Young Justice #15 Review

Superboy: The Truth

Written By: Brian Michael Bendis, David Walker

Art By: John Timms, Scott Godlewski, Gabe Eltaeb, Wes Abbott

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: June 16, 2020

It's the moment we've all been waiting for, the issue where Brian Michael Bendis tells us what's been going on with Young Justice, where some of our members remember one another and others don't.  Yeah, I'm sure that we'll get the bare minimum so that we can continue this conversation for the rest of the year in this and other books, but I know that I'm definitely interested in what brought Pre-Flashpoint Bart Allen and Conner Kent into our current reality and I can only hope that Bendis has a proper explanation for all of us.  Previously, we saw our Young Justice team break into the secret base of STAR Labs, where the evil Dr. Glory was hiding out so that they could retrieve Superboy from Skartaris.  With our Metropolis Kid back, now it's time to get some answers.  Let's jump into this issue and check it out.

Alright, I'm going to be frank with you.  Yes.  We do get answers to what's been going on with some of our heroes here and the greater DCU, but if you've been reading Young Justice this entire time, I'm sure that you have come up with the same explanation that Bendis gives us about why Superboy is from another timeline......... I know I did, but even with our brief explanation that is centered around Flashpoint/Doomsday Clock, it still doesn't answer the question about why Superboy appears to be rocking his 90's garb or why are characters would feel the need to be Young Justice, when Bart and Conner at least should remember that they graduated from that name and became the Teen Titans.  Is this a perfect explanation?  No, but I will say that as someone who hasn't really been digging this title as much as I've wanted to that this issue is at least nice and starts us down the road of getting some answers and if I know Bendis, he's not going to show his hand right away, but instead going to spread this idea out as far as he can and only give us dribs and drabs of what's actually going on........ This is a bit frustrating, but I'll take a slow burn of this over our heroes simply going from one Universe to the other, over and over again.

In this issue, we also get the idea that while the entire team that has been built up for this arc, you know, with the new Young Justice team, Naomi, Dial H and the Wonder Twins added in, not to mention Aqualad, Arrowette, Spoiler and Sideways that our team will be dwindled down a bit going forward because....... Well, there's just too many characters here and because of that, no one really gets any time to shine, but with that, we're told that this IS Young Justice, only that certain people will be called upon when the core team needs help.  I can get behind that, I just wish that Arrowette said something about her previously retiring or what her motivations are for putting the costume on again and continuing to.  It's small stuff that bothers me here, but overall this is one of the better issues that Bendis has given us because it was pretty straight forward but like always......... I just wanted more.

Watch our Young Justice #15 Video Review

All in all, the art in this issue is as great as it always is.  The art though has never been the problem when it comes to this book.  It's been the strange characterizations, dialog and the nothing stories that we've been getting.  At least here though we get some answers and small as they might be and not fully developed, it was at least something that I could start to sink my teeth into and get excited by, which at this point...... I'll take any real reason to enjoy this book if I can.  Don't expect a lot out of the team that was built up though for this arc because beyond our some of our core characters, there isn't a lot for anyone really to do here and the evil Dr. Glory just kind of feels like a prop villain, who was never really fleshed out.

Bits and Pieces:

While I'm still not getting the book that I want this to be, this issue at least starts us down a path that's interesting in that it wants to explain why certain things are the way they are in our current DCU and I get excited about that because it makes me think that this means we'll be starting on our way back to the way things used to be....... Yeah, backwards to get forwards isn't always the best bet, but it feels better than the hodgepodge that things have been over the last few years.  Beyond that though, you get some great art and the start of some explanations about Superboy here, which was enough to make me interested, but in the end, there needed to be more.

6.5/10