Young Justice- Independence Day review

There’s a new DC animated series, Young Justice.

A fusion of Justice League and Teen Titans along with several comic book stories, the series premiered on the Cartoon Network with a one hour adventure, Independence Day this past week.

The two-part premiere introduces viewers to characters that are very familiar; Robin, Kid Flash, Speedy and Aqualad – the sidekicks to Batman, the Flash, Green Arrow and Aquaman. Throughout standard sequences against ice-themed villains, the pairings of mentor and sidekick convene for a special event, the inclusion of the teenagers into the Justice League… or so the teens expected. Instead, the Justice League have arranged for access to the JLA’s services and facilities, a move that offends Speedy who storms out after ranting about how he demands to be viewed as more than a sidekick. When the JLA receive what appears to be reports of a fire at Cadmus Labs and a deep-space threat, the team decides to let the civilian fire fighters deal with Cadmus while they transport themselves to the Justice League’s satellite HQ circling the planet.

Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash are left to ruminate on Speedy’s tirade and decide to investigate Cadmus Labs, a facility that Batman remarked has caught his interest. The result is an adventure into the depths of a top secret research facility involved in several projects that could threaten the planet, overseen by a cryptic overlord called ‘The Light.’

The Teen Titans comic book series has had several iterations over the years including the manga-influenced cartoon that brought the team to a new audience. The new version is action/adventure-oriented and written to a more sophisticated audience, much like the Batman, Superman and Justice League cartoons that preceded it. The DC Animated DVD features have obviously influenced the Young Justice cartoon series, with action sequences that have been progressively more elaborate and innovative character designs.

One slight speed-bump is that this is yet another version of characters that have been seen in many versions both in comics and in animation… and this is yet another version. For instance, this is not the Robin from the Batman animated series, The Batman cartoon, Batman: Brave and the Bold or Teen Titans. It’s meant to be Dick Grayson, though he is more like the third version of Robin – Tim Drake than the first Robin.  Wally West, a character who has been Flash on the Justice League cartoon is Kid Flash in the Young Justice cartoon even though the teen speedster of the Young Justice comic book was Impulse, a teen from the future. If you think about it too much, you’ll just get dizzy, but if you accept what you are given in the Young Justice cartoon, it all works fine.

Independence Day takes nods to several sources from the Teen Titans series by Geoff Johns and Jack Kirby’s Jimmy Olsen comics (the Guardian and Cadmus’ gene-gnomes project), making it a mixture of great ideas. Thus story has been told several times over in various ways, so it takes a lot to make viewers invested in yet another version of the Justice League and Teen Titans. This one accomplishes that task so well it makes it look easy.

Set on Earth 16, this series is another version of the DC Universe that we have seen in the comics, animated films and on TV. Set shortly after superheroes have emerged on the planet, the cast of characters is a mixture of the classic and new; Robin (Dick Grayson), Kid Flash (Wally West), Speedy, Aqualad (a new character), Artemis (a mystery character) and Miss Martian. Aqualad (real name: Kaldur’ahm) is the team leader, a deviation from the norm which has traditionally favored Robin as the leader of the Teen Titans. Aqualad is also the son of longtime Aqualad supervillain Black Manta, another unusual choice that promises for some interesting plot developments.

Voice actor Bruce Greenwood (Batman: Under the Red Hood) is back as Batman as is Nolan North, an erudite voice actor from Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths where he voiced both Green Lantern and Power Ring and Hulk Vs. in which he voiced Deadpool will be featured as Superman and Superboy. North isn’t the only actor pulling double duty, however. DC Animated regular Phil LaMarr (Justice League’s Green Lantern) is voicing Aquaman and Green Arrow. Celebrities Rob Lowe and Marina Sirtis will be providing voices later in the series.

Greg Weisman (SUPERMAN/BATMAN: APOCALYPSE, DC COMICS SHOWCASE: GREEN ARROW, GARGOYLES and SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN) and Brandon Vietti (Legion of Super Heroes, The Batman, Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Batman: Under the Red Hood) are the developers of this program along with Geoff Johns (Chief Creative Officer of DC Entertainment). Weisman and Vietti are getting to be old hands at crafting these comic book/animation projects and it shows. Not to cast the die too early, but this cartoon is easily of the same quality of the Justice League animated series. The animation is fluid (unusually so for TV), the dialog sharp and the plotting smart. Character designs by Phil Bourassa (Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths) are different enough to be eye-catching without being distracting.

Weisman and Vietti have apparently drafted up plots for two years’ worth of episodes, but there is no word from DC Entertainment yet as to their plans. As a follower of TV cartoons. I have seen many an excellent animated series meet an early end due to low viewing figures. Seeing as how Warner Bros. has re-evaluated their properties and formed DC Entertainment to focus on their many characters in various mediums from the big screen to video games, I had high hopes that they will see the potential in Young Justice.

If you are on the fence about this cartoon, get off it quickly. This is the most high quality animated DC Comics cartoon in a long while.

Make sure to bookmark the official website for Young Justice for updates.