Young Justice (vol. 2) #0
Written by: Kevin Hopps and Greg Weisman
Art by: Mike Norton
Published by: DC
Cover Price: $2.99
During the pilot episode of the Young Justice cartoon Independence Day, Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad find and rescue Superboy from Project Cadmus, directly disobeying the Justice League. Batman insists that this will never happen again, but the kids refuse to accept that. In the episode, there is a three day gap between this scene, and Batman deciding that it’s in everyone’s best interest for them to be a formal team under the direct watch of the Justice League.
But, what happens during those three days? That’s exactly the question this spin off comic attempts to answer. Superboy has no place to stay, and Superman doesn’t want to have anything to do with him. Kid Flash invites Superboy to come stay with him and his family. Superboy has a little trouble fitting in, preferring to sleep in the closet because it reminds him of his pod back at Cadmus.
Batman gives them a little money to take Superboy to buy real clothes, and at the mall, they encounter and quickly defeat twin robbers named Tommy and Tuppence…the Terror twins. I’ve never heard of the Terror Twins from the comics, and couldn’t find them on the web. It’s cool they created new characters for the comic, I just hope that we see them again. I also loved that they were named after detectives from Agatha Christie novels!
Superboy and Kid Flash are very well characterized here. I loved that we see why Superboy has so many of the exact same shirt, and it was pretty funny when they used handkerchiefs to disguise their faces to try and prevent the Justice League find out they were fighting crime…as you can imagine, that failed spectacularly.
Meanwhile, Robin talks with Alfred, and Aqualad talks with Aquaman. They each basically get a page. Not that I didn’t enjoy the interactions between Superboy and Kid Flash, but I really like these versions of Robin and Aqualad, and would have loved to see their lives outside of Young Justice explored a little bit more. Hopefully they will get more of a spotlight in later issues. Poor Aqualad keeps getting the short straw in the cartoon too…
The art was solid, though not particular memorable. I thought Mike Norton’s work on Gravity was much better. That said, Kid Flash’s room was an Easter egg fest! According to Young Justice Wiki, you can see a Masters of the Universe poster and action figure, Electro, Morph, Bat-Mite, and a signed Richard Dragon poster. I love little details like that!
My initial feelings to this comic were very similar to my initial feelings about the cartoon, “This isn’t David and Nauck’s Young Justice.” But just like the cartoon, this comic did an excellent job carving out its own niche. Taken purely on its own merits (which is the only fair way to look at it), it really was a great book, and a nice supplement to the first episode of the cartoon.
Final Score: 7.5 – I definitely would have liked to see Robin and Aqualad get equal time here, but this bridged the gaps in “Independence Day” nicely.
