Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Young Justice issues 1-55 by Peter David and Todd Nauck ::
by William the Bloody
Ah, Young Justice... the more relaxed, less angsty and more funny alternative to Teen Titans. Basically your core group is Robin, Superboy and Impulse (who originally got together for the World Without Grown-Ups two-parter and then the series prologue "Secret") are joined by Arrowette, Wonder Girl and Secret (on a more permanent basis) in issue 4, then later by Empress (a character created specifically for this series), Li'l Lobo (who later mutates into Slo-Bo) and The Ray. We follow these teen heroes as they journey around the world on their Super-Cycle (discovered in issue 1) fighting crime and do-gooding. Your basic super hero comic stuff. This comic ran from 1998 to 2002.
The Good: Peter David is a pretty darn good writer. He knows when to start sub-plots and hints at future events well in advance so that nothing feels last minute or contrived. Everything with the characters seems to flow naturally and he really has our core three down. And as the group expands, their dynamic only gets better. AND WE GET CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!! This book is also packed with laughs and humour with just enough drama and action thrown into the mix. Man, there are scenes in this book that still made me laugh years later (Arrowette breathing into the paper bag for one...). The humour in this book also felt tailor made for someone like me. I mean, we have Monty Python, Mystery Science Theater 3000, the Princess Bride and Buffy the Vampire Slayer references GALORE! There are also subtle gags thrown into the artwork, so I don't know if these were scripted or just free-handed by the artist, but bravo to these (Secret's father is in jail and his inmate number is 8675309, for one, and the names on some tombstones are the writers on MST3K, along with their pizza being "Torgo's Pizza", yet another MST ref.... and it goes on). References aside, there is general humour bound to be funny by all (re: Arrowette contemplating becoming a villain: "I'm going to have to get a black, skin tight outfit that shows off my cleavage. God I'm gonna have to get cleavage!!") They did a great job with the "universe wide" crossovers like The Joker: Last laugh and Our Worlds At War in not making us feel like this title's inclusion is sort of out of left field and not that important (re: that's how I felt with the crossovers in Young Heroes In Love... sort of hurried and we didn't really get filled in properly as to what was going on, but not the case here). Todd Nauck's art is really good for this book and only got better as the series progressed and he got a better feel for the characters. Their original villain Harm was pretty cool and I liked how he intertwined with Young Justice on a far deeper level than we at first anticipated. The HUGE Old Justice/Sins of Youth storyline was incredible. I LOVE the stuff they did with Klarion (bum-bum-BUM) the Witchboy.
The Bad: Some stuff was trying too hard to funny and just felt stupidly goofy (all that horrid business with Mr. Myxlplyx in issue 3, the team having to play baseball for the fate of planet Myrg in an awful and unnecessary Space Jam send-up). The occasional guest artists were really disappointing, but at least they were few and far between. I'm going to have to hate them for making me like Lobo a little bit. There were issues that got waaay too preachy for their own good (I take it Mr. David is a gun control advocate), and I don't think this comic was the forum for bringing up his point of view on these issues and for the most part without giving the other side any fair say at all.
In the end, this was one of my favourite comics and I was severely disappointed when it ended. Our main characters (Robin, Superboy, Impulse and Wonder Girl) are back together under the current Teen Titans title, but the mood just isn't the same (they inherited that Titans angst and left the humour at the door). This was my most anticipated monthly comic back in the day, yet their run wasn't all that long (55 issues of the regular series, but add on about 20 more for Secret Files and Origins issues as well as Sins of Youth tie-ins and crossovers). I don't think this series is available as a trade paperback collection (the Sins of Youth stuff alone I think is), but if you can find these back issues for cheap, I'd HIGHLY recommend it for anyone who wants a break from the bleak super heroing to something a little fun and interesting.
A-
