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  1. #1
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    Default PERSONAL Review of the YJ Series (so far and future)Personal Review of the YJ Se

    Personal Review of the YJ Series (so far and future)

    I have some points , which I see difficult for the Series:


    1. The Wonder Label/ The Concentration on young readers:

    I personally have difficulties with this concentration. I started to read DC with Conner, Cassie, Bart and Tim during their YJ time and I enjoyed it.

    But now I am older and I enjoy more dark, mature stories.
    It feels strange for me to see Tim, Conner, Bart and Cassie still as teenagers and I also think that there were enough stories with them as teenagers, so that it would be refreshing to see them becoming older and move on.

    I STRICTLY believe that both teams would benefit from changing labels:

    -Damians Team would have much room to develop and their stories (as teenagers) are new
    -Tims Team can change to the “Standard” Label and interact with the main Universe Heroes/ Teams, which they didn’t do so far.

    I personally believe that it would be MUCH better for Tims Team to change to the “Standard” Label, because like I said above I grew up with Tims Generation, but I am now older and I think that the fans of Tims Generation are also now over 20 or older.
    I personally really have problems to read YJ, for example when they travelled to Captain Carrots Universe.

    2. The Speed of the Series

    The Comic comes out once every month and there were often Flashbacks in it.
    It made kind of difficult for me to read the stories, because the flashbacks slowed the story down and then you have to wait until next month to see what happens than.

    3. Timeline

    I personally have difficulties with the Series, because the timeline is unclear.
    We now have a kind of new Cassie and I also have difficulties with Conner.

    I mean we saw in the flashbacks how Conner arrived on Gemworld, BUT Conner in the flashbacks seemed to be younger than he was at the End of the Pre-Flashpoint, which should normally be the starting point or?

    4. Focus

    What I also didn’t like was that already during the first story they got 3 new team-members.
    I think it would have been MUCH better to focus in the first storyline on Conner, Cassie, Bart and Tim and also let them come back to Earth and interact with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Wally and Barry.

    I missed the focus on them and I would have more loved to see the 4 first alone and be more in the focus, since I feel that especially Conner was kind of unusually quiet.

    I also would like to read MORE of CONNERS and CASSIES Flashbacks which left some open questions.

    5. Team Compilation:

    I personally have problems with the team compilation.

    For me Hex doesn’t fit into the team.
    I mean she is good with weapons, but has no secret identity and as far as I have seen she also doesn’t seem to have the detective skills or fighting skills of a Bat-Family or Arrow Family member. Personally I also don’t like her enough to want to read more of her.

    Teen Lantern would be normally a good addition to the team, but she is to young for me and so she doesn’t really fit into the team for me.

    Amethyst seems to be a good addition, BUT I hope that she still has her magic skills and not only the use of crystals as swords, shields etc.

    NEW Additions:

    Arrowette would be ok, BUT she is to long inactive for me and Mia would be the better addition, since Mia developed also new skills during Pre-Flashpoint, while I think that Arrowette is to long inactive.

    Aqualad is ok

    Spoiler is unnecessary for and it makes the team to crowded and I would have more liked to bring a meta-human or magician instead of her.

    Sideways is ok…

    I personally have to say, that the team is to crowded for me and it includes to much “normal” humans without powers, which reduces the strength of the team as a whole.

    I personally would have loved to see the following roster:
    Tim, Cassie, Conner, Bart with

    Miss Martian, Blue Beetle, Static, (Raven), Terra (Geo-Force), Traci 13.

    I think that Damians Team could be the more interesting one since I find Crush, Djinn and Emiko more interesting than Spoiler, (the ACTUAL) Arrowette and Hex.

    6. Scope of the YJ team:

    I personally find it difficult to understand the scope of the YJ Team.

