Young Justice #15 – Brian Michael Bendis, David Walker, Writer; John Timms, Scott Godlewski, Artists; Gabe Eltaeb, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: Bendis and Walker return to the only Wonder Comics ongoing after an extended virus break, and this title hasn’t lost a step with this jam-packed issue. When we last left off, Superboy had finally been rescued from Skartaris by his friends and was ready to confront the sinister Dr. Glory – with the help of an all-star guest cast including H-Dial users Miguel and Summer, the Wonder Twins, his teammates, old friend Arrowette, and new friends Naomi, Sideways, and Spoiler. Just seeing these characters together is a thrill, and Bendis really seems at home on the dialogue like he did in the early days of Ultimate Spider-Man. Or maybe that’s the Walker touch. In an odd coincidence with this week’s big event comic, this is another issue that seems to want to break down the history of crisis events and reboots in the DCU, only this one tackles them from a very personal perspective – what happens to the people rebooted?
We finally get a solid explanation for why Conner seems to be the only person who is unchanged from the old Young Justice days – the universe was rebooted while he was in another dimension. Shades of Astro City, of course, but that masterpiece handled it with a starkly human touch while this book has a lighter hand. Conner’s confrontation with Glory has a callback to his reaction to another evil scientist in the 1990s, but the scene has a great ending. The best part of this title has always been how obvious it is that these kids actually care for each other, both the old friends and the new ones. A new status quo is established by the end of the issue, but there’s one unanswered question – how did Bart Allen know about this? Are we finally getting the missing pieces from Sterling Gates’ excellent Kid Flash Lost miniseries from Flashpoint? It seems like next issue is the place for answers, and I for one can’t wait. This is the perfect companion piece to Bendis’ last Action Comics issue.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
