Oh, I was so pleased when DC Universe, and later HBO Max, announced that they were bringing back Young Justice. Cut short by Cartoon Network on a cliffhanger, not only did it come back years later to streaming, with a more mature storytelling style (often meaning a bit more violence, slight profanity, and character death), but for the most part it came back at more or less the same level of quality despite the years between seasons two and three. Season three, like season two before it, brought in more new characters to this iteration of the DC Universe, but what about the original members of the group often referred to simply as “the Team”?
Season four, subtitled Phantoms, made its focus directly on that original cast.
Season three ended with, among other things, a hint that the Legion of Superheroes would be involved with season four, and indeed they were, but the structure of the season was unique. While the previous seasons told a single story over the course of the season, this time around the show focused on a series of smaller storyarcs, each spotlighting different members of the original Team, before coming together for a single final story in the end. Each story went for four or five episodes before moving on to the next storyarc and another member of the original team. Those stories covered Superboy and Miss Martian’s planning for a wedding on her homeworld of Mars; Tigress’s investigation into which of two young assassins is an actual defector from the League of Shadows; Zatanna’s efforts to keep a new agent of the Lords of Chaos from essentially destroying the world with only her own three students for help; Aquaman’s search for clues as to whether or not a mysterious figure is the legendary Atlantean hero he appears to be; Rocket’s attempts to negotiate a peace treaty between the League, the New Gods, and the Green Lantern Corps; and finally Nightwing’s return to action in order to solve the season’s mystery.
To be clear, there were some season-long storyarcs, most notably one involving Beast Boy’s struggle with grief and PTSD after a trauma from the first storyarc, plus a mysterious young man working with Darkseid to get something he wants. Three members of the Legion are working in secret in an attempt to prevent changing the future in any significant way, and with the show’s subtitle, it isn’t that much of a surprise to learn that the Phantom Zone plays a big part in the overall story.
For the most part, I was pleased with the season. True, I would have preferred a more standard form for this season with one long arc instead of multiple shorter ones, but putting the focus back on the original Team members was a good move. I’ve been rewatching season one of late, and season two’s focus largely on Blue Beetle and season three on the various members of the Outsiders meant the original group got less screentime. A season like this one makes for a nice way to see how the characters have grown and changed, and most assuredly they have. Young Justice has always been a show that allowed its characters to literally grow up and age. That may be most symbolic in the way the show focuses on the wedding of Superboy and Miss Martian. These are two characters who met in the first two episodes, one a newly born clone, the other a socially awkward girl from another planet, and over time, they grew closer in a way that largely worked, with some ups and downs along the way.
Of the various stories, some were stronger than others. I liked the first three arcs best from the first half of the season. The weakest may have been Rocket’s, but that may have something to do with the fact Rocket has gotten far less attention than all the others, only officially joining the Team in the final two episodes of season one. It means she has the least amount of known character growth, and her story has probably the biggest supporting cast. It’s not a bad storyarc by itself. It just features the least developed character of the bunch. Beyond that, well, I am really hoping HBO Max gives it a season five.
Grade: B+
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