I’m a Recovering Young Justice Addict

Animé and Toons
I’m a Recovering Young Justice Addict
By Hervé St-Louis
April 22, 2012 - 15:15

Hello. My name is Hervé and I am a Young Justice addict. I can’t help myself. I watch is religiously every week. My addiction first began when I reviewed the series about a year ago. I only had a few episodes to go by and quickly had to scramble with local TeleToon re-runs. Like many fans, I waited months for the new episodes to start trickling down in March 2012. Cartoon Network released a few more episodes on DVD but I didn’t get to review them. Anyway, critics were already railing about the few episodes included in each release. What makes a reasonable adult so weak when faced with a cartoon meant for kids?

Young Justice is a series introduced on Cartoon Network in January 2011. It’s about the sidekicks of the Justice League being given their own team and supervised by the adult members of the League. They are sent on cover missions that would draw too much attention on the Justice League. Originally founded by Robin, Aqualad and KidFlash, with Speedy refusing to join the kids, the team discovered a young clone of Superman which they dubbed Superboy. The clone has no memories and has father issues towards Superman. Not nice. Quickly the team elects Aqualad as their leader and adds to girls to its lineup, Miss Martian and Artemis. The series includes the members of the Justice League in several episodes. Many of the villains faced by Young Justice are Justice League villains.

The series’ characterization and pacing are tight and so are the plots. Then animation design was done by Phil Bourassa which has become an important voice in the re-imagining of the DC Comics universe and has also worked on some Marvel-related series like Thor Tales of Asgard.

What has made me addicted to Young Justice is how it’s the best interpretation of the Justice League and DC Comics universe since the Justice League Unlimited series. It cleans everything nicely and introduces old favourites in a dynamic sets. It took liberties such as giving each sidekick a different age and acknowledging the past, while making it approachable to new fans. For example while Garth is still Aqualad’s sidekick, he’s not Tempest here. The real Aqualad is the black kid we can see in Aquaman these days. But how only one of them is Aqualad is well explained. I like the dynamics between Robin and KidFlash as old friends who know each other’s secrets. There’s a similar dynamic with Red Arrow and Aqualad as the old kids of the gang. And then, there’s all the new characters such as Artemis, Miss Martian and Superboy that have never worked with the old “Titans” but still manage to find their place.

I like how Superboy is a depowered Superman/Lex Luthor clone who needs patches to suppress his human DNA in order to achieve his full Kryptonian potential. I like how Miss Martian is really a white Martian that’s hiding her real shape from others. My favourite part is how the modern Justice League has been re-imagined with the classic line-up all there and some of the core ones from later eras such Captain Atom, Green Lantern John Stewart, Plastic Man and Captain Marvel. One thing I really like is the use of Zatarra as both Dr. Fate and himself, and Zatanna as his junior counterpart in Young Justice. We’ve seen Beast Boy before he got his powers with a possible new origin inspired by Miss Martian’s blood transfusion, but this show still lacks a Wonder Girl, a Cyborg and a Starfire. I guess it’s not Teen Titans’s show, but it’s really got me hooked. Now if Cartoon Network and Warner Home Animation were smarter in the release of their DVD/Blu-Ray collections, that would help fans like me hunting for this show on TeleToon and having to watch reruns all the time. But that’s another debate.