Young Justice #12 – Brian Michael Bendis, Writer; John Timms, Artist; Gabe Eltaeb, Colorist
Ratings:
Ray – 8/10
Corrina: Character Jam
Ray: The main pattern of this series continues in Young Justice #12 – characters are great, pacing is a mess.
After last issue saw Young Justice return to the main Earth, only to wind up mixed up with Naomi and a corrupt STAR Labs, Superboy’s return was short-lived. He wound up tossed onto another world – Skartaris – as the sinister Dr. Glory lied to his teammates that Conner had decided to go back on his own. We catch up with him right at the start, as he fights a dinosaur mid-breakdown and teams up with a very confused Warlord. I’ve been really enjoying watching Bendis play with some of the DCU’s strangest alternate worlds, starting with Gemworld and now Skartaris. He clearly has a deep love for some of the odder concepts of the DCU and is going for a deep dive into continuity. But as is often the case with this series, he pulls away and only gives us brief segments of the most interesting parts of this series.
The rest of Young Justice #12, essentially, is the team hanging around and discussing everything that’s happened. It’s a lot more interesting than it sounds thanks to Bendis’ skill with dialogue, and it brings in the entire Wonder Comics crew. Naomi is already there, still trying to get a handle on her powers and getting to know her new teammates. Wonder Girl and Teen Lantern try to get some help from the Justice League, but wind up running into the over-eager Wonder Twins, who don’t trust that they’re who they say they are and interrogate them before letting them into the JL HQ.
Then there’s Miguel and Summer, who just wind up crashing the show thanks to the multiversal glitches caused by STAR Labs. They don’t have all that much to do here, but it seems the dimensional issues are even affecting the H-Dial. Not all that much happens this issue, but it sets up a lot. Even if the story is moving a lot slower than I would have expected, seeing these characters together is a treat in itself.
Corrina: I’m not sure the character work is all that great, Ray.
What you have are a lot of characters that a great many readers of DC lore will be happy to see in this book. But then, they don’t really do anything. There’s a semblance of a plot, with the nefarious goings on by our devious scientist, and the ripple in space/time. There’s also a nice moment when Zan and Jayna realize that they’re being lied to by said scientist’s people.
But otherwise, it’s a lot of characters doing very little. But they look great doing very little, and the art is a definite strength of Young Justice #12, especially the segment where Bart zooms around the Hall of Justice.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
