After an absence of nearly six years, the DC UNIVERSE streaming app has brought back fan-favorite cartoon YOUNG JUSTICE, with the first three episodes of the third season available to stream now.
Picking up a couple of years after the end of the second season, things have gotten worse on Earth-16 (the multiversal designation where YJ takes place). Lex Luthor is the United Nations Secretary General and he’s making things difficult for the Justice League. The sanctions and prohibitions placed on the team push Batman, Green Arrow and others to quit the League, taking the Bat-members of Young Justice with them.
Tim Drake walking away from Wonder Girl Cassie Sandsmark, his girlfriend, without saying a word to her, is the kind of jackass move that I would expect from… well none of the Robins, really. Maybe Damian. Definitely not Tim Drake. But I digress…
This puts the former Aqualad, now Aquaman and leader of the Justice League, in a bit of a bind, but the problems facing the Justice League are a small facet of the first three episodes, just setting the stage for a different team to rise from the ashes.
Nightwing stumbles on a metahuman child trafficking ring, so he rounds up Superboy, Tigress and Black Lightning – who resigned from the League after unwittingly killing a child on Rann – to put a stop to it. The investigation takes the team to Markovia, where our heroes go up against Count Vertigo and Bedlam, who are trying to usurp the rule of the Markovian royal family, including Prince Brion Markov – who turns himself into a metahuman to help save his country.
YOUNG JUSTICE always had a bit darker tone than, say, the Timm/Dini cartoon universe, but they managed to tell compelling stories without becoming too grim and gritty. The third season continues with the same quality of the previous two. The mini-arc presented in the first three episodes seamlessly brings you back into the world with a great story and quality voice acting.
With three new episodes set to debut over the next few weeks – and 26 episodes scheduled for the third season – we should all have something good to do on Friday nights.