Young Justice (1998-2003): Book One

Young Justice (1998)

by Peter David, Todd Nauck (Artist)

Batman. Superman. The Flash. The incredible members of the Justice League of America cast a long shadow, and the members of Young Justice are eager to step out of it. Robin, Superboy and Impulse want to prove to their superhero mentors that they’re capable of tackling super-villains on their own. Under the guidance of the stoic, wise Red Tornado, the three teen heroes begin their quest to make a name for themselves, apart from their famous friends.
 
When the team gains three new members-shy but powerful Wonder Girl, champion archer Arrowette and mystical Secret-Young Justice is ready to take on one of the toughest foes the universe has ever seen: the giant tyrant Despero. But it’s a race against the clock: if Young Justice can’t work together and defeat Despero within 22 minutes, the Justice League will disband Young Justice permanently. Can the team come together to stop Despero’s reign of terror, or will Young Justice be separated forever?
 
Witness the epic battles the Young Justice team faces in these classic stories written by critically acclaimed author Peter David. YOUNG JUSTICE BOOK ONE collects YOUNG JUSTICE #1-7, JLA: WORLD WITHOUT GROWN-UPS #1-2, YOUNG JUSTICE: THE SECRET and YOUNG JUSTICE: SECRET FILES #1.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Batman

403 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 2, 2017

About the author

aka David Peters

Peter Allen David, often abbreviated PAD, was an American writer of comic books, novels, television, films, and video games. His notable comic book work includes an award-winning 12-year run on The Incredible Hulk, as well as runs on Aquaman, Young Justice, SpyBoy, Supergirl, Fallen Angel, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Captain Marvel, and X-Factor.
His Star Trek work included comic books and novels such as the New Frontier book series. His other novels included film adaptations, media tie-ins, and original works, such as the Apropos of Nothing and Knight Life series. His television work includes series such as Babylon 5, Young Justice, Ben 10: Alien Force and Nickelodeon's Space Cases, which he co-created with Bill Mumy.
David often jokingly described his occupation as "Writer of Stuff", and he was noted for his prolific writing, characterized by its mingling of real-world issues with humor and references to popular culture, as well as elements of metafiction and self-reference.
David earned multiple awards for his work, including a 1992 Eisner Award, a 1993 Wizard Fan Award, a 1996 Haxtur Award, a 2007 Julie Award and a 2011 GLAAD Media Award.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

DC's third generation of heroes band together in a clubhouse type setting. I really enjoyed the backdoor pilot of the series if you will, JLA: World Without Grownups. A kid discovers a magic MacGuffin and wishes there were no more grownups splitting the world in two. I like how Mike McKone illustrated the grownup world while Humberto Ramos illustrated the kid's side. The first half of the book focuses on the big three of Impulse, Superboy, and Robin or as Peter David points out, id, ego, and superego, respectively. The book is a lot of fun, filled with puns and double entendres. It is a lot lighter in tone than the Young Justice cartoon that came later on. That was almost a combination of Young Justice and Teen Titans. Todd Dezago was a great choice for a book about super powered children.

[Mizuki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review: Young Justice book 2 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

(1) I like this volume better than the second volume!

(2) So far the stories remind me of a popular slang: "不作死就不會死" (Translation: Don't do anything stupid or senseless, then you won't die) LOL

(3) I kinda wanna LOL at the 'speeders have their customs hidden in their rings' thingy.........it reminds me of Sailor Moon and the other magical girls...XD

(4) and I saw disco!Nightwing in one tiny panel! Plus........Nightwing with glam rock hair! XD XD

(5) Okay, the stories clearly are no Batman: Year One, etc; still they are humorous enough to be fine entertainment.

(6) I quite like the backstories of Superboy, Robin and Impulse, especially the Impulse one. ^_^

(7) Spoiler's origin story is fine but then................what the hell happens in the ending part!? I'm kinda mad!!!

