REVIEW: ‘Young Justice: Outsiders’ Brings The Sidekicks Back Front & Center

Today is the day and before you read this review you need to fully understand the story behind the return of Young Justice. The lengths us fans had to go to bring back this series were drastic. Through viewing the series many times on Netflix and petitioning to have it brought back, it’s been a very long road to getting a new season of Young Justice. The revival of Young Justice is the animated version of the story of Lazarus. The once dead series was brought back to life for a third season called Young Justice: Outsiders on the new streaming service DC Universe due to fan outcry. The original series was cancelled because of dampening toy sales, but was watched and adored by many.

Young Justice focuses on DC Comics’ most notable sidekicks — Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Speedy, Superboy, Miss Martian, Artemis and many more. The series is arguably the best representation of the DC Universe as it handles all of these characters ever so perfectly. So when it was cancelled, it left a big hole in the hearts of fans around the world. Now that the series is back the excitement surrounding the return is incremental and the wait is almost over as it returns in January 2019.

As I watched a few episodes of the new season, I started to realize that it was like getting back together with your best friends after years of being away. The animation is a bit updated and the storyline is fresh, but the sense of nostalgia and familiarity set up a satisfactory viewing experience. I stopped watching cartoons a long time ago, and I believe Young Justice was my only exception of that. Since it’s been off air, I have avoided animated series entirely. Now that it’s back I can honestly say I will continue to watch because it’s just that good. Young Justice is one of the most adult cartoons out there and it’s animation style and plot rivals most anime series that are tailored for adults. The new storyline Outsiders explores is very dark as it deals with the very tender subject of child trafficking, but as this is a show with superheroes, the people behind it have to add that flare to a very saddening real world occurrence.

When I heard the series was adding some new characters I was worried that the fan favorites would have less screentime, but I was dead wrong. The old characters mixed with the new get equal time to shine. It’s revealed early on that Kaldur’ahm has been promoted to Aquaman as Arthur Curry heads back to Atlantis to be King full time. This allows a change in dynamic, with Miss Martian leading the team and the new Aquaman leading the Justice League alongside Wonder Woman. After the second season’s alien invasion, the government creates a bevy of new sanctions for the league to follow, à la the Sovokia accords from Captain America: Civil War, forcing the Justice League to limit their actions. This causes Batman and a bunch of other heroes to form a surprising coup which leads them to resign and secretly form a team of Outsiders.

Executive producers Brandon Vietti and Greg Weisman return and they totally up the stakes, animation and plot. Our heroes have one problem: Metahuman trafficking. Dick Grayson’s Nightwing sets out to tackle this head on and recruits an elite team to do so. Oddly enough his team is pretty much the damaged goods of the series. He teams up with Superboy, Artemis and Black Lightning and as he recruits them you can see each of their individual struggles, something that adds a humanizing depth to this cartoon about superbeings. And as the heroes find out more on the Metahuman trafficking ring, they realize that it is a much larger organization than they initially expected, and the ones behind the criminal undertaking may or may not shock you. The plot of the episodes I’ve watched surrounds the fictional nation of Markovia and their ties to the trafficking ring, and the outcome of Nightwing’s operation forces the team to take on a few new members, including a girl with some pretty cool powers and even a Markovian Prince.

The new members create more problems than they solve for the team and essentially screw up Nightwing’s plan, but in the end, they become valuable assets to the team. The series’ villainous plot of trafficking will continue to unfold throughout the season and I look forward to getting to the bottom of what the antagonists’ actual plan is. As things get hectic by the end of the third episode, one thing is apparent: the team is in for a long ride that will ultimately lead them to iconic DC Comics villains Vandal Savage and Darkseid. From what I have already seen, I’m very excited to see where the series creators take the next few episodes of Young Justice: Outsiders.

Overall Thoughts: Young Justice: Outsiders revitalizes and rebirths the series. The show returns and it makes you feel like it never left. You get the same giddy feeling as a young child eating cereal in front of a television watching Saturday morning cartoons. Young Justice: Outsiders is perfect in every way and should satisfy even the most hardcore fans. I, for one, am excited to see where Young Justice goes next on DC Universe.

Rating: 10/10