Earth Two #9 – Review

By: James Robinson (story), Nicola Scott (pencils), Trevor Scott (inks), Pete Pantazis & Alex Sinclair (colors)

The Story: Just because you’re a rambling lunatic doesn’t mean you can’t be a hero.

The Review: Despite my threats last month to Drop this series in a couple issues, if I’m to be perfectly honest with myself (and you), I’ll probably end up sticking with it in the long run just to see how the characters turn out.  Perverse curiosity, not genuine interest, motivates my investment in Earth Two.  If I want to see the Justice Society live again in some form or other, this is the only place I can turn to.

I do recognize of course that there’s little resemblance between the Justice Society of yore and that of the new 52, but I’m actually not sure if all the changes have been for the worse.  Let’s face it: the pre-relaunch JSA was truly a basket of white-bread characters, a reflection of its Golden Age roots.  I’m not really a purist; I don’t mind seeing superheroes reimagined as from different cultures and backgrounds if I didn’t much care for person under the costume anyway.

Young Justice Episode 19 – Review

By: Greg Weisman (writer)

The Story: Well, they do say teens have one foot in youth and the other in adulthood.

The Review: Yes, this review is a bit late in coming.  In my defense, I had no idea the show had returned until just a day or so ago.  The erratic scheduling of this series has been of the few truly frustrating aspects of Young Justice.  No sooner does it come back than it goes on hiatus again.  Consequently, the first season has stretched on for nearly two years now, which is quite an achievement, depending on your point of view.

Anyhow, the five months since our last visit with the team gave this episode the feeling of a season premiere.  That idea must not have been lost on Weisman, since the scope and quality of this episode feels very appropriate for a premiere.  He chooses to adapt Todd Dezago’s JLA: World Without Grown-Ups, the first storyline involving the team later to be known as Young Justice, and a pretty challenging one at that.  As you might figure out from the title, our immature heroes get placed in the awkward position of being the world’s only hope for salvation, mainly because there’s flat out no one else to turn to.

It’s actually quite interesting watching Weisman’s interpretation of the story, because it seems to exemplify some of the show’s standout features.  First off, the episode doesn’t have nearly the humor and slapstick when it was Fonzie-wannabe Superboy, hyperactive Impulse, and straight man Robin (Tim Drake flavor) zipping around.  Here, things feel pretty sober, even tragic in places, and though Weisman writes it with great credibility, it’s undeniably a bummer story.

Yet strangely, at the same time, the episode somehow falls short of the maturity Dezago’s original storyline had, even though technically, the team here acts a lot more mature than the one back then.  Dezago used the absence of adults to satirically play out a world where kids can act on their impulses and desires without restriction, true, but he also dove into the crushing resentment of kids whose parents are merely figuratively absent.  Weisman sort of dismisses that to focus on the more after school special (ASS, remember) side of things: parents and children learning to appreciate each other’s presence in their lives, kids who must grow up fast to take responsibility as necessary, that kind of thing.

Young Justice Episode 14 – Review

By: Kevin Hopps (writer)

The Story: You have to hate it when villains catch on to the value of teamwork.

The Review: Over the course of this series, we’ve seen a lot of interconnected plotlines, a neat feat for a cartoon, one for which the show’s writers should give themselves a hefty pat on the back.  We’ve seen elements featured from early episodes, like the Blockbuster formula and Bane’s Venom, pop up again in later ones, developing into much bigger sources of tension.  We also know almost every foe the team has faced has some connection to the mysterious Light.

In this episode, the official halfway point of the series, almost all those elements finally get put into play when the Injustice League (or Society or what-have-you) launches attacks around the world.  It’s a pretty powerful group (Count Vertigo, Black Adam, Wotan, Ultra Humanite, Atomic Skull, Poison Ivy, and the Joker), but their particular method of collaboration is what proves most ingenious and challenging, not only for Young Justice, but their mentors as well.

Indeed, as much as our stars get to do, we see nearly as much action from the Justice League, which may draw out some wistful nostalgia for all you Justice League Unlimited fans.  Besides the usual suspects, we see appearances from some very surprising members.  Some are fun delights (Plastic Man), others interesting choices (Blue Devil and Guy Gardner as Green Lantern), and some just throw you for a loop (Milestone heroes Icon and Rocket).

But what of our young heroes?  While the big guns tackle the big, imminent threats, Batman entrusts YJ to take down the villains at the source, with no help or supervision whatsoever.  A major mission, to be sure, one that feels a tad early since the team still feels pretty rough around the edges.  At any rate, this should shut down any further accusations about being babysat and doing only grunt-work, once and for all.

Young Justice Episode 7 – Review

By: Thomas Pugsley (writer)

The Story: YJ embarks on a psychedelic journey through the magical world of Dr. Fate—it’s exactly as weird as it sounds.

The Review: Here is what friends do: talk with each other about each other behind each other’s backs, argue about ridiculous, often inconsequential things, and make fun of each other’s weaknesses.  And when the friends involved are teens, these elements pop up threefold.  It’s not necessarily as bad as it sounds.  Without these things, much of the spice of life would be missing.

That’s why it’s such a relief to see the YJ-ers finally ranking and razzing on each other (that’s right—I’m bringing back lingo from the late nineties; in my defense, they were totally solid back when I was, like, eight).  I think Artemis has a lot to do with that.  Besides how she’s naturally sarcastic to begin with, she also allows for a clear separation between the girls and the guys, which opens up a whole new layer of intrigue to the team dynamic.

Up until now, Miss Martian being the only girl, and a sweet one at that, has kind of forced the guys to tiptoe around her a little bit.  But now she has a new BFF, it frees her to show some snap and self-awareness.  It also brings in the inevitable girl talk, which we all know is code for talking about boys.  Fortunately, their mutual attraction to Superboy hasn’t brought resentment to their early friendship—that’s a ship I’d be fine with not sailing.

The best part of Artemis’ membership is her banter with Wally.  Rom-com dialogue tends to lean toward the obvious, especially when writers are obviously pushing for a specific matchup, as they do here.  Pugsley wisely keeps things good-natured, rather than mean-but-secretly-loving-it, and he avoids having them squabble pointlessly over nothing, choosing instead to let Artemis pick at Wally’s hypocrisy in claiming to believe in magic just to impress Miss Martian.