(8) I'm amused to see Justice Leauge's members having a group-hands-holding section in the first story!!! XD

(9) Last but not least, I like the first story the best.

Other Reviews:

Red Hood: Outlaw vol. 1 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Review: Batman: Battle For the Cowl: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Review: Batman: Life After Death: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Review: Batman & Robin: Batman Reborn https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Book Review: Batman: The Long Halloween https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Review: The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told Vol. 1 (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
Review: Batman: A Death in the Family https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter David is among my favorite authors.

Between his comics, his prose, and his movie novelizations, he excels at telling a story, especially when it involves superheroes or extraterrestrials.

It's no surprise, then, that this collection of comics was a blast! Action, romance, laughs...this one has it all!

Better yet, profanity, blood, and crude references are kept to a minimum; a rarity for omnibuses of newer comics!

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young Justice came out in the 90's, late 90's, and it really shows with both the dialogue and art. Saying that, for the most part, I had a blast reading this.

The first is a two parter about the adults all going to a new world, leaving a villain to try to take over the world and it's up to Superboy, Robin, and of course our favorite nutcase, Impulse. Together they come together to stop him. Then we get a few "secret' files which basically are used to tell the past of most of the members of young justice. Then we get the main issues 1-7. With that we get more fun, laid back, interesting storylines of teens being teens and working together in fighting but also just camping out and having fun.

This was a lot of fun. The weaker issues mostly come from "Secret files" where it's mostly used to tell the past. You'll probably know 90% of the past of most of these characters. So that plus "secret" member didn't work well for me. However, everything else is super fun 90's joy. I loved the art, enjoyed all the jokes and dialogue, and hope that the series stays this strong. A 3.5-4 out of 5.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been wanting to read Young Justice for SO long, and now that DC are finally getting around to collecting it, I'm very pleased. It's about a 60 issue run including all the specials and crossovers I think, so come on DC, you can do it.

This first volume unfortunately feels a little all over the place. The first two issue mini-series that unites the trio of Robin, Superboy, and Impulse is easily the best story, given lots of room to breathe and for the characters to interact.

Seven issues of the main series are then collected, but there's also a Secret Origins issue and an 80 Page Giant thrown in as well, along with a tie-in issue to DC One Million after issue #2, so it's very haphazard in terms of story flow. There's literally an end of issue cliffhanger that one of the characters says has to wait until they do something else so they can head off to one of the special issues instead. Bravo to DC for collecting everything in the right order however, so it does flow in terms of story coherence, if a little muddled elsewhere.

The main issues by Peter David and Todd Nauck are great, pitting the team against some insane foes like Harm and Despero (which the back of volume blurb makes a HUGE deal about but it's only one issue out of like 12 in this volume), and the banter between characters is great, if a little heavy on taking the mick out of Impulse. The foundations are laid well though, with the main three guys joined by Secret, Wonder Girl, and Arrowette soon enough.

Next please.

[Kris Ritchie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy Sh*t Batman!

I really loved this, I mean a lot. Some of the personality traits (Superboy being chauvinist at times) and jokes did not always land, but everything else was just great!

This may shape up to be my second favorite team book ever (next to Marvel's A-Force, an all females avengers team).

