“Today’s the day!”
It’s time to celebrate the 15 years anniversary of Young Justice, a show that has endured over the years thanks in part to its loyal and dedicated fan base, but also due to its charming characters and story telling techniques. The show was developed by Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti, and featured a plethora of characters from the DC Comics universe, but primarily focused on younger heroes, as its title implies. The DC Universe has had several young super-hero sidekicks throughout the decades (heck only Batman and Green Arrow have had more than enough young wards and apprentices in their extended families), and this show used that to its advantage. It also helped that this whole thing was set on “Earth-16”, a part of the DC Multiverse that wasn’t really being used for anything else at the time, so there were no real restrictions in regards to how these characters could be portrayed, or what might happen to them within this continuity. The show isn’t exactly a proper adaptation of a particular comic story-line, it takes inspiration from a bunch of places (regardless of its title), and mixes it all up together while also bringing in some new, mostly cool and unique or surprising twists along the way.
In a way it was similar and bound to be compared with the previous Justice League/Unlimited animated series. Those are still awesome for the most part and while they both deal with big superhero team-ups, epic battles and more character moments, there are also some differences in their approaches that makes each show stand out in its own way. Due to it focusing on the younger apprentices of several superheroes, the show could also be compared with Teen Titans (which likewise had a pretty big fan following when it was on, and some are still eager to see it receive a proper continuation after all these years), though Young Justice had a more serious approach to its characters. The main cast here was composed of Robin (voiced by Jesse McCartney), Kid Flash (Jason Spisak), Aqualad (Khary Payton), Superboy (Nolan North), Miss Martian (Danica McKellar), and Artemis (Stephanie Lemelin), who form their own team with the Justice League’s permission, to help fight crime. Most of the crimes encountered on the show can be traced back to their primary antagonists, a team of super-villains, called the Light. It makes sense for the bad guys to have their own team-up and this organization has several big names, including Vandal Savage, Ra’s Al Ghul and of course, Lex Luthor, to name a few. You know, the usual suspects of the DC Universe, and their associates or minions.
As a side-note, the show featured a new Aqualad, Kaldur’ahm, and not the classic Garth character introduced in the ’60s in comics. Interestingly enough this new black Aqualad was created specifically for the show, but actually debuted in comics in August 2010, a few months before the animated series came out. There were still a few differences though between how he was portrayed (and called) in the comics and the cartoon, but the character did prove to be popular enough to endure and show up in a few other projects since then.
The show premiered in November 2010 on the Cartoon Network; this was in fact only a “sneak peek” of the first two episodes. It made its proper debut in January 2011, as part of their “DC Nation” block, which also included at the time Green Lantern: The Animated Series, New Teen Titans animated shorts (which would pave the way to Teen Titans Go! which is still going as of this writing), and several other short segments about other DC characters. During its first season, Young Justice introduced the main members of the Team and started developing them; the themes of “secrets and lies” was present most of the time, and it seemed like most of the teen heroes had their fair share of secrets they didn’t want the others to know. It was a bit too serious at times but the character dynamics made the show entertaining enough. The teenagers dealt with a lot, not all of their troubles coming from the duality of their lives as costumed vigilantes.
Considering the show had a serialized structure it is kind of hard to do a brief rundown of the events featured during the first season. The Team had to go up against several villains, most of them working for the Light one way or another. The teen heroes also went through more personal stuff, including a budding romance between Kid Flash and Artemis, and between Superboy and Miss Martian. Then there was also the over-arching plot point that there might have been a mole on their team, a spy for the Light which lead to some trust issues. The list of suspects seemed to grow from one episode to the next and the big revelation of who that spy was, or why they were acting that way was a bit surprising in the last couple of episodes for the season (I will not spoil it here for those who somehow don’t know by now). The season finale also seemed to tie together some of the items that were previously used in earlier episodes, with the Light developing tech to control the minds of the Justice League. It is up to the Team to save the day. The season also ends on a cliff-hanger of sorts, something that would continue in subsequent seasons as well, one way or another but things have mellowed down a bit. The first season ended with everything seemingly back to normal, except that there was no way of knowing what the main members of the Justice League (you know, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc.) did for a few hours while under the control of the Light. It’s a pretty effective way to end the episode, and presumably most viewers were expecting some sort of answer or follow-up in the next episode…
And that brings us to season two, which takes place 5 years after the previous episode. Time-skips are usually tricky to pull off in continuity heavy shows but this one worked pretty well in hindsight. We still have the focus on the characters from the previous season, and some of the story-lines are continued, who have matured a bit (and Dick Grayson has taken on the mantle of Nightwing). But we also get a new, younger generation of heroes, including Jamie Reyes/Blue Beetle (voiced by Eric Lopez), a new Robin, Tim Drake (Cameron Bowen), and Bart Allen/Impulse (Jason Marsden), a descendant of the current Flash, who is visiting from the future. Of course he also has an ulterior motive, trying to prevent an apocalypse as is usually the case. Blue Beetle also seems to play a part in all of this as the alien race the Reach who have built the Scarab that gives him powers are involved, and we meet other colored Beetles (Green and Black) during the season. It also has a much more serialized approach, even than in the first season. The second season was more crowded with characters and plot points and wasn’t as fun, I guess is the word I am looking for, as the initial season was. It was still entertaining enough for the most part, though.
