Young Justice #3

((trouble uploading pictures, will be included after 4th April. Not that pics are essential, but i feel they are))

This issue was SO FUNNY! And handles some deep, complex theories as well. Time travel, and well, something sort of like aliens, but instead of "other worlds", this entity is from something like another "dimension".

Spoilers, yes i will be including them. Because this is a review, not a preview, and we assume you've read the comic. But you should read it, highly recommend it. The youngsters' ages and the goofy art might throw you off, but whether you're looking for some laughs and relaxation, or mind blowing concepts, or friendship, love, attraction, good art or good story, this issue actually offers it all. The main villain is obviously Mxy, because he's ON the cover, but there's a surprise about him inside.

Like the issues before, (but UN-like the issue after this) we don't get straight down to the story. Well, the villain is introduced on page 3, but shit doesn't get real till later on. The guys are at a party, actually they're THROWING the party, and it's just a bunch of filler puffing up the pages, but on the other hand it's a HUGE serving of Todd's art. Look at this! What do you think of when you think 'ugly'? You think of old people. Yes you do, don't lie you ungrateful bastard. Well, Todd makes even the wrinkly old people look beautiful with the big eyes and the overly exaggerated expressions.

The issue is filled with humour, but Robin keeps the seriousness up. Unlike in the cartoon, where the young Dick tells SB to lighten up and feel the "aster", it's SB and Impulse who are always goofing around, and Tim could be the father figure to Nightwing, and maybe even Batman, from how serious he is. That guy needs to chill, a little bit. BUT, if it wasn't for his superb leadership, the world, and their entire timeline, would be straight up #@!$-ed! When Mr. Mxyptlk arrives, he looks much younger, and his character is way different from what we're used to seeing in the pages of Action and Superman. His hair is dark, he's younger. Because the YJ series includes kid-versions of other characters, (SB, Wonder Girl, Impulse, Robin, Arrowette, Kid Lobo,..) I wasn't sure if it was just a son or a nephew of the actual, original Mxy's. But this is an OLDER VERSION of Mxy. It's weird to think about, because being a being from the FIFTH dimension, one order higher than Time, which is usually considered a 4th dimension, i'm not sure if Mxy can be affected this way. He probably exists out of time, either not affected by it, or able to see all time at once, (kind of like a god). He CHOOSES to interfere at a certain point in time, and he stops time till the adventure is done, at least that's how a being from the 5th dimension COULD behave.

But about 10 years earlier, Alan Moore did a closing up of the Golden Age Superman called "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow", where Mxy said that at one stage of his life, he was committed to order, and later on he was more destructive than mischievous. That's what we're seeing, AND THE CATALYST WHO CHANGED HIS LIFE WAS THE BOYS! (doesn't he look drunk there?)

He is a little bit mischievous, but probably only uses his tricks (his "hexonology" is explained by Robin as being a mixture of science AND magic) for some purpose, either to defend himself, or to manipulate reality in order to study it and make his report. The guy's much more boring and less of a prick in this version. At the end of his stay, when he's ready to leave, (which may look like a denouement) Robin holds him for a second and checks on how his visit has altered their reality. And THAT is the true height of this story, at least for me.

We pull some Dr Who/Rick and Morty stuff to show how the world would end up in destruction if he never bothered Superman in his later years. Think of Mxy as sort of a tutor, or a sparring partner for Superman, who helps him (or at least gives him a chance) to explore the full range of his powers, and to think orderly, specific thoughts. Think of playing chess with 10 people at once. Through all the mischief and annoyance, Mxy actually helps IMPROVE Superman as a hero. He's like the Q from Star Trek. And the boys had to drive him crazy so all of this stuff could happen.

Of course time travel (at least in fiction) is a complex topic! It's usually one of 2 theories, one saying that you can travel through time as an observer, but even the smallest action you take to affect the time stream can have a drastic "ripple effect", and another saying that whatever you do to alter the past, time will do something to fix itself, and the ripples don't have a permanent effect on the time streams. Both Superman and the post-Crisis Superboy have met up with the Legion of Superheroes and had adventures in the 31st century, to quietly return to exactly when they left off, as if nothing ever happened.

At the end of the review, i would like to add a couple more panels from the story. A panel of Red Tornado crying, for instance, thinking of a daughter from "a human lifetime ago". Tornado is actually an interesting character that i overlooked before. He's kind of like Marvel's Vision. There are panels from the Halloween party, of how a girl flirts with Robin and the guys show some team work, by getting their boy's back. I think it's nice to know you got some friends who'll jump in to a fight for you, even when in this case, those friends have very little to fear in most fights. There are panels of the techno-cult who tap into five computers over a pentagram. Hoods, spells, and computers. Yeah, great plot. Today, we look back from an age where 3-D printing has been invented. But in the 90s, even the late 90s, that was WAY beyond futuristic. The 90s were awesome. And now, we shed some light on something.....ambiguously villainous. These boys chasing the young daughter of the Tornado. She was lucky her android father was watching, and the plot device serves to bring parent and child together. But think about it. Does that look right?

All in all, fun comic, a lot of substance on many layers and subjects. A full 5 stars from this reader