[Siona Adams · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ehhhh, this was just okay for me. I think the animated show did a better job with these characters. This just felt really childish and cheesy (not sure if this was marketed more towards kids when it came out or not). I do like the characters involved but the writing is not for me. The art is really similar to the Cassandra Cain Batgirl series that came out around the same time (they could be the same artist, not sure but I doubt it) and I wasn’t very fond of it. I think this era in comics just might not be for me.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this collection. I was expecting it to be based on the TV series by the same name, but it really wasn't. This was a different take on the Young Justice concept, and while there were parts that were definitely weaker than the TV series, there were other parts that I really enjoyed. Weaker points would have been Superboy's overall personality and character design. (For me, the one in Young Justice was simply perfect.) This Superboy was too immature, and I guess that would be the major weak point with this collection: Over all, it was more juvenile than the series, which I'd say felt like an animated version of something on the CW, but to be honest, sometimes the CW series can get so caught up in their silly romances that they, too, can feel more juvenile than the "Young Justice" cartoon. Still, this comic did have some nice serious moments and some real character development. I enjoyed getting more time with Tim Drake Robin, and I particularly enjoyed the first story line, which highlighted Captain Marvel--one of my personal favorite (but unfortunate often overlooked) superheroes. I also liked the "secret origins" stories, and I also liked getting Nightwing's cameos. The girl superheroes were ones I'm not as familiar with, and I'm not sure exactly how often they appear in other DC canon, but they were certainly interesting characters. I was also very amused by Impulse. What can I say, he's just a fun character. All in all, I'd say this is definitely a series I'd like to keep reading.

[Daria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did you know there's a book about the silliest guys? This is it!
Bart is the best little guy, he's so silly. He's speedy and he can't shut up and he's the best. Bart. Connor is Connor is silly heart-throb boy. He's not straight despite popular belief, trust me on that one. Tim is here and he's a little hacker. Cassie and Cissy have very similar names and very different personalities. There's also a very scary ghost. When Cassie yelled at the justice league I was like HOLY SHIT lmao get wrecked Bats. The arc where they explained everyone's backstories was so cute, and the Tim and Dick story was adorable as usual. I am so glad they're brothers even here. Red Tornado is just as silly, loves them all but also hates them all. Codependance. Them hanging out around the campfire? Great. Them saving all those other ghosts (and the mini-arc of those 2 girls)? Amazing. The Justice League bullying them was so silly. I loved all of it. I love Bart.

[Connie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book via Kindle Unlimited.

Have you ever read a book and known that if you had read it at a different stage of your life, it would have been the best thing you'd ever read but when you read it right now, it falls flat? Yeah, that's what this was for me.

Robin, Superboy and Impulse make up the beginnings of Young Justice in this book and we follow them to establish themselves as separate from the Justice League, but every bit as badass. Our heroes tackle a number of foes, like Gorilla Grodd, Joker and so on, and come out triumphant every time. We get to see them develop friendships with other young heroes as they join their ranks and create what I imagine was the original Teen Titans.

I would have loved this so much more if I had read it as a kid. But reading it as an adult, it was alright. I'm not very well versed in DC lore, so I don't know a lot about any of these characters, so it was nice to see some new faces.

[Kay]

This isn't for me.

I don't know why, but my first thought when looking at this cover was "White". Everyone (excluding the Martian Manhunter) is White. The characters & lack of diversity, the art, the dialogue... everything is just so dated, but in a way I can't appreciate because it's not nostalgic for me. I love what modern comics have become & found no appreciation for this.
(I grew up on the DC animated TV shows, and "Kid's Stuff" episode 3 of Justice League Unlimited did a take on the first few issues of this book "JLA: World Without Grown Ups" & that is more my speed.)

I am super sad I didn't take to this because 1. I love teen heroes & 2. I love Peter David (I LOVE his X-Factor series!). Oh well.

[Lilian · Rating 4 out of 5]

please they're so funny and red tornado was great too

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young Justice is a fictional DC Comics superhero team consisting of teenaged heroes. Young Justice: Book One collects the first seven issues of the 1998 series with JLA: World Without Grown-Ups #1–2, Young Justice #100000, Young Justice: The Secret, Secret Origins 80-Page Giant, and Young Justice: Secret Files.

JLA: World Without Grown-Ups has Tim Drake as Robin, Kon-El as Superboy, and Bart Allen as Impulse teaming up and trying to solve the mystery to where all the adults in the world disappeared to. They were so successful that they decided to create a team, which was a precursor to the main series.