    I mean it’s a wild mix between:
    a) Veterans like Cassie, Conner, Bart, Tim
    b) Heroes who are on the way to become Veterans like Spoiler, Amethyst
    c) Newcomers like Aqualad, Sideways
    d) Absolute Newcomers like Teen Lantern and Hex
    e) Retired Heroes like Aqualad

    I mean until now it was kind of clear:

    -JSA were the kind of veterans
    -JL is the JL
    -Titans were the “replacements” and Nr. 2 in the power ranking
    -TT are the current youngest generation

    I don’t know how YJ will fit into this and I also don’t know where YJ will land in this “ranking”, since they have like I stated a wild mix of team members.
    I don’t know which missions they will take on, because Cassie, Conner, Bart and Tim are kind of Veterans who should master almost everything.
    I mean Conner battled Superboy Prime so he should be among the most powerful DC Heroes, while his team member Hex is obviously not.

    7. Rivals for their place

    Another point which I find difficult is that every member of YJ has now at least one rival for his place in a similar age.

    If Bart, Cassie, Conner and Tim would be older than it would be less problem, because then the rivals would be younger than they were and so not so much a problem.
    But now they have rivals and some rivals seem to be even more powerful than they are:

    Conner has rivals in Kenan Kong and Jonathan (all 3 are seemingly at a similar age), if Conner would be over 20 and Kenan like 16-17 and Jonathan 13 it would be less problem.

    Cassie has a rival in Peng Deilan

    Bart has a rival in Wallace West and Avery Ho

    Tim has a rival in Wang Baixi and Damian

    Arrowette has a rival in Emiko

    I see this as problem, especially since some rivals seem to be more powerful than the “original ones” the YJ members.

    Its difficult for interactions…I mean will you simply make Jonathan outperform Conner and Jonathan become Superman while Conner stays SuperBOY?

    8. Storyline

    The actual storylines were ok, but I preferred more the storylines of other books like TT.
    I hope we get another kind of stories when they are back on earth.


    CONCLUSION:

    This is all MY PERSONAL OPINION.

    I strictly believe that it would be better for Tims Team if they get back to the “Standard Label” and they focus on a reader group of 20+ and will let Tim, Bart, Conner, Cassie age up, because like I stated above the comparisons with the rivals could be problematic to solve.

  2. #2
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    I don't think the chinese JL are really rivals, they are to obscure and age wise they seem (I didn't read their book) closer to the Original Titans.

    Damian isn't really a rival for Tim he is still much younger, if he has a rival it is probably Duke Thomas.

    When it comes the the ranking, YJ is set between Titans and TT, when it comes to this just look at the core members, all teams have occasionally some newbie characters even the JL.
    Last edited by Aahz; 12-04-2019 at 02:46 AM.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Masterff View Post
    Personal Review of the YJ Series (so far and future)

    I have some points , which I see difficult for the Series:


    1. The Wonder Label/ The Concentration on young readers:

    I personally have difficulties with this concentration. I started to read DC with Conner, Cassie, Bart and Tim during their YJ time and I enjoyed it.

    But now I am older and I enjoy more dark, mature stories.
    It feels strange for me to see Tim, Conner, Bart and Cassie still as teenagers and I also think that there were enough stories with them as teenagers, so that it would be refreshing to see them becoming older and move on.

    I STRICTLY believe that both teams would benefit from changing labels:

    -Damians Team would have much room to develop and their stories (as teenagers) are new
    -Tims Team can change to the “Standard” Label and interact with the main Universe Heroes/ Teams, which they didn’t do so far.

    I personally believe that it would be MUCH better for Tims Team to change to the “Standard” Label, because like I said above I grew up with Tims Generation, but I am now older and I think that the fans of Tims Generation are also now over 20 or older.
    I personally really have problems to read YJ, for example when they travelled to Captain Carrots Universe.

    2. The Speed of the Series

    The Comic comes out once every month and there were often Flashbacks in it.
    It made kind of difficult for me to read the stories, because the flashbacks slowed the story down and then you have to wait until next month to see what happens than.

    3. Timeline

    I personally have difficulties with the Series, because the timeline is unclear.
    We now have a kind of new Cassie and I also have difficulties with Conner.

    I mean we saw in the flashbacks how Conner arrived on Gemworld, BUT Conner in the flashbacks seemed to be younger than he was at the End of the Pre-Flashpoint, which should normally be the starting point or?

