Writer: Meghan Fitzmartin
Art team: Laura Braga, Luis Guerrero, and Pat Brosseau
Release Date: 7/19//22
Price: $3.99
Reviewed by: Jon Wayne
This series is incredibly frustrating for me. I was excited to read it, I came out of comic reviewing retirement for it, I want to love it, but it is just not good. Any long-time fan of these characters probably feels the same way because of the disrespect to the characters, though maybe if the story made any sense, people could be a tad forgiving. Alas, the plot is a convoluted mess, and the attempts to do meta-commentary are falling flat when the story itself is so lackluster. Let's dive in. Spoilers ahead.
This issue picks up right where the last one left off, with the team battling the Mighty Endowed and a version of Cassie joining them. I noted that while this Cassie is wearing a costume she wore during the original Young Justice run, it’s from much later in the run than the costumes the other three OGs are rocking at the moment. I am curious if this is a conscious decision by the art team or if DC editorial simply doesn't care. Either way, art is solid throughout, which is the highlight here.
While the nonsense plot of dragging these characters to villains from their past with no explanation spins its wheels, Fitzmartin is busy reducing Bart Allen to an adolescent teen with a bag full of creepy borderline misogynist jokes. This is a recurring theme in this series, as Fitzmartin must not have read many stories with this group of characters after Conner died in Infinite Crisis. The last issue she planted the seed of playing with the Conner/Cassie/Tim love triangle again, even though Geoff Johns himself wrote the series where those issues were addressed. Now with Bart, I guess she never read the series where he was forced to grow up and become the Flash himself! And back in the real world, Fitzmartin has reduced Cassie to being a cheerleader for the boys and made Cissie a resentful teen who secretly hated her best friends! Once again, her feelings about leaving the team were dealt with YEARS AGO, and it was handled much better than this.
If I give Fitzmartin the benefit of the doubt and assume all of these fuck ups are actually meta critiques about how DC has fucked up this generation of legacy heroes, that’s cool! I can respect that a lot. But it doesn’t change the fact that meta-commentary alone does not make a good story. I am absolutely fine with political symbolism in my comics, I personally love it when done well, but the best writers understand that the symbolism can never supersede the story. That is not a balance Fitzmartin has figured out yet.
Setting aside my other thoughts on Fitzmartin’s characterization, DC’s decision to put her on this book makes no sense. Dark Crisis: Young Justice is the main miniseries tying into DC’s big blockbuster event, and it’s being written by someone who has only written a handful of comics in their entire career? That is creative malpractice.
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Bits and Pieces:
I am predisposed to love any and all forms of Young Justice, but I genuinely disdain what Meghan Fitzmartin is giving us here. It’s clear she doesn’t really know the characters - or what they’ve experienced since their time on Young Justice ended two decades ago - The meta critiques are fine. Still, she is simply not a good enough writer to take those critiques and make them into a compelling story.
5/10
No one likes what Meghan is doing here, I don't understand DC's decision of letting her trash these characters. I especially hate what she did to Bart here because as short as it was, I actually liked his time as The Flash and how he went down. I can't wait to read the incoming Superboy series from the Round Robin thing, it will wash my mouth of what she's done here to him. Unfortunately for Tim, there is no escape for him, DC has gave her a series writing him. I am sorry for Tim Drake fans, gladly I am not one of them.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, do you think DC just doesn't care anymore about the comics department? Because I can't understand how they allow this bastardization of these characters.
I myself have been wondering that for a bit now!
DeleteI remember picking up the first issue and really liking it. Granted I found Cissie's dialogue a bit annoying and Wonder Girl's narration about Tim a bit confusing and nonsensical. However this second issue was just...this was terrible. What a steep drop, and there's a lot that doesn't make sense. Tim, Bart & Conner see their mentors are alive again and are offering no question to it? There's no shock and emotion at these mentors/father figures presumed dead are actually alive?
ReplyDeleteAnd like you said, the meta-commentary does not make a good story. Now I'll admit, I haven't read ALL of the original YJ series, but I showed that panel where Cissie says she only remembers fighting immigrants, women and "people who were trying their best" to a colleague who HAS read the entire series and they had no idea what Cissie was referring to. Cissie is either being terribly written or she's actually a bad guy. Either way, in regards to Fitzmartin, I wonder if this is too much, too soon. I only know her from writing the Urban Legends stories with Tim Drake and aside from the ending of her third story, I found the rest of it rather dull.
It really makes me fear what's going to happen next month when she starts writing the new "Tim Drake: Robin" solo series because at this point, I don't think she's ready for primetime.