Young Justice #20 Discussion/Spoilers

[failo.legendkiller]

Bendis definitely failed

You could stop here

[Triniking1234]

A lost cause, why? Please stop mixing your tastes with absolute assertions.
You can say that you don't like them but you can't absolutely affirm that.
Following your way I could safely tell that actual teen titans are a lost cause.
Tim, Kon, Bart and Cassie have nothing to prove to you or anyone else, they are great and beloved characters. The only thing they need is good writing, nothing else as every character does.

It took a reboot and Batman and Superman having sons to make Tim's generation fade out. DC and Bendis messed up.

[Lvenger]

A review of this issue on the Superman Homepage gave the story a 0 out of 5. I found that hilarious because I've never seen a review on that site give a score lower than 1 before.

[MolMcN]

Personally, I think the biggest issue with this run, is an issue that I think is hurting a lot of comics right now. It seems like everything is always about the next big event, the next huge battle, the next crisis. Comics have these huge 7 or 8 long stories within the comics. New readers can't jump in on number 3 and have any idea of what is going on, they need to start from the beginning. Sure, the original Young Justice had overarching stories, but the run itself was more than just those huge stories. It was full of one-off stories that anyone could pick up, and have a very good idea of what was going on. I miss the self-contained comics of the past. By no means am I saying we should get rid of the big several issues storylines, I just think they should be saved for special occasions. The whole series shouldn't be made of strings of those big series. This is of course just my opinion, but I feel like this is one of the problems with comics now. Bendis is by no means the only one doing it.

I read the whole Williamson run on The Flash, and I hated almost every minute of it. The whole series was broken into these 6 or 7 issue stories. I stuck with it for two reasons, one I absolutely love the characters. And second, because I was curious. At the end of each of these big stories, they would tease the next one. I wanted to know what happened, even though by the end of it I would be bored again. That's how they get you. They keep teasing things to come but never focus on what is happening in that moment. It's always about what comes NEXT. Never about what is happening NOW. Again, I love those big stories. But I think you need to balance them out with one-off stories. No joke, one of my favorite issues of the original Young Justice is when they go camping while their parents and guardians are having a "parent-teacher conference" with Red Tornado. Absolutely nothing of importance happens in this issue, it's just fun. There's no huge battle to save the multiverse or anything like that, they're just camping and being normal teenagers for a bit. That's what makes Young Justice special. It's about these god-like heroes, but at the end of the day, they're just kids like you and me. Bendis made them heroes 100% of the time. He didn't give them time to be kids, to have fun, go through relationships, have drama because of their teen problems. That's what I wanted to see in Young Justice. Well, this is a really long post, so I'm going to get off my soapbox now. This is all just my opinion so please don't execute me.

[failo.legendkiller]

No joke, one of my favorite issues of the original Young Justice is when they go camping while their parents and guardians are having a "parent-teacher conference" with Red Tornado. Absolutely nothing of importance happens in this issue, it's just fun. There's no huge battle to save the multiverse or anything like that, they're just camping and being normal teenagers for a bit. That's what makes Young Justice special. It's about these god-like heroes, but at the end of the day, they're just kids like you and me. Bendis made them heroes 100% of the time. He didn't give them time to be kids, to have fun, go through relationships, have drama because of their teen problems. That's what I wanted to see in Young Justice.

I can totally feel you on this.
Plus, after Flashpoint, they have to deal with a mess in continuity and spend time trying to explain what happened or not. Bendis failed on that too, every issue ends with "next issue the big reveal!" without never give a satisfactory explanation.
So, let's forget about holes in continuity or trying to build "the next big thing" and just let characters be theirself and have fun, as young boys usually do.

[Frontier]

Well this series reinforced my beliefs that Tim's genratiin is a lost cause. And sure, Bendis is to blame for the way the series was but... I found the new characters far more interesting than the old ones and they were never allowed time to shine. Instead of focusing on Tim, Bart, Kon and Cassie, Teen Lantern, Hex and possibly Naomi or another det of characters should have been the focus.

I think a lot about this run was half-baked. Bendis couldn't properly develop the established YJ4 and he couldn't properly introduce the new characters (at least in my opinion).

And how many times can one book say "we're Young Justice?" We get it, that's your team name.

Personally, I think the biggest issue with this run, is an issue that I think is hurting a lot of comics right now. It seems like everything is always about the next big event, the next huge battle, the next crisis. Comics have these huge 7 or 8 long stories within the comics. New readers can't jump in on number 3 and have any idea of what is going on, they need to start from the beginning. Sure, the original Young Justice had overarching stories, but the run itself was more than just those huge stories. It was full of one-off stories that anyone could pick up, and have a very good idea of what was going on. I miss the self-contained comics of the past. By no means am I saying we should get rid of the big several issues storylines, I just think they should be saved for special occasions. The whole series shouldn't be made of strings of those big series. This is of course just my opinion, but I feel like this is one of the problems with comics now. Bendis is by no means the only one doing it.