    4. Focus

    What I also didn’t like was that already during the first story they got 3 new team-members.
    I think it would have been MUCH better to focus in the first storyline on Conner, Cassie, Bart and Tim and also let them come back to Earth and interact with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Wally and Barry.

    I missed the focus on them and I would have more loved to see the 4 first alone and be more in the focus, since I feel that especially Conner was kind of unusually quiet.

    I also would like to read MORE of CONNERS and CASSIES Flashbacks which left some open questions.

    5. Team Compilation:

    I personally have problems with the team compilation.

    For me Hex doesn’t fit into the team.
    I mean she is good with weapons, but has no secret identity and as far as I have seen she also doesn’t seem to have the detective skills or fighting skills of a Bat-Family or Arrow Family member. Personally I also don’t like her enough to want to read more of her.

    Teen Lantern would be normally a good addition to the team, but she is to young for me and so she doesn’t really fit into the team for me.

    Amethyst seems to be a good addition, BUT I hope that she still has her magic skills and not only the use of crystals as swords, shields etc.

    NEW Additions:

    Arrowette would be ok, BUT she is to long inactive for me and Mia would be the better addition, since Mia developed also new skills during Pre-Flashpoint, while I think that Arrowette is to long inactive.

    Aqualad is ok

    Spoiler is unnecessary for and it makes the team to crowded and I would have more liked to bring a meta-human or magician instead of her.

    Sideways is ok…

    I personally have to say, that the team is to crowded for me and it includes to much “normal” humans without powers, which reduces the strength of the team as a whole.

    I personally would have loved to see the following roster:
    Tim, Cassie, Conner, Bart with

    Miss Martian, Blue Beetle, Static, (Raven), Terra (Geo-Force), Traci 13.

    I think that Damians Team could be the more interesting one since I find Crush, Djinn and Emiko more interesting than Spoiler, (the ACTUAL) Arrowette and Hex.

    6. Scope of the YJ team:

    I personally find it difficult to understand the scope of the YJ Team.

    I mean it’s a wild mix between:
    a) Veterans like Cassie, Conner, Bart, Tim
    b) Heroes who are on the way to become Veterans like Spoiler, Amethyst
    c) Newcomers like Aqualad, Sideways
    d) Absolute Newcomers like Teen Lantern and Hex
    e) Retired Heroes like Aqualad

    I mean until now it was kind of clear:

    -JSA were the kind of veterans
    -JL is the JL
    -Titans were the “replacements” and Nr. 2 in the power ranking
    -TT are the current youngest generation

    I don’t know how YJ will fit into this and I also don’t know where YJ will land in this “ranking”, since they have like I stated a wild mix of team members.
    I don’t know which missions they will take on, because Cassie, Conner, Bart and Tim are kind of Veterans who should master almost everything.
    I mean Conner battled Superboy Prime so he should be among the most powerful DC Heroes, while his team member Hex is obviously not.

    7. Rivals for their place

    Another point which I find difficult is that every member of YJ has now at least one rival for his place in a similar age.

    If Bart, Cassie, Conner and Tim would be older than it would be less problem, because then the rivals would be younger than they were and so not so much a problem.
    But now they have rivals and some rivals seem to be even more powerful than they are:

    Conner has rivals in Kenan Kong and Jonathan (all 3 are seemingly at a similar age), if Conner would be over 20 and Kenan like 16-17 and Jonathan 13 it would be less problem.

    Cassie has a rival in Peng Deilan

    Bart has a rival in Wallace West and Avery Ho

    Tim has a rival in Wang Baixi and Damian

    Arrowette has a rival in Emiko

    I see this as problem, especially since some rivals seem to be more powerful than the “original ones” the YJ members.

    Its difficult for interactions…I mean will you simply make Jonathan outperform Conner and Jonathan become Superman while Conner stays SuperBOY?

    8. Storyline

    The actual storylines were ok, but I preferred more the storylines of other books like TT.
    I hope we get another kind of stories when they are back on earth.


    CONCLUSION:

    This is all MY PERSONAL OPINION.

