Young Justice... Oh hell yes.

When I was a kid I loved comic books. My mother would let me pick out one comic when we went to 7-11 and I loved her for it. Yes, when I was a kid 7-11 sold comic books. Sad days that this no longer happens. But I digress. The comics I used to get most often were "The Flash, X-Men, and Young Justice." Why? Because Young Justice was awesome. Admittedly YJ was a bit later toward the end of 7-11s comic store run, but it doesn't really matter.

When I moved in with my grandparents permanently I never really read comics much after that. They lived out in the country and no place out there sold comics so I was pretty much screwed. When I saw my dad he'd buy me a comic or two, but it was never really enough to get any understanding. The golden day, however was when I was sixteen and got my car. Which I call Morgan. Why Morgan because despite being an old used car it was bought at a Freeman Oldsmobile dealership and the car itself is black. Yes, my car is Morgan Freeman. The first series I started reading after I could get my hands back on comics was Teen Titans, since sadly Young Justice had literally just ended a week or two beforehand. Mostly the same characters anyway.

The point I am trying to make is I grew up on the DC Universes Teen Superheroes so I feel I have the authority to talk about them. Well I feel I have the authority to talk about anything I please, but my arguments on the practicality of putting in a Nuclear Power Plant to power my small bodunk country hometown would not be anything more than "But.. I want superpowers?!"

Now onto the meat of this article. Young Justice is a new Cartoon that will airing on Cartoon Network in January. Yesterday Cartoon Network aired a two part Pilot for the series. Now here is my first thoughts on the show without doing any research into it, just based on my observations of "Oh hey, I'm a Comic Book Guru so I know this." First off, it's clearly evident that this is not set in the main DC Universe, but when it's a cartoon that's a bit obvious. No Cartoonverse is going to live up to my high standards, so I usually lower them quite a bit. The animation is breathtaking, the action scenes, gorgeous. My first complaint "What the hell is Black Manta's son doing as Aqualad? Granted the character was just introduced in Brightest Day and he has a slightly different look in the comic books, but still mostly the same. My second observation was the way Robin was acting it was definatly Tim Drake. No way around it. The outfit matched, and the personality and computer skills were right on. Tim was always the Brain of the four Robins. (Yes, technically there were five, but I won't count Stephanie Brown if you don't.) Next observation was Okay, Kid Flash has the hair of Wally, but definitely the costume of Bart, plus the goggles which were a cool nod to his Impulse persona. I figured they wanted to do KF instead of Impulse so the fans could follow easier. I thought it was cool they got the look of Speedy down pat, but then immediately threw him away. Made me sad, but maybe he'll come back later. Then they threw in Superman. I liked the suit, but at the end of the pilot he was wearing his Teen Titans costume. This was my first bit of confusion. My final observation, was Okay Miss Martian is post One Year Later Teen Titans. Not Young Justice. This is freaking Teen Titans. Not Young Justice.

Now after my research I found out they actually named this Universe, Universe 16, so it's possible we'll get to see this in comic books. Why they did this, I have no idea other than to make a Comic Book off of it. Who knows. I should've known that by Having Roy (Speedy) in it that of course Robin and Kid Flash would be Dick and Wally. Who were never in Young Justice. Ever. Infact the only member of the entire group was ever in Young Justice is Superboy. Also they made up a new Aqualad for this cartoon. You know what, I forgive them. That's all technicalities that are to be expected in a cartoon adaptation of anything. I can also forgive the name change because of that rather silly Teen Titans cartoon years back.

I am all for exposing kids to new superheroes. Years ago before the Iron Man movies were announced I asked around my High School and found out no one knew who Iron Man was. That made me sad, since then I've been all for Superhero Cartoons. Why? Because I also grew up on those, and I love the ever loving bejesus out of them. The fun facts they threw in their too, like the Hall of Justice is just a media front for the Watchtower? Awesome. Also I saw two Green Lanterns, Hal Jordan, and John Stewert, respectively near the end. They are also going to be adding a Young Justice member Artemis, though she will be going under the name Arrowette.

In conclusion, despite my ranting and raving, I love this series. I've dated a lot of girls and told many of them that I was in love with them, but after watching the pilot for this series, I honestly think I understand what true love really is. I want to cuddle with this series at night. I want to make love to it for hours. I want to grow old with this series and have children with it. It's that good.

But for further representation of all the differences, photos are in order.
The Cartoon, Young Justice.

Young Justice, The Comic Book

And last but not least. Teen Titans.

Alright, and for some Miss Martian action, Teen Titans post One Year Later

In addition to all this, I'm going to try to get Rob to watch the Pilot and give his, "Okay, I know nothing about comics, let's see how I feel" look. Until then,
                 Lee "YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!" Baker