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Young Justice: Targets #3

Scheduled to arrive in stores: September 27, 2022
Cover date: November 2022

"Evocative Intel"

Writer: Greg Weisman
Artist: Christopher Jones
Cover: Christopher Jones and Jason Wright
Variant Covers: Meghan Hetrick

Reviewed by: Tony Parker
Click to enlarge

Back at The Outsider's base, "Queen Perdita" (that is, her imposter) and King Byron notify the team that Perdita is safe, and that Count Vertigo will be brought to justice. Despite the assurances, Beast Boy can't help but be suspicious, saying that Perdita hadn't asked about any of the other victims of the kidnapping. Wonder Girl agrees that it's odd, and asks Raptor Squad for a report.

Raptor Squad (Robin/Tim Drake, El Dorado, and Looker) report in, having found Joe Henchy, a Vertigo Henchman who they suspect could have helped Vertigo escape.

Meanwhile, at the Royal Memorial Hospital, Nightwing, Spoiler, Mist and Orphan, undercover as a United Nations commission, receive more information about the comatose patients, and find that the five all were working at a mining camp in Krastmala.

At Markovburg, Byron shows "Perdita" to her room, assigning Jet and Lizard Johnny, his two best cadets, to be outside her door.

Back in Paris, Raptor Squad reports Looker's findings, and they're not good: Joe Henchy had been planning to break Vertigo out, and the two were in constant communication, but they hadn't figured anything out, which means that Vertigo had been broken out. Further more, Vertigo can't gain the crown from kidnapping or killing Perdita. Wonder Girl wonders what this could possibly mean.

At the castle, Byron chides The Infinitors for failing to catch a single kidnapper, when suddenly he finds out "Perdita" is gone. Everyman and Trajectory smile conspiratorialy at each other.

At Krastmala, Nightwing, Spoiler, Mist and Orphan all find an underground branch of the river the mining camp had discovered, and gather data, when they are attacked by six of the same armored goons that kidnapped Perdita and busted out Vertigo. Orphan destroys one, to Nightwing's alarm, only to reveal they are robots. As the rest of the team takes them out, Nightwing calls Oracle and Robin for intel on the bots, whose tech is way beyond Vertigo's capabilities. An answer is soon found, and not one anyone wanted: Lex Luthor has been behind this all along...

In the third memory flashback to the day Perdita lost her father, Arrowette, who knows of the story as it's prime Arrow Family lore, recounts how Green Arrow had managed to motivate and sooth a young Perdita before getting struck by arrows from Merlyn. Tigress then calls Arrowette, saying it's mission time...

To Be Continued...

2Story - 2: I must admit, this one was a bit boring. While the previous two felt like well focused issues that managed to jump POV's without losing heart or interest, this one almost feels like a filler issue, even with all the big reveals.

Which, to be honest, were a little underwhelming. The only real hint to Luthor's involvement was that the tech was more advanced than Vertigo's, but outside of that, it could have been any smart villain in the DC universe. I do appreciate the superman connection, as, to be frank, there haven't been many in this book so far, but still it wasn't the best reveal considering the available evidence.

My main problem isn't that the issue is bad. There are some decent action moments at the end, the intrigue builds with the added villain and "Perdita's" escape, and seeing some of the (so far) bit players get to add to the story is very nice.

But, well, it all kind of feels empty, average, by the numbers. We switch POV so often in the issue that moments are barely felt. I should feel something when Byron has lost Perdita again, but it's brief, because we have to jump to another character every time.

And, unlike previous issues, that dealt with characters who clearly had a need to help Perdita either from love and friendship (Beast Boy and the Outsiders), familial love (Geo Force) or a need to make up for past failures (Roy Harper and Green Arrow), most of the POV characters are just doing their jobs, which, while great to see, never goes into any feelings. It's a kind of lifeless issue, as many filler issues like this can be.

It was nice to see Cassandra Cain, though. Good to see her in more stories.

Hopefully next one picks up, because this was an issue full of everything but life.

3Art - 3: Art is as solid as ever, without any real standouts in bad or good ways. Just like the issue, it's fine and serviceable.

3Cover Art - 3: Again, not much to say. It's fine, it's a nice half and half cover, and it's accurate to the story, but I've seen a million of these, and this isn't staying in the memory anytime soon.

3Variant Cover Art - 3: A pretty nice cover for Hispanic Heritage month, cool realistic shading. Neat!

Mild Mannered Reviews

2022

Note: Except for digital first releases, the month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic went on sale.
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