    I strictly believe that it would be better for Tims Team if they get back to the “Standard Label” and they focus on a reader group of 20+ and will let Tim, Bart, Conner, Cassie age up, because like I stated above the comparisons with the rivals could be problematic to solve.
    Can the Chinese JL really be considered rivals to YJ? None of the characters have interacted with each other and the Chinese JL haven't been used much since the New Superman series ended(they had a few cameos but that's ab out it)

  4. #4
    Mind Controller Arnoldoaad's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Masterff View Post
    Personal Review of the YJ Series (so far and future)

    I have some points , which I see difficult for the Series:


    1. The Wonder Label/ The Concentration on young readers:

    I personally have difficulties with this concentration. I started to read DC with Conner, Cassie, Bart and Tim during their YJ time and I enjoyed it.

    But now I am older and I enjoy more dark, mature stories.
    It feels strange for me to see Tim, Conner, Bart and Cassie still as teenagers and I also think that there were enough stories with them as teenagers, so that it would be refreshing to see them becoming older and move on.

    I STRICTLY believe that both teams would benefit from changing labels:

    -Damians Team would have much room to develop and their stories (as teenagers) are new
    -Tims Team can change to the “Standard” Label and interact with the main Universe Heroes/ Teams, which they didn’t do so far.

    I personally believe that it would be MUCH better for Tims Team to change to the “Standard” Label, because like I said above I grew up with Tims Generation, but I am now older and I think that the fans of Tims Generation are also now over 20 or older.
    I personally really have problems to read YJ, for example when they travelled to Captain Carrots Universe.
    Peter David's Young Justice is one of favorite comics of all time and I didnt started reading it when it came out but many years later But I completely understand what you mean.
    One that run's greatest strenghts is how it show the characters really growing up
    seeing Wonder Girl moving from just fan of WW with a crush on superboy to a capable and confident fighter is not an easy feat of the book
    Impulse learning to slow down after coming close to facing death, Superboy learning maturity and discipline and so forth.

    and then graduation day and TT happen and all that character development went to hell

    so this is not fault of the label
    I honestly dont think being more involved with the main books for the same reason that I would see absolutly no difference if this and TT changed names with one another, it wouldnt solve their problem

    Damian's TT is a different conversation that needs its own thread but strongly believe that DC has had no idea what to do with the Titans franchise since Geoff Johns left the title 12-13 years ago
    there hasnt been a single memorable storyline on the franchise since then nor an innovative idea on the concept, this is not even Damian's first TT rooster, is the third one and it hasnt done anything special with it.

    2. The Speed of the Series

    The Comic comes out once every month and there were often Flashbacks in it.
    It made kind of difficult for me to read the stories, because the flashbacks slowed the story down and then you have to wait until next month to see what happens than.
    I agree with this but not necesarily for the same reason

    the problem is that the first arc on Gem World kind of serve as a reunion for YJ, kinda like putting the team together and yet this "coming together" is still going on because of the flashbacks despite going to new Earths

    I wouldnt blame this on the pacing but rather the structure of the story, we should had have much more focus on the flashbacks of Hex, Teen Lantern and others before leaving Gems world that way it would feel like a more cohesive story. look for example the flashback with Kon during the Geamstone arc, it flows better because we found him there, the story had to intruce Kon by how he reach this place first, with the other flashbacks they are trying to introduce characters that technically are already introduced so instead what you are feeling with this is like the plot is moving forward, then is not, then it moves, then is not and so forth.

    3. Timeline

    I personally have difficulties with the Series, because the timeline is unclear.
    We now have a kind of new Cassie and I also have difficulties with Conner.

