Young Justice is a new superhero animated series set to premiere on Cartoon Network in January 2011. To wet your appetite a one-hour premiere movie was shown on the aforementioned channel November 26th. My reaction to the upcoming series is a bit mixed. To begin with the Young Justice core group consists of the "side-kicks" of prominent DC Comics characters: Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Speedy. Sounds an awful lot like the Teen Titans. But the team differs with the addition of Superboy (a clone of Superman), Miss Martian and Artemis.
It also differs in that its not silly like Teen Titans was. There is humor, but it doesn't get in the way of the story or the action. It seems like the intended audience for this series is more mature.
Here is were things get weird when it comes to the characters. Aqualad is now black with blond hair and gills in his neck. After all the years Aqualad has existed as a DC character, why do they feel the need to change the race and appearance of the character? With the shameful lack of black characters in the DC Universe I think it would have been more appropriate to create a new black superhero. But this aside, Aqualad is now a much more formidable character with some sort of contraption on his back that allows him to focus his hard water powers. Unexplained, is how this contraption also generates electricity that can be used as a weapon. An origin story is really needed here.
Miss Martian is introduced at the end of the movie as the cousin of the Martian Manhunter. I've always known Jonn Jonzz to be the last surviving Martian. How is it that he now has a cousin?
Artemis? Never heard of her. She doesn't appear in the movie, but is featured in the promos. Apparently she'll be replacing Speedy in this series. I understand there is a comic book called Young Justice that I've never read. Perhaps the answers to many of my questions are there.
But throwing continuity out the window aside, the premiere movie wasn't bad. The story involves Project Cadmus a secret facility 52 floors below street level where secret and questionable genetic research is done. Here is where the clone of Superman is discovered along with a host of other genetic monstrosities. There is chilling foreshadowing of an evil force or group called The Light which is sure to play a recurring role in upcoming episodes. I'm hopeful that the questions I have about the series and the characters will be answered in subsequent stories. I think it's worth giving Young Justice a shot. For the premiere I'm giving it 3 fingers out of 5.
