Young Justice S3 E1-3 Recap
It's been five years since Young Justice was canceled. Premiering on DC's own streaming service after their first original series Titans comes a third season that shocks and awes you as it starts off strong. Not being a great place to start, Young Justice season 3 shares season 2's sensibility on long form storytelling where it's more of a bigger picture than standalone, reintroduction, episodes.
Kicking off directly after season 2's finale we are shown the disbandment of Young Justice, particularly Nightwing saying goodbye. Like the previous season a time jump happens and that's when long time fans will freak out, although in a good way. The new outfits looks great, M'gann's appearance reflecting her acceptance as a white martian is subtle and touching, Aqualad's promotion is rightly deserved, and so much more will titillate fans to no end.
Not only did the characters get an upgrade, but so did the storytelling. Being on a streaming service, and knowing that their audience has grown up, DC is letting the show get away with some pretty dark subject matter that would otherwise been censored for TV. While last season alluded to child abductions this outright shows you that it's an epidemic that the Justice League can't stop, for at least the moment. It also shows dead bodies, blood, faces burned off, and talks about the experimentation on kids. It will throw you for a loop the first time you see it, but I felt it served the story more than being gratuitous and quickly found myself not noticing it as much.
Also, because this is a streaming service, DC is dropping this season in three episode segments. Between a weekly TV show and Netflix's binge method, Young Justice so far seems to have broken up their story in three episode "acts," with this being the prologue of the larger story at hand. With that in mind the show is setting up new characters more so than dealing with the older ones that fans have followed for two previous seasons. You do get glimpses into their lives though such as Garth being a celebrity/actor, M'gann and Conner living together, and Artemis still living with the loss of Wally with the aid of Roy.
If that wasn't enough we got the destruction of a foreign hierarchy, the reveal of Bedlam and company, and the resignation of multiple members of the Justice League under Batman's will. There is a lot that happens in the first three episodes and it does a nice job balancing the serious with the fun and the action with the plotting that by the end of issue three you would be screaming at your computer screen, "Where's the rest of it?"
Key Points:
- Black Lightning and the Emotional Thread
- Gruesome and Mature
- The characters we love are all grown up
- Justice League had a lot of members resign
- Is Markovia the central hub for these abductions?
- Awesome new characters!
Young Justice started strong in it's first three episodes to the long anticipated season 3. Because it's on streaming you can see the differences in both the animation and the subject matter allowed on the show. What did you think of season 3's debut?
