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Saturday, October 08, 2011

Young Justice #6 - Sept. 2011

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"Fears", written by Art Baltazar, Franco, and Christopher Jones

It's Young Justice Saturday!

by Shrine Correspondent Andy Luckett
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Hello again everyone, Andy Luckett here with a review of Young Justice issue six. When we last left our heroes, they were spending a quiet night of bonding around a campfire outside of their headquarters. As the members shared their origin stories and how they came to be a part of the team, Superboy shocked everyone by admitting to thoughts of destroying Superman.

This issue does not pick up after that moment but rather begins with Robin recalling his early days as a young acrobat at Haly's Circus. After the murder of his family by a crime boss named Anthony Zucco, Bruce Wayne took the boy in, revealing his identity as Batman and offering young Dick Grayson a chance to become his partner. After this interlude, we pick back up with the main story, as the other members confront Superboy about his admission:
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After the group advises Superboy to "put the thoughts out of his head", they move on to ask M'Gann to talk about her past. She obliges, telling a tale of growing up under the surface of Mars:
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After M'Gann finishes, the others decide to hit the hay in their tents, except for Superboy, who wants to brood by the fire some more. Aqualad tries to offer a friendly ear but Superboy refuses. While alone in front of the fire Connor (Superboy's new civilian name) fantasizes about taking down a rampaging Superman and defeating him:
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In a flashback, we see that Superboy first experienced these thoughts during his time in the Cadmus tube, implying that perhaps this desire to destroy Superman was coded into him at his creation. The issue ends with Connor deciding that taking down Superman is his purpose in life.


Well, this issue served to continue the story from last issue, and we got to see all of the core member's origins (except Artemis). And while these sequences were interesting and definitely the best parts of these issues, there is very little forward momentum to the story. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does leave a feeling that this two-parter is really more of a background provider and set-up to the next main story; more of a footnote than a chapter.

Nevertheless, I especially enjoyed M'Gann's origins from her time on Mars. Not being very well-versed in DC Martian lore, I knew of the Green and White Martian races but had never heard of Red Martians. But the idea of M'Gann winning a contest to come to Earth sets her character up as both a fierce warrior and someone who can accomplish anything she desires.

Aqualad's presence was minimal in this issue, which is understandable because he received his origin spotlight last time. But it is mildly disappointing that he is left with a few lines of dialogue only.

Superboy's quest to destroy Superman will hopefully make for good drama coming up, although one disadvantage this comic has is that it can't take too many major digressions from the main narritive thrust of the TV show so that the storylines can coexist. So we will have to wait and see if anything comes of the cliffhanger they've set up.


1 comment:

Diabolu Frank said...

Oh... man. So very many liberties taken on that Miss Martian origin. In fact, they're so numerous and blatant, I wonder if its intentional. I mean, for starters, that's Wonder Woman's origin. Second, why bring up the White Martians, especially in a new context that portrays them as an oppressed minority? I'd go off on this stuff, but it would be potential spoiler territory for folks unfamiliar with the comics.

For the record, there are no actual Red Martians. They're Red Saturnians, who were revealed to be clones made from Martian DNA.