    I mean we saw in the flashbacks how Conner arrived on Gemworld, BUT Conner in the flashbacks seemed to be younger than he was at the End of the Pre-Flashpoint, which should normally be the starting point or?
    being fair with Bendis there seems to be an actual purpose for this but we havent seen the full scope of it yet

    The way I understand it is that Gemworld is not affected by the Crisis that affect Earth and the rest of the multiverse, this is weird because this is a retconned Gemworld from the original but whaever.
    So post Lemire's Superboy(pure guess on my part) leaves Earth and lands on Gemworld, then the New 52 happens and creates the new 52 TT, THEN (and this is also pure speculation on my part but I cannot think I would be wrong on this) the entirety of the new 52 Teen Titans are completely retconned out by Rebirth or some other event and on its place it erases the memories of many people to put a 3rd continuity on them instead, which is then when Tim visits Zatara and that makes him regain the pre-new52 memories

    there are a bunch of problems with this theory though, like characters like Bunker from the new 52 TT are still showing up on other books and it makes Tim Drake's timely all kinds of f*** because then how old is he? are his parents dead or alive? and many other things
    as always, the bat character is the one that needs keep the most of continuity, Cassie, Kon and Bart are technically the same as the ones from YJ
    but also with a couple of added problems like how old are any of them and WTF is or not in continuity.

    we have to wait and see


    4. Focus

    What I also didn’t like was that already during the first story they got 3 new team-members.
    I think it would have been MUCH better to focus in the first storyline on Conner, Cassie, Bart and Tim and also let them come back to Earth and interact with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Wally and Barry.

    I missed the focus on them and I would have more loved to see the 4 first alone and be more in the focus, since I feel that especially Conner was kind of unusually quiet.
    I agree and I think is again due to the same structure problem that we had at the begining

    In all seriousness, the plot of "arriving to Gemworld" is not important, it was just an excuse to put the team together hence why the problem is solved so quickly by the end of that arc with Kon beating the main guy on one punch and Bart getting the gizmo that they needed to get in 2 seconds.
    the real drive of the first arc is introducing the characters and the team and as such it doesnt achieve its goal by the end of the arc and continues on the next one
    we should had had everyone's flashback's in order before going to the multiverse

    I also would like to read MORE of CONNERS and CASSIES Flashbacks which left some open questions.

    5. Team Compilation:

    I personally have problems with the team compilation.

    For me Hex doesn’t fit into the team.
    I mean she is good with weapons, but has no secret identity and as far as I have seen she also doesn’t seem to have the detective skills or fighting skills of a Bat-Family or Arrow Family member. Personally I also don’t like her enough to want to read more of her.

    Teen Lantern would be normally a good addition to the team, but she is to young for me and so she doesn’t really fit into the team for me.

    Amethyst seems to be a good addition, BUT I hope that she still has her magic skills and not only the use of crystals as swords, shields etc.

    NEW Additions:

    Arrowette would be ok, BUT she is to long inactive for me and Mia would be the better addition, since Mia developed also new skills during Pre-Flashpoint, while I think that Arrowette is to long inactive.

    Aqualad is ok

    Spoiler is unnecessary for and it makes the team to crowded and I would have more liked to bring a meta-human or magician instead of her.

    Sideways is ok…

    I personally have to say, that the team is to crowded for me and it includes to much “normal” humans without powers, which reduces the strength of the team as a whole.

    I personally would have loved to see the following roster:
    Tim, Cassie, Conner, Bart with

    Miss Martian, Blue Beetle, Static, (Raven), Terra (Geo-Force), Traci 13.

    I think that Damians Team could be the more interesting one since I find Crush, Djinn and Emiko more interesting than Spoiler, (the ACTUAL) Arrowette and Hex.
    to each their own
    I think the team is fine simply by keeping the main 4 YJ characters and then making the rest unique on their own
    and this book fills that perfectly

    I completely disagree with Hex not fitting the team because you are mainly thinking this as team power composition and not character composition
    what I like and think that fits her well on the team is that she is the "older sister" character, she is the oldest one in the team which balances her well with Teen Lantern, the youngest one, by being a powerless human she relates more with Tim than other characters, I see her as the most mature character so that balances out with Bart, she is female so that goes well on that circle and so forth.
    to me she is closer to someone like Donna Troy or Starfire in this composition but also is original so it could go many different places.

    basically this is just much more than just the powers and I love that Bendis is doing that with the team because some of the worst versions of TT and other teams always had issues with "we need to have X super character" which then resulted in a character that had absolutely no chemestry with the rest of the team
    Look at Mon-el on Mcduffie's JLA for example, I mostly remember him for being an stand in for superman on that position and not because of his personality or his deeds or he interacted with other heroes or anything like that.
    thats the strenght of these kind of hero team books.