The first seven issues deals with Young Justice: Tim Drake as Robin, Kon-El as Superboy, and Bart Allen as Impulse, who are later joined by Cissie King-Jones as Arrowette, Greta Hayes as Secret, and Cassandra Sandsmark as Wonder Girl (Young Justice #4) battle various villains such as Mighty Endowed (Young Justice #1), Rip Roar (Young Justice #2), Mr. Mxyzptilk (Young Justice #3), Harm (Young Justice #4–5), Tora (Young Justice #4), and Despero (Young Justice #6). The last two issues deal with the Justice League evaluating if such a team should exists and eventually accepts and give their approval of their team.

Young Justice: The Secret deals with the backstory of Greta Hayes as The Secret – the only new character of the group, who has an incorporeal form and was being held by the Department of Extranormal Operations (DEO), until she was freed by Tim Drake as Robin, Kon-El as Superboy, and Bart Allen as Impulse.

Secret Origins 80-Page Giant and Young Justice: Secret Files is a collection of eleven vignettes staring the team with a timeline and profiles of each of the six team members. Young Justice #100000 has the Young Justice Legion T team of the 853rd century – the counterparts of Robin, Superboy, and Impulse come together to discuss the inaugural members of the team.

Peter David (Young Justice #1–7, 1000000, Young Justice: The Secret, and Young Justice: Secret Files), Todd Dezago (JLA: World Without Grown-Ups #1–2), Dan Curtis Johnson (Secret Origins 80-Page Giant and Young Justice: Secret Files), Mark Waid, Karl Kesel, Chuck Dixon, Jay Faerber, Tom Peyer (Secret Origins 80-Page Giant), Joseph Illdge, Scott Beatty, and Matt Brady (Young Justice: Secret Files) penned the trade paperback.

For the most part, it is written rather well. Dezago created an interesting premise to bring Tim Drake as Robin, Kon-El as Superboy, and Bart Allen as Impulse to come together to form a team and David has wonderfully continued the story to finally round out the team by adding three girls in Cissie King-Jones as Arrowette, Greta Hayes as Secret, and Cassandra Sandsmark as Wonder Girl as they battle various villains. The additional vignettes, issues, and tie-in seem rather superfluous and while not necessary needed to be in the trade paperback – they complete it.

Todd Nauck (Young Justice #1–7, 1000000, Young Justice: The Secret, and Young Justice: Secret Files), Humberto Ramos (JLA: World Without Grown-Ups #1–2, Secret Origins 80-Page Giant, and Young Justice: Secret Files), Mike McKone, (JLA: World Without Grown-Ups #1–2 and Young Justice: Secret Files), Angel Unzueta (Young Justice #1000000 and Secret Origins 80-Page Giant), Roberto Flores (Young Justice #1000000 and Young Justice: Secret Files), Ethan Van Sciver (Secret Origins 80-Page Giant and Young Justice: Secret Files), Craig Rousseau, Joe Phillips, Cully Hamner, Amanda Conner , Martin Egeland (Secret Origins 80-Page Giant), Alé Garza, Craig Rousseau, Dwayne Turner, Tom Grummet, Darryl Banks, and Scott Hanna (Young Justice: Secret Files) penciled the trade paperback.

Despite the many pencilers, the main or major penciler was Todd Nauck, which made the artistic flow of the trade paperback flowed exceptionally well. For the most part, Nauck's penciling does a good job in depicting the narrative. However, the rested of the pencilers ranges in a myriad of different styles, which could be jarring had it not been mostly contained out of the core series.

All in all, Young Justice: Book One is a wonderful and promising beginning to what would hopefully be a wonderful series.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember this being a joyous and hilarious supers book in the '90s. At the least, this volume hasn't held up. I don't know if that's the case generally.

Part of the problem is the structure of this book. It starts off with the "World without Adults" two-part special by Todd DeZago, and it's not good. It's not just that's no humor, but also that it's not particularly interesting, in large part because there's not too (long) issues of plot in the two (long issues). But even beyond that, the volume is constantly interrupted by Secret Origins and Giant Specials and the year one-billion event, almost none of them by Peter David, which leaves a very uneven feeling. (In fact, the Peter David content is probably right around half of this volume, since it's just eight issues total.)

