Finally home, the Young Justice team finds out that their troubles aren’t over yet. Your Major Spoilers review of Young Justice #11 from DC Comics awaits!
YOUNG JUSTICE #11
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: John Timms
Colorist: Gabe Eltaeb
Letterer: Wes Abbott
Editor: Mike Cotton
Publisher: DC Comics/Wonder Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: December 4, 2019
Previously in Young Justice: Young Justice returns! Home! To Earth! Finally! Just in time to confront all of their big issues-like S.T.A.R. Labs! Moms and dads! Naomi! Jinny Hex’s trunk! And yes, each other! This starts the wild wind-up to Wonder Comics’ first year as the truth behind S.T.A.R. Labs and the reunion of Young Justice is revealed!
BACK HOME… FOR A MINUTE
As the issue opens, we find Naomi (of the recent Wonder Comics limited of the same name) being interviewed by Doctor Glory of STAR Labs about her recent forays into the space/time continuum. Glory tries to pump her for information on her new powers, just as another temporal portal opens. Naomi expects an attack, but what comes through is a Ford pickup, loaded with the members of Young Justice who have been pinballing around the multiverse for several issues. After confirming that they’re finally back home, the team is somewhat surprised to see Naomi pass out for reasons that aren’t entirely clear. Later that night, she awakens to find teenagers asleep all over her house. She encounters Jinny Hex, who is STILL hiding something in the strange chest in her truckbed, and quickly finds that the whole team is awake. As they compare notes, Superboy becomes more and more angry, and realizes that Dr. Glory, the woman who was trying to debrief Naomi is the same woman who sent him to Gemworld in the first place!
NAOMI NEEDS A CODENAME
This issue feels a little bit scattershot in a number of ways, especially since Superboy gets shuttled off to Skartaris halfway through, continuing the ongoing tour of places in the DCU. With so many players on the board, we get almost no time with Amethyst, only a brief moment with Impulse and very little focus on any single member of the cast. I like the dialogue, especially when we get into the trademark Bendis back-and-forths as everyone introduces themselves, but the story feels like it’s a bit out of control. On the art side, I’m a little bit more satisfied, as John Timms channels a little bit of Humberto Ramos in his wild figure work and expressive faces. It’s also got the same problems that I have with Ramos’ work, though, as many of the body proportions (especially in the action scenes) are pretty much impossible (and distractingly so.) Still, it’s not a bad issue of comics, and the final page looks between Wonder Girl and Drake are wonderfully full of character. I just wish there had been a semblance of normality before we set off on another jaunt into another dimension…
BOTTOM LINE: KIND OF FRENETIC, BUT CHARMING
All in all, it’s a comic with a strong cast, some better-than-average art and the promise of fun things to come, but Young Justice #11 never quite coheres into an fully balance issue with beginning, middle and end, but overall works well enough to rank a better-than-average 3.5 out of 5 stars overall. The text message conversation between Tim “Drake” Drake and his maybe-ex Spoiler is charming enough to get me to come back next time, but I’d like to see things settle down a bit for this team sooner rather than later.
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YOUNG JUSTICE #11
There's some information that gets imparted about the ongoing mysteries, and a lot of interesting back and forth dialogue, but it doesn't really come across as a focused, satisfying single issue story. It's not bad, though.
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Writing5
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Art7
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Coloring8
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