    ...
    Last edited by Arnoldoaad; 12-05-2019 at 12:50 AM.

  5. #5
    Mind Controller Arnoldoaad's Avatar
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    6. Scope of the YJ team:

    I personally find it difficult to understand the scope of the YJ Team.

    I mean it’s a wild mix between:
    a) Veterans like Cassie, Conner, Bart, Tim
    b) Heroes who are on the way to become Veterans like Spoiler, Amethyst
    c) Newcomers like Aqualad, Sideways
    d) Absolute Newcomers like Teen Lantern and Hex
    e) Retired Heroes like Aqualad

    I mean until now it was kind of clear:

    -JSA were the kind of veterans
    -JL is the JL
    -Titans were the “replacements” and Nr. 2 in the power ranking
    -TT are the current youngest generation

    I don’t know how YJ will fit into this and I also don’t know where YJ will land in this “ranking”, since they have like I stated a wild mix of team members.
    I don’t know which missions they will take on, because Cassie, Conner, Bart and Tim are kind of Veterans who should master almost everything.
    I mean Conner battled Superboy Prime so he should be among the most powerful DC Heroes, while his team member Hex is obviously not.
    basically the problem that your pointing out here is "why is this team a team?" and I agree with it and this is a very common problem in a lot of team books
    Teen Titans has this problem right now
    The Terrifics have this problem since Lemire left the book
    Birds of prey(the previous version not the one coming soon) had that problem since it lost oracle and never recover it

    we have to wait and see until we get a good answer for this because so far this is a team because they got stuck together by accident in another dimension
    thats it.

    7. Rivals for their place

    Another point which I find difficult is that every member of YJ has now at least one rival for his place in a similar age.

    If Bart, Cassie, Conner and Tim would be older than it would be less problem, because then the rivals would be younger than they were and so not so much a problem.
    But now they have rivals and some rivals seem to be even more powerful than they are:

    Conner has rivals in Kenan Kong and Jonathan (all 3 are seemingly at a similar age), if Conner would be over 20 and Kenan like 16-17 and Jonathan 13 it would be less problem.

    Cassie has a rival in Peng Deilan

    Bart has a rival in Wallace West and Avery Ho

    Tim has a rival in Wang Baixi and Damian

    Arrowette has a rival in Emiko

    I see this as problem, especially since some rivals seem to be more powerful than the “original ones” the YJ members.

    Its difficult for interactions…I mean will you simply make Jonathan outperform Conner and Jonathan become Superman while Conner stays SuperBOY?
    I will echo the other posters on saying "really? the chinesse JL?"
    other than that I dont think there is a problem for most of these cases with the only exception of Superboy and since Bendis handle both of them I definitely think that this will be addressed at some point


    8. Storyline

    The actual storylines were ok, but I preferred more the storylines of other books like TT.
    I hope we get another kind of stories when they are back on earth.

    No opinion here.
    you have to be much more specific with what you are using to compare it to, otherwise this sounds like "yeah, ok, alright, is not Judas Contract but ok, alright"

    CONCLUSION:

    This is all MY PERSONAL OPINION.

    I strictly believe that it would be better for Tims Team if they get back to the “Standard Label” and they focus on a reader group of 20+ and will let Tim, Bart, Conner, Cassie age up, because like I stated above the comparisons with the rivals could be problematic to solve.
    once again, I disagree because I dont see the label being a problem for the type of stories that in this case Bendis wants to tell
    And if it is a problem of comparison with TT then why is not TT the one to change.

    In my opinion, this would be Titans, not even TT but the actual new Titans.
    and Damian's team would be YJ because they are younger and the team fits closer to a "young Justice League" but changing that wouldnt address the problems that either of them have

    this is Young Justice because it wants to tell stories of Young Heroes and not becuase this is the young Justice League, and it is using the name because it is being reform from the original Peter David's YJ

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