Comic Review: Young Justice #9

Young Justice #9

DC Comics

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Artist: André Lima Araújo

For the most part, this issue is an interlude, with all but a few pages side-stepping away from the current multiverse-hopping action of the main storyline to finally reveal Teen Lantern/Keli’s origin story through a series of flashbacks.  Unfortunately, that origin is far from a compelling one and the issue does little to make Keli a more engaging or complicated character, and the issue only stops being a slog when it snaps back to the present and the characters the series handles better (Jinny Hex and the longer-standing members of Young Justice).

While scavenging in a junkyard in Bolivia with a friend, Keli stumbled upon an alien with a power ring being shot by a biker.  While this raises the interesting question of why the two were in conflict and how a seemingly regular gun beat the ring’s defenses it also actually takes an important detail away from Keli’s story.  The alien had the ring hooked up to a device that had hacked into it (meaning he likely wasn’t really a Lantern), so now Kelli’s big notable accomplishment isn’t even hers anymore.

That’s not the only problem with the origin, either.  After the dying alien gives the ring, and his hacking device to her, Keli leaves for Metropolis, against the urging of her superhero-savvy friend.  There’s a selfish, reckless quality to Keli here that actually makes her slightly unlikable rather than just bland as she’s been throughout the series.  Ordinarily, that wouldn’t be a problem at this point in an origin story.  Keli’s origin is very Marvel in style and her using her newfound powers for her own pleasure is nothing Spider-Man and a dozen others didn’t do when they were first starting out.  But this story is missing the power and responsibility moment and because of that, it feels incomplete and unsatisfying.  It would be one thing if this was setting up a return to Keli’s past in later issues to complete the origin but there’s no indication that that’s the case.  By the end of the flashbacks she’s off looking for a superhero internship so it only feels like a matter of time before she finds herself in the events of the first issue.  There’s no evidence given that she underwent further development before meeting the team and as a result, the selfishness the character shows in the past is now attached to her present incarnation as she never did anything to rectify it.  Sure, it’s possible Bendis wants to have Keli take the final step towards being a hero in the present day but that needs to happen very soon.  The series is almost a year in and rather than improving the character has actually taken a big step backward here.

While this is a rather weak issue in terms of story, the art of Young Justice continues to be excellent and full of variety.  Guest artist André Lima Araújo brings a more gritty, grainy style to the flashbacks that suits the more grounded story they depict and is added to by Gabe Eltaeb’s choice to make the colors of these sequences more muted.  This also allows the present-day sequences to feel special as they jolt the reader back into John Timms’ usual grandiose style with the neon palette.

The present-day scenes also work better than the rest of the issue because Bendis’ writing just clicks more with the characters they feature.  Tim, Bart, and even the Earth-3 Stephanie Brown get all the best lines despite their relatively brief appearances here.  I understand why Bendis decided to include the new characters in this title as he’s had great success in adding new players to long-established franchises in the past, such as with The New Avengers, but so far it’s just not really working here, except in the case of Jinny Hex.  Amethyst and especially Teen Lantern don’t add anything to the book and if this issue is any indication the latter is actively starting to drag it down.

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