I read the whole Williamson run on The Flash, and I hated almost every minute of it. The whole series was broken into these 6 or 7 issue stories. I stuck with it for two reasons, one I absolutely love the characters. And second, because I was curious. At the end of each of these big stories, they would tease the next one. I wanted to know what happened, even though by the end of it I would be bored again. That's how they get you. They keep teasing things to come but never focus on what is happening in that moment. It's always about what comes NEXT. Never about what is happening NOW. Again, I love those big stories. But I think you need to balance them out with one-off stories. No joke, one of my favorite issues of the original Young Justice is when they go camping while their parents and guardians are having a "parent-teacher conference" with Red Tornado. Absolutely nothing of importance happens in this issue, it's just fun. There's no huge battle to save the multiverse or anything like that, they're just camping and being normal teenagers for a bit. That's what makes Young Justice special. It's about these god-like heroes, but at the end of the day, they're just kids like you and me. Bendis made them heroes 100% of the time. He didn't give them time to be kids, to have fun, go through relationships, have drama because of their teen problems. That's what I wanted to see in Young Justice. Well, this is a really long post, so I'm going to get off my soapbox now. This is all just my opinion so please don't execute me.

At least for me, Williamson's run was written for the trade for the most part but not every arc was an "event," at least in my opinion.

[MolMcN]

At least for me, Williamson's run was written for the trade for the most part but not every arc was an "event," at least in my opinion.[/QUOTE]


I can agree with you on that. My saying "event" wasn't the right word here. You're right, he was focusing on writing for the trades, and I'm just not as big a fan of that. I just read the first issue from the new creative team, and I really liked it. It was a one-off story about Trickster stealing Barry's ring, and him having to get it back. I like it when I don't have to read a ton of other issues to understand what's going on, even if the arc itself isn't a huge event. I just think the one-off stories would work a bit better for Young Justice. I feel like longer arcs for characters like the Flash work a bit better, because you only have to focus on one character, while Young Justice is a team. But that's just my take.

[Rakzo]

Williamson actually created solid resolutions for both his arcs and characters.

Bendis didn't.

[Digifiend]

You know what's odd about this book? At the start, Bart was the only one who remembered the team previously existing. Tim needed Zatanna's help to get his pre-Flashpoint memories back, Superboy was recovered from Gemworld, and Cassie just never got explained, though they pointed out she used to be a Teen Titan (which was true for the others too, but they only pointed it out with Cassie). Later, Spoiler joined, who also had her pre-Flashpoint memories due to how the Gotham Knights run in Detective Comics ended, and then Arrowette showed up (why was she not in this final issue?), finally confirming the old team did exist. Then at the end, they go back to their old 1990s HQ! In effect, they have a new roster, but are otherwise in the same status quo as they were 22 years ago. Most of the book might as well have not happened, as there's clearly been retcons going on during it.

[MolMcN]

You know what's odd about this book? At the start, Bart was the only one who remembered the team previously existing. Tim needed Zatanna's help to get his pre-Flashpoint memories back, Superboy was recovered from Gemworld, and Cassie just never got explained, though they pointed out she used to be a Teen Titan (which was true for the others too, but they only pointed it out with Cassie). Later, Spoiler joined, who also had her pre-Flashpoint memories due to how the Gotham Knights run in Detective Comics ended, and then Arrowette showed up (why was she not in this final issue?), finally confirming the old team did exist. Then at the end, they go back to their old 1990s HQ! In effect, they have a new roster, but are otherwise in the same status quo as they were 22 years ago. Most of the book might as well have not happened, as there's clearly been retcons going on during it.

I totally agree. It was so crazy how they were hopping back and forth between not remembering the old team, and remembering the old team. I was starting to get whiplash lol. It's just so crazy how they could have messed up such a great story.

[SuperX]

I'm waiting for the next YJ book to have the YJ4 be portrayed as slightly older and mature issues, maybe some of thst mission oriented stuff from the show

[SuperX]

Does anybody think the YJ4 might be placed in a new Titans team or do you think they will be sitting out until the next YJ series comes along?

[Badou]

Do they deserve another book so soon? They have had 3 different team books in 9 years focused on them. Two different Teen Titans runs and now this Young Justice run. Many of the people in charge at DC right now like this group of heroes so they will probably show up somewhere though.

[9th.]

Does anybody think the YJ4 might be placed in a new Titans team or do you think they will be sitting out until the next YJ series comes along?

I think they'll be sitting the next couple of years out.

[married guy]

OK - thr following is MY feelings toward the book in question. That said ...........

God, I wanted to love this book. SO much potential.
I slogged my way through 12 issues of this crap - just hoping every month it would get better.
If anything, it actually got worse.

20 issues was more than it deserved.
I would give a relaunched book another go, but not if Bendis' name is attached. A full years worth of issues and he gave me NOTHING. Couldn't flesh out his existing characters before adding more who added absolutely nothing to the story.