Hello Speed Readers,

As many of you are aware the last episode of Young Justice aired this past Saturday. I finally got a chance to watch it this morning and wow, what a heart breaking episode for Flash Family Fans.

Spoilers for Young Justice Season 2 Episode 20 “Endgame”

****SPOILERS*****

Wally West is dead, again! For those who have not been keeping up with the show for whatever reason, Wally returned from semi-retirement last episode to help take out The Light (Earth’s top super-villains united under Lex Luthor) and The Reach (a group of aliens who were attempting to conquer the Earth) once and for all. The battle left The Light and The Reach alliance in shambles and as a final move to destroy key evidence of The Reach’s tampering with the Earth’s populace (lest they violate a treaty in place with the Guardians of the Universe), their top agent, Black Beetle attempts to destroy the Earth.

Part of The Reach’s endgame are drones that disrupt and destroy the Earth’s magnetic field and the Earth itself eventually. The heroes split off into teams of two to immobilize the drones and they succeed for the most part only to realize that one had remained undetected in the Arctic. Flash (Barry Allen) and Impulse (Bart Allen) attempt to stop the device but they are seconds late. In a bid to counteract the effect of the device on the Earth they run counter clockwise to the energy attempting to reverse it but their kinetic energy is not enough. Hearing this Kid Flash Zeta beams (or teleports) down to the battle and joins his uncle and cousin in trying to destroy the weapon. They start to succeed but as a result of Wally’s decreased speed the excess energy siphoning off of the weapon starts to target his body and batters him into nothing. Wally West dies.

In the aftermath, Artemis (Wally’s girlfriend in this continuity) visits Wally’s parents and gives them the heart-breaking news. Wally gets a memorial where it is revealed that Bart Allen has taken up the mantle of Kid Flash and Artemis has decided to shed her old identity to become Tigress once again.

*****End Episode Spoilers*****

Well I guess that pretty much brings the Flash Family in line with the New 52. *Sigh*. Extremely sad that we are not getting a third season and also a little perturbed at the way this episode ended. There is nothing to to say that Wally would not have returned from the Speed Force a more powerful hero and would eventually go on to take on the Flash mantle in the third season (Why else play up his reduced speed so much?). Only problem with that is as far as I know the writers have explicitly stated that there is no Speed Force in this universe. Just seems like a low blow at the end of the day. It was nice to have one Wally in continuity that kind of still existed and with him still alive we could have imagined all kinds of possibilities. With his death that chapter is closed. Permanently.

I was pleased to see Impulse evolve into Kid Flash. I was one of the few fans that thought Impulse’s evolution into Kid Flash made perfect sense in the comics and it is nice to see the show mirror that. I will say that the motivation in this continuity is stronger but really what beats death?

I know not everyone was in love with this show but I really, really wanted a third season. Especially after this ending and all the loose threads they just left dangling. It is really too bad that they ended the Young Justice tie-in comic book series a few months back as I could have seen their adventures continuing on in comic book form after the series ended similar to Smallville and Buffy, The Vampire Slayer. Not to say that they still couldn’t restart the series but I’m not betting on it. There is also the small possibility of a direct to home release movie but again I won’t be holding my breath.

At least we have Young Justice: Legacy to look forward to in September (hopefully).

What did you all think of Young Justice’s series finale? Do you feel cheated, hurt, shocked or indifferent? Please, let us know in the comments below.

–Devin

Screencaps courtesy of GothamKnightsOnline

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