This Bitter Earth-16, On The Nature of Adolesence
Don't call 'em sidekicks. At least, that seems to be the driving idea behind the new Young Justice cartoon series, which begins airing weekly this Friday following the debut of its first two episodes late last year. If the opening hour is any indication of the episodes to come, the show aims to bypass the cheap teenage-drama-occasionally-interspersed-with-action that one might expect and instead fit snugly into the hole in Cartoon Network left long ago by Teen Titans.
It could just be my general inexperience with the subset, but in the teen-beat books that I've read (excluding a brief bout with Perez's Teen Titans), I'm yet to see a story that openly accepts the tenant that those characters exist primarily as vectors of relatability, drawing the bridge that spans from the 15 year-old who buys Detective Comics with Mom's allowance to Batman himself. Batman's prowess and kickassery are inspirational enough to read about, but to see a young Dick Grayson swinging by his side, nearly proclaiming "And you can be here too!", makes the message that much stronger. Take into account anything after Battle for the Cowl, and you get the added bonus of "And if you work hard enough..." But Dick's proven to be the exception, not the rule. Green Arrow's sidekicks have been the most egregious violators of my Intermediary theory, with now-Arsenal's drug-addiction and Speedy's AIDS storyline at the forefront of my memory. It's not that these characters shouldn't have Bad Things happen to them, but these plot points do nothing to bring the reader closer to the patron hero.
Yet where the comics try and fail at superhero association, Young Justice strives for a full-blown dissociation from the older generation of heroes, speaking to teenage concerns of inadequately meeting expectations and the need for independence. The boys that comprise the team want to take their corner of the universe and run with it, and it's this ambition that makes the first two episodes as endearing and successful as they are. Superboy tries and fails to be as good as Superman; Speedy wants respect that his elders won't give him, and I know if I were troubled teen, I'd have my DVR set. And having the Guardian placed among the teens in a demonstration of moral ambiguity is a nice touch. The show isn't without its flaws, mostly found in genre-tastic corridor-running and non-formidable telepathic bosses, and the comics-faithful can have little doubt as to the identity of the Big Bad shrouded in light on the teleconference screen (I'm sayin' it has to be Luthor, but maybe, hopefully, there's a twist). Speedy gets forcefully ejected from screentime after the first few minutes, and while one can assume he'll be back as a corrupted minion, his cameo would've fared better with a follow-up. With promising pilot episodes, here's a wish for a full season just as well-paced and adequately sentimental.
Rubber Justice
Posted to Television on 17 January 2011
· Comments (1)
Other stuff like this: cartoon, Robin, Superboy, television, Young Justice
I saw a few minutes at a friend's house over the weekend, waiting for our tabletop gaming group to get started. I really liked the animation, and I have to assume it's Dick Grayson as Robin since he, y'know, smiles. The voice acting was also good. It was the first of the current DC-based cartoons to really grab my attention in a long time.
That said, when Speedy failed to run fast enough to get all the way up the side of a building, one of my friends and gaming colleagues reacted as though it were a personal insult to him. I was willing to accept that a youthful protege would operate at less power than the icon, but my friend just couldn't abide it. Bless his heart, it nearly wounded him to see someone in a Flash-like suit unable to run faster than gravity.