Comic Book Review: Young Justice: Targets written by Greg Weisman, art by Christopher Jones
Young Justice was originally a DC comic book series starring a team of their youngest active superheroes at the time. Then the title was also used for an animated TV series starting in 2010. It didn’t directly adapt the comic books, instead taking elements from it, the earlier versions of the Teen Titans and the Justice League, and combining them into a new continuity.
When several “teen sidekicks”, tired of being just that, strike out on their own mission, the Justice League reluctantly realizes that they do need to allow the kids to grow into their own people. As such, they allow the teens to become a covert strike team supervised by various members of the League as available. Several new members are quickly added.
Unlike many animated series (or the comics themselves), time was allowed to pass during the storylines as the initial characters became adults and new young heroes joined the group. The status quo changed frequently, and some characters died and stayed dead.
This tie-in comic book takes place after the fourth and so far final season, with ten years having passed since the beginning of the show.
The story begins with Gar Logan, the Beast Boy, preparing for a mission to rescue Queen Perdita of Vlatava. The fact that she’s his ex-girlfriend is brought up, but he is going in with his Outsiders team anyway.
We flashback to two days earlier, when Perdita was coming in to Star City airport, a place that does not hold fond memories for her. (The events of DC Showcase: Green Arrow are in continuity in this comic.) Meanwhile, Bowhunter Security is waiting on the ground to protect her.
Across the world, in a Markovian prison, Count Vertigo and a few of his associates are broken out by mysterious armored men.
Back in Star City, the security detail brings Queen Perdita to S.T.A.R. Labs (the name is a coincidence, their headquarters is in Metropolis). There she is meeting with Dr. Roquette and her colleagues Drs. Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance(!) to discuss opening a new laboratory facility in Vlatava. More of the armored figures we saw earlier break in. The extra doctors are in fact Green Arrow and Black Canary, and they join Bowhunter Security (Arsenal, Red Arrow, Guardian and Clayface) in fighting the intruders.
Green Arrow, Black Canary, Dr. Roquette and Perdita’s chief of staff Eddy are all taken out by coma darts, and the armored men are able to make off with the queen. Red Arrow flashes back to ten years later when he failed to prevent her father from being assassinated, and vows to find her.
Prince Brion of Markovia informs the Justice League, Outsiders and “Team” (the in-series name of the Young Justice characters) that his team, the Infinitors, will be handling internal matters and that none of the other heroes are to enter his country to search for Count Vertigo, the most likely suspect. The Justice League, being officially sanctioned by the United Nations, are bound by this, but the other teams plan to go around Prince Brion (aka Geo-Force) if need be.
But first, they need intel, so it’s time to break into squads to investigate the many angles of the case.
The Infinitors rescue the queen, but she disappears again almost immediately. Meanwhile, the other threads of the actual master plan are coming together and the various hero groups start closing in.
By this point, the series has a massive cast, and almost all of the regulars at least get cameos. Those who haven’t seen the TV series or read the previous comics might be a little lost.
The Arrow-related characters’ backstory with Perdita is a major focus, with flashbacks to that Showcase feature taking up quite a few pages. But that gets somewhat sidelined in the final issues, as the real big bad and goal behind the kidnapping and other villainy is revealed. This shifts the focus to that character’s vendetta against a different member of the Team.
While the main plot is foiled, and the primary villains jailed or neutralized, some ancillary baddies are never even suspected, leaving them free to appear in yet another sequel.
There’s a short vignette at the end where Artemis Crock remembers Wally West’s history with Queen Perdita, and there’s a spread of everyone who was at his funeral. This is followed by a feature by Christopher Jones on the design for the new characters and those returning with new looks.
Content note: attempted murder, complete with a gaping wound, body horror.
The writing is good and the art is quite good, but the many, many characters that you have to know backstory for raises a barrier to enjoyment. I’d recommend this primarily to fans of the cartoon with an investment in the Perdita storyline.
