flash. As Robin wonders how she could have been in three places at once, we see a fleeting image of what looks like a young Mr. Mxyzptlk on the hood of the Super-Cycle.

Suddenly, the Super-Cycle crashes on a rock that seemed to appear out of thin air. Bart asks if the cycle tried to kill them, but Conner and Tim point out that the very Earth seems to be trying to kill them. The ground splits open, revealing an army of zombies. Impulse tries to take them out, but finds he’s lost his speed. Superboy tries to blast them with his heat vision, but it won’t hit the zombies. Robin surmises that this world won’t let them fight the zombies, so they have to go back to Happy Harbor. Superboy agrees and he picks up his two friends to fly them over himself. Bart says he’d prefer to run, but then suddenly notices that the ground beneath them has mysteriously become a large body of water.

When they reach Happy Harbor, our heroes are shocked to see Deathstroke, Captain Boomerang and Lex Luthor standing at the entrance of the cave. With an unconscious Wonder Girl beneath them.

I thought that Meghan Fitzmartin understood Young Justice. I was wrong. True, she knows a bit more about their history than Brian Michael Bendis, but not that much. Or perhaps what I’m seeing here is even worse. Perhaps Fitzmartin is willfully engaging in revisionist history to suit her agenda. Look, I understand that her thesis is that nostalgia isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. There are lots of examples of things we loved as kids that are kind of problematic today. But does that really apply to Peter David’s and Todd Nauck’s Young Justice? I don’t think so.

Let’s break it down. First, the Mighty Endowed. A crude joke, for sure. A little sexist? Perhaps. But let’s roll back the tape and look at what actually happened way back in 1998. Mighty Endowed was only seen on two pages of Young Justice #1. And she didn’t even fight our heroes. She challenged them to a battle — which only the horny Superboy was interested in — and then she promptly collapsed due to the weight of her enormous breasts. Yes, I’ll concede that was likely Peter David’s clumsy attempt at appealing to teenage boy humor. But mostly, I look at it as commentary on the trend of so many comics of that day to give every female hero and villain impossibly large cleavage.

Tora was also a quick, throwaway villain that only showed up on a couple of pages. Fitzmartin (through Cissie) seems to be implying that Young Justice was somehow … unfair? … to fight her because she was a woman and from another country? I don’t fully understand the criticism. What seems unfair to me is to put so much stock into such a quick little gag. Tora robbed Wall Street and a china shop just because they were related to bulls. Then she tried to crash a plane onto a crowd of people watching the running of the bulls in Spain. Was it wrong of Peter David to create jokey villains like Mighty Endowed and Tora? I really don’t think so.

I do think it’s wrong to have Cissie complaining about Young Justice only fighting women and people from other countries. Both Mighty Endowed and Tora happened before Arrowette joined the team. And once she did join, they mostly fought an evil genie that warped reality, a bunch of different demons (some of which brainwashed toddlers into killing their parents), and Harm, a psychotic murderer who threw an arrow through Cissie’s shoulder. So I really have no idea what Cissie is referring to, or why Fitzmartin is choosing to say these things through Cissie.

Should we talk about why Cissie actually quit being a hero? Because Meghan Fitzmartin somehow missed reading one of the most emotional and significant issues in Peter David’s run. Cissie’s therapist and friend, Marcey Money, was tortured and killed by her ex-fiancé. Cissie retaliated by hunting down and attempting to kill that man, only being stopped by Superboy at the last possible second. Cissie stopped being Arrowette because she never wanted to risk returning to that dark place ever again. But she didn’t stop helping out her friends as a civilian — notably taking part in a high-stakes intergalactic baseball game and signing up as a medic during Our Worlds at War. She didn’t quit the team because of the male toxicity  exhibited by Impulse, Robin and Superboy. Heck, it was Superboy who stopped her from becoming a murderer! And Cissie knows the boys well enough to understand that none of them had an easy life or “had the whole world handed to them on a platter.” I mean, two of them were killed, for crying out loud!

I don’t know which would be worse: Fitzmartin simply not knowing any of the things I just said, or knowing all that and choosing to ignore it because it didn’t line up with the story she wanted to tell. But either way, it makes for a very frustrating and distracting experience. I’m trying to get into the mystery and enjoy the moments of Impulse having the most level head of the group. But I can’t get past how angry Fitzmartin is making me. And Laura Braga, too. This is unacceptably bad art. In this day and age, with characters this iconic and revered, we should have more consistent artwork.

Next: The Trinity of Trauma!