Young Justice is the best comic book-based show on television. Young Justice is a rarity in the current streaming world, a show that keeps getting better with every new season, pushing boundaries and breaking down walls instead of hastily trying to keep up with the times. Young Justice has something no other comic book show has had before: ambition. Most of the Disney+ shows have felt small in scale and safe in intentions. Young Justice has ambition to spare, perhaps too much for its own good, and isn't afraid to use it. DC Comics is viewed by the show as a massive playground with a large variety of toys to play with and exploit to the fullest.
Does the show seem to be struggling to reach a large audience? We don't have a way of knowing how Young Justice is doing because the notoriously secretive HBO Max doesn't reveal its numbers or participate in the rankings. We have an idea based on the show's performance on social media and the noise it makes. Young Justice has a loyal army of followers who use several hashtags to support the show. Fans who want the series to continue are using the #SaveEarth16 and #KeepBingingYJ.
Young Justice should continue because it is the best comic book content and because it is the series we fans deserve.
Young Justice uses a mix of established characters and somewhat obscure figures, creating a balance that instantly hooked fans. The small screen has successfully translated beloved characters from the comic books. The show was able to introduce and define the likes of Artemis and Miss Martian because they were less prominent. Young Justice created a version of Aqualad that was different from the comic book version, but it was eventually put into DC continuity as the superior version.
The voice acting of Jesse McCartney, Danica McKellar, and Nolan North did a huge service, as did the excellent writing. It was the respect that writers gave them that made the show stand out. The main request of Young Justice was that audiences take them seriously. The title was skewed away from shows like TeenTitans, opting for a more neutral approach to inexperience.
Young Justice focused on the psychological and physical setbacks of being a teenage hero. The usual teenage drama, the expected romances, the late-night escapades, the desperate desire for independence, all came within the context of heroism. The Young Justice characters are heroes first and individuals second. In season 1 there is a scene where each member of the team has a therapy session with Black Canary after a particularly traumatic mission. In just a few minutes, the show explores each character's psyche while revealing more layers to them in a way that most live-action movies fail to do.
Young Justice never took its audience for granted despite being aimed at younger viewers. It delivered a sense of attention and complexity that made most series jealous. There was no room for simplicity in the story and it seemed like it favored complexity over simplicity. The show deserves a lot of praise for always doing more than audiences expect.
To accurately portray the world of DC Comics, Young Justice needed to use it. It expanded to cover every corner of the DC Universe. The first season featured many of the usual suspects, but the second season included more leading and supporting characters. By the time Outsiders came along, the cast was considerable, and the struggle to showcase everyone began.
Young Justice hasn't always been consistent with its stories because of its ambitious approach. At the end of Outsiders, take the betrayal of Brion Markov. Fans spent an entire season getting to know him, so his turn to the dark side was particularly upsetting. The season ended with him being either a villain or a tragic figure. As season 4, Phantoms, has chosen to focus its attentions elsewhere, this payoff still hasn't arrived.
After years of following the show, fans know there is no concern. Brion will be in the spotlight sooner or later. That is the Young Justice way. Plots are never forgotten. The show keeps Brion alive by featuring him in background news reports on TV or mentioning him in casual conversations.
It's easy to see why this approach wouldn't sit well with many viewers, particularly those who expect an instant payoff. Our collective existence is currently in a fast-paced era. News reports come to life and die in less than 24 hours as we move from one shocking event to the next, and the way we consume entertainment reflects this. WandaVision is arguably the most successful of the Disney shows. The series slowly revealed clues with every new episode. Many fans expressed annoyance and desperation when the show's card appeared at the end of each episode. It was too much to ask to sit through nine episodes for a satisfying conclusion.
Audiences have been conditioned to demand answers from their entertainment. The entertainment industry is slowly understanding that the bingeing model made them tolerant to the slow burn. Young Justice is an old-school show that favors a single, consistent storyline that lasts through several episodes and even seasons. Can anyone blame a television show for expecting commitment from its audience?
Young Justice has to be everything to reflect the world in 2022. Phantoms went all-in with diversity and inclusion, even though outsiders introduced more social issues into its story. The season has featured issues like polyamorous and homosexual relationships, non-binary individuals, racism, and depression. Not all of these stories get the same amount of attention, some only get a few seconds now and then, while others carry on for several episodes, but they contribute to creating a chaotic and even chaotic vibe.
Our world is chaotic and beautiful at the same time. People are messy and imperfect. Audiences should expect more from their entertainment because the world has a wide range of sensitivities. Reality will always be stranger than fiction for shows and movies to reflect diversity.
Young Justice loses itself in the chaos by trying to be so many things at once. There is only so much a 20-minute show can do, and it shouldn't carry the burden of representation by itself. It is impossible to expect Young Justice not to try and be everything it can be; to ask anything else from it would betray its very essence. The main strength of the show is its drive, which leads it to dream big and go all-out.
Young Justice is able to present every possibility in the DC Universe with few limitations. It's a medium that's unconstrained by the laws of physics and can be seen on blue and green screens. Why is it still considered an art form?
The Oscars made a number of jokes about how kids watch animated movies and parents watch them. When animation provides some of the highest-quality content on streaming services, comments like those ring hollow. There are shows that push boundaries and redefine what animation can do. Some of the films that are masterpieces on the big screen are delivered by Illumination, Pixar and Ghibli. Not a single person can look at Spirited Away or Wall-E and objectively declare them better than any other film.
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller wrote a guest column for Variety that called for Hollywood to be more animated. Young Justice is leading the charge when it comes to representation, diversity, and nuanced stories, and animation is still seen as a genre that is not appreciated. Young Justice is more complex and ambitious than the average DC big-screen effort, give or take The Batman. The show is more daring, creative, compelling, and thrilling than most entries on the DCEU, yet gets less attention from the audience and Warner Bros.
Young Justice's influence is above animation or television. Kaldur became part of the mainstream DC comics continuity after making such an impression. Young Justice has the best adaptation of Nightwing and Superboy while elevating characters like Tigress and Miss Martian into the show.
The future of Young Justice is uncertain. Greg Weisman has been vocal about the lack of certainty for a fifth season, and his silence is telling. Losing Young Justice would be very sad in a time when DC is all over the place. Young Justice is the only DC property doing what it does because no one seems interested in dealing with the same subjects.
The show's many flaws are pointed out by critics. Young Justice is far too curious and inconsistent to be perfect. We who follow the show will take its ambition over the boring stories we are used to seeing from DC. Young Justice's reach often exceeds its grasp, but it will never stop trying, and that's more than most shows can say.
Quality content that honors the characters we love is what we all want from the DC fandom. Young Justice cares so much for its characters that it pushes them to become more than they were. The show is imperfect, restless, meaningful, curious, and always compelling. Its limitations might be too much for some, and its willingness to present an accurate portrayal of the world will earn it a lot of backlash.
Young Justice is the best DC content. The show leads, like the comics that inspired it. It is innovative instead of copying. It makes mistakes but rectifies them, falls but always gets up, and says the wrong thing. Young Justice is not perfect. DC fans deserve the show, even if they can't see it.
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