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Mild Mannered Reviews - "Young Justice" Comics

Young Justice #0

Young Justice #0

Scheduled to arrive in stores: January 19, 2011

Cover date: March 2011

"Stopover"

Writer: Kevin Hopps & Greg Weisman
Penciller: Mike Norton
Inker: Mike Norton
Cover: Mike Norton

Reviewed by: Adam Dechanel

Click to enlarge



If you haven't watched Young Justice Episodes One and Two - and only watch to the point in episode two where the Justice League and Batman is about to speak! OK you've hit the pause button? Let's get going.

The Justice League arrive at the Cadmus Project facility and confront their young wards. Batman asks them for three days grace to decide their future before they do anything rash.

The trio of Wally West, Kaldur Kaldur'ahm and Dick Grayson all have homes to go to but not Superboy, especially as Superman has already hightailed it. Wally turns to 'Supey' and invites him home for a three day weekend. Rudolph & Mary West are used to Wally's weird life and after listening to the events in Cadmus, they welcome Superboy into their home. Rudolph asks the unemotional Superboy his name to which he replies simply 'Superboy' or Supey as Wally calls him.

In the ocean Kaldur trails Aquaman back home and tells him the boys hadn't meant to be disrespectful and fully expects Arthur to tear him down for his actions. Arthur however surprises the boy by agreeing with his wise actions. Back at Wally's Superboy can't shake his longing to know his step-biological 'father' Wally struggles to hide how Superman really feels lest he hurt his friends feelings and he nods off to sleep. Superboy isn't used to home comforts and instead sleeps in the closet but slowly he chills out a little and the two teens fall quickly into the usual sloth behavior all teens do, much to the disapproval of Mary who throws the two smelly teens out but not before delivering a package left on the doorstep. Superboy quizzes Wally over the credit card gift, could it be from Superman? No, sadly not, its from Bruce but again Wally hides that fact from the Teen of Steel.

Tuppence and Tommy, the Terror Twins are in Central City mall planning havoc, coincidentally at the same exact time that Superboy and Wally arrive to outfit Supey in something other than his (smelly) pod suit. Trouble is indeed brewing but over in Gotham, Alfred Pennyworth is trying to console a very irritated young man. Dick just can't sit still for a second though Alfred assures him that Bruce always sticks to deadlines, in a few short hours, he will know his fate.

The Terror Twins begin their trail of destruction with a robbery in a jewelry store hurling guards in the air and smashing cases. The commotion is something Wally and Superboy cannot ignore so grabbing a few bandannas to hide their identities they leap into action - kinda. Superboy is hurled through wall after wall and Wally is dodging debris, and catching the hurled hostages. As the fight leads outside, Wally commends his buddy for luring them into the open much to Superboy's bewilderment. Then just as the Terror Twins are about to crush their inexperienced foes they turn tail and dash away. Wally smugly theorizes its because they were scared of the duo that is until he notices two familiar shaped silhouettes behind them. Superman and The Flash look down on the two boys disapprovingly and Flash tells the boys to go home, wait till tomorrow and leave the clean up and capture to them - Batman has made his decision.

Superboy turns to Wally as Superman's blur fades into the Central City canyons of skyscrapers and asks his friend if the Man Of Steel will be there at their judgement, Wally again tries to hide the fact Superman wants nothing to do with the boy, but even Superboy can see he's lying. He asks Wally another question, why did he take him in? Wally shrugs that Aqualad lives underwater, Dick has the Bat cave, Wally has the only normal home life and he thought it would be nice for them to be friends. Finally, truly, Superboy cracks a smile.

The next day at the judgement, Batman issues instructions. They are to be a team based in the secret Mount Justice facility where they will be under the supervision of Red Tornado. Black Canary will tutor them and Batman will designate them missions that need a less public appearance than the multicolored Justice League.

The five of them will officially be a team.

Wait... FIVE?!

To be continued in the last few minutes of episode two finale Independence Day...

5Story - 5: So this issue delves a little more into the lives of our teams and expands on their character. The exploration into Wally and Superboy is an interesting one, a pairing I'll admit I didn't think would work. I thought if anyone, Dick would take Superboy under is wing but this issue proves that perhaps Wally's fun side works very well against Superboy's 'straight man' I like that this issue wasn't a straightforward adaption of Independence Day and instead added more to the story. I'm not sure I like that the adult League treat their wards so harshly because their reasons for it aren't really conveyed to the boys. All in all I'm enjoying this as a companion to the series and am glad they are intertwining the series and book. I wont go into the mix of histories for the characters as that's something the show reviews will explore in more depth but I think its great that the writers are trying something new. The Terror Twins are a bit lame as debut foes but as they couldn't 'go public' as heroes officially its understandable that they didn't throw in someone with a bigger rep. This is great relatable family reading and if you're a fan of the show a nice touching addition to the shows depth.

4Art - 4: The art is a feast and as with past DCUA books, a great deal of effort is being made to stick to the character models in the show. The facial expressions sometimes look a little out of place, but perhaps because the inks are a little heavier than we're used to seeing with only the finer lines on screen as a reference but I applaud Mike Norton's skill at capturing the feel of the show on the printed page. Many artists struggle with matching the look from medium to medium and I'm glad that's not the case here.

4Cover Art - 4: For a covert team they sure explode with a bit too much color here! Perhaps it's the coloring on the glossy paper stock, but it seems far more muted in the books interior. The pencils are nice but there seem to be a few too many intrusive elements. The font for writing credits, the CN logo, the Johnny DC character button, even the barcode - they all seem to unnecessarily compact a great cover!


Mild Mannered Reviews

2011

Note: Month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic went on sale.

January 2011

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