The list of new characters introduced this season also includes the likes of Batgirl (Barbara Gordon), Beast Boy, Bumblebee and others… the list could go on, but at the same time they still had more than enough characters to bring in for subsequent seasons. We are also introduced to the so-called Runaways, mostly new characters based on some of the multi-cultural heroes created for the old Super Friends animated series; a similar approach was done previously on Justice League Unlimited with their Ultimen, but here the Runaways got a lot more episodes to shine in.
Trying to still not spoil some of the events of the previous season, season two also dealt with Roy Harper’s problems, and continued the romance between Wally West and Artemis Crock, though that will have a somewhat unexpected ending. Again spoilers will be kept to a minimum when possible but… fans should know by now how the season featured a long story-arc about Aqualad’s apparent betrayal and joining the Light, Artemis faking her death as part of Nightwing’s master plan. The season might have tried to do too much at the same time (and this season had only 20 episodes, less than the standard 26) and concluded with something fans have been demanding the show-runners to “fix” (for lack of a better word) whenever they get a chance for new episodes to be produced. The season finale left a pretty big impact, and likewise ended on less of a cliff-hanger and more of an “open ending” or whatever you want to call it. I will admit the first couple of times I watched it, it bothered me a little but with time I came to appreciate it more. It figures that business will continue, both for the good guys and bad guys alike.
And then the show was cancelled in Spring of 2013, for various reasons, including diminishing toy sales. Some might also “blame” Teen Titans Go! for its cancellation, though there’s no real correlation between these two. Some of the Young Justice characters even guest-starred in an episode of Teen Titans Go! during their cancellation era, though only Aqualad had a speaking role given Khary Payton was already a main voice cast member as Cyborg. For a long time the fans and show-runners tried to find ways to bring Young Justice back, especially when the two existing seasons arrived on Netflix and were getting a ton of views. In the end it worked out somehow, and in Fall of 2016, a third season was formally announced. But… this article is celebrating the show’s 15th anniversary, and thus only its initial run on the Cartoon Network. It’s only the 9th anniversary of season 3 getting an official announcement, and close to the 7th anniversary of that new season premiering.
Young Justice is still relevant today (especially after its 4th season that hasn’t been mentioned yet in the article), and there are definitely more stories to tell with these characters, or any of the younger ones who have joined the ranks in subsequent seasons, or those too young to have joined yet but are still in queue. The show still has a pretty loyal fanbase, perhaps even bigger than when it began 15 years ago. The crew working behind the scenes – whether it’s the original big names like Weisman or Vietti, or others who have joined since then, as well as the voice cast, also seem eager to do more, if they are given the chance. The cool looking character designs were initially done by Phil Bourassa and they were so good, they were squeezed into various other out-of-continuity projects over the years. There’s probably another, cost-saving reason for repurposing designs than just “they were that good”, though. One of my favorite such examples was the surprising cameo of a few of the Young Justice girls in their civilian identities, watching a wrestling match on TV in one of the Scooby-Doo direct-to-video movies.
Since its debut Young Justice performed well enough and did grow into a sort of franchise, with its companion comic books, video games and whatever else. As mentioned before the article really only focuses on its initial two season run on the Cartoon Network, and looking back the debut season was perhaps the better one. Its second season (subtitled “Invasion”) was still great for the most part and offered lots of dramatic stuff mixed in with all of the action and sometimes comedy. But season one was what really established the main cast of the show, and has a certain charm and innocence, I guess, that just hasn’t been replicated in the following seasons. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy all of them (including the only briefly mentioned seasons 3 and 4, which in my opinion are better than the 2nd season). The show matured, and in a good way. Presumably its fans have also grown up, and for the better.
On a very personal note, a bit off-topic perhaps, but I recall the series premiere in late November 2010, with its first two episodes airing and in the same weekend there were also a two-part episode of Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and the premieres of the then new Transformers: Prime, and G.I. Joe: Renegades animated series on the newly launched Hub Network. This was also around my birthday (well, Thanksgiving really but I’m counting my birthday first), and that was the last year I got to spend the holiday with my mom.
Young Justice as a whole is quite an experience that should provide some entertainment for viewers of all ages. It’s well worth a watch – or re-watch, as the case may be.
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The post “Young Justice”: A 15 Year Anniversary Retrospective appeared first on Anime Superhero News.
