Young Justice #4 Review

Prison Break

Written By: Brian Michael Bendis

Art By: Patrick Gleason, John Timms, Alejandro Sanchez, Alex Sinclair, Wes Abbott

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: April 3, 2019

Oh boy, I don't understand the continuity of this book, but after having a month to sit down and think about this series...... maybe I don't need to.  Yeah, it would be nice if everything worked out and made sense within itself, but if I step back and just think about these young heroes coming together and re-forming a team........ that never was...... and with people they shouldn't know...... well, maybe if I just think about this team and the adventures they could have, then maybe I can get on board with what Brian Michael Bendis is giving us.  In the previous issue we saw the majority of our heroes imprisoned by the Dark Lord Opal and Bart finding out....... along with the rest of us that Superboy has been living on Gemworld for awhile now and has a child...... yup....  Let's jump into this issue.

Joking aside, I did try to put my previous misgivings about this series aside and just see what it was giving me on the most basic level and when I did this....... I realized that I still hate Gemworld and unless you're heavily steeped in Gemworld and Amethyst lore....... which I'm not, I don't think people are going to get a lot out of the flashbacks that we get in this issue other than some Game of Thrones type families in this fantasy world that are either going to war against one another, making allegiances...... or betraying one another...... all while saying "Gem" or gem type names repeatedly.  Not to mention that I don't understand the order of events that these flashbacks are happening in.  All in all, everything dealing with Gemworld in this issue is the worst part about this book.

Now to get away from Gemworld for awhile and even though I don't understand the continuity of these characters....... what we get out of the rest of our Young Justice heroes is actually pretty damn decent, especially the reunion of Bart, Conner, Tim and Cassie.  Even with this friendship not making sense, I was able to put that aside and just see it as a decent scene that actually made me feel happy.  Hell, even Jinny Hex had some stuff going on......... not much, but it was something and that's more than I can say about Teen Lantern, who still has nothing going on in this book at all.  

All in all, the art in this issue is great and maybe I can have a new sense of enjoyment in this if I can continue to leave my neurotic need for continuity aside, but nothing is going to make this jaunt through Gemworld any better because every point that it came up in this issue made the book drag and it just kind of came off lame overall.  I really hope that we get to leave Amethyst behind and just focus on the other heroes in this book going forward because that's where the heart of this title is and that's what I need from these characters and this book going forward...... I don't know what that means for Superboy with the roots that he's apparently established in Gemworld, but I hope that we can continue on with him back on Earth.  

Bits and Pieces:

Gemworld aside........ and that's going to be a pretty big thing to try and put aside this issue, I liked what we got from our Young Justice heroes and loved the art overall.  I just wish that we didn't have to have these issues happening in Gemworld because if you're not really into that aspect of DC Comics and know little about it....... I don't know what you'll get from all of the flashbacks we get here.  

6/10