Then you get into the Young Justice comic itself, and the first few issues just aren't that appealing because they're just a boy's club of Impulse, Superboy and Robin (a problem that only got corrected around page 300 of this volume.)

The characters are also very one-note. When you compare them with the more sophisticated characterizations of Geoff Johns' Teen Titans, this first volume of Peter David's Young Justice is very lacking.

And finally we have the villains, who are very '90s. There's a purple genie and some death-goth guy, neither of which has any depth, and both of which could win (lose?) most '90s design contests.

There are some points of light in this volume, particularly in the later issues, which have a crew of six youngsters. The parent-teacher conference in #7 is particularly strong, and shows where this comic could go when David starts treating the characters like people.

But thus far I'm not sure if Young Justice is a comic whose time is past (or if it gets better in the next volume).

[Ma]

I love 90s YJ. Nothing makes sense. Hairstyles run wild. We go from a discussion of gun control in America to playing baseball against aliens in the span of 1 issue.

Could do without the sexualization of children, but it's not like modern comics don't do that hahahahaha.












More shit I was thinking:




Cassie and Cissie are gay.

Cissie I respect the fuck out of u for doing what's right for u and not wavering, and for standing up to ur mom, that crazy yet complex bitch.

Tim Drake 4 life.

Leather jacket, one earrings, tiny sunglasses Superboy supremacy. Idc if he's a tiny bit sexist. He's obsessed w buffy the vampire slayer and he is bisexual and he is stupid.

Tim Drake 4 life.

Anita Fite is cool, she should be in more stuff, maybe minus the weird racism/fetishizing the 'exotic'. Also her costume is ugly as fuck. But she herself is cool, and her secret agent dads are too.

Cassie Sandmark I would die for u.

Secret, u had potential but ur weird and yandere doesn't suit u.

Tim Drake 4 life.

Teen Lobo.. I kind of love u??? Ur insane

Impulse. U r my son. My boy. My sweetest dearest child. ADHD incarnate. I would reach out and give you every star in the sky if I could. You deserve them all. My boy.

Tim Drake 4 life.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is such a 90's book. Everything from the artwork to the dated pop culture references to the questionable male-female dynamic.

It's pretty fun, I like the friendship between Robin, Superboy and Impulse, I like the less serious, more cartoony art and Peter David's dialogue has the right amount of cheese without going too far.

It really reminds me of how much I love Tim Drake's Robin. I've kind of lost interest in recent DC comics so I hope they've finally moved past the sidelining of his character, he deserves better than that.

This is a collection of stories that slowly builds up the Young Justice team, so it's pretty easy to get through, there are some ongoing storylines but no major crossovers in this volume.

Honestly, I was expecting this to be a bit of a slog but I quite enjoyed it.

[Shaun Winters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even with all the immaturity that is riddled in parts of this, it is a rather good comic series. I like that the team takes a few issues to come together and they still have to prove themselves to the JLA. Every issue feels like it has a purpose, even the ones that would be considered filler. This is an excellent series. The artwork style lacks in certain places with the exaggerated stylization, but in parts it adds to the overall immature and campy feeling to the series. Also don't get me started on Arrowette's mom. Someone needs to reintroduce this character, but with a more trauma influenced focus. She could become a very relatable character if they did. Then again, I am just finishing book one, who knows where the series goes. I will definitely be looking forward to finding out.

[Frances · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first graphic novel is a bit scattered (origin stories! one-shots! mini-series! utter lack of index pages!), but by the time we're introduced to all the characters it hits its stride and ends up being a lot of fun.

Mad props to Robin because someone needs to be the voice of reason, to Impulse because someone needs to just cut loose, to Secret for being kind of terrifying in an "is that odd? didn't realize" way, and to Arrowette for chewing out the JLA and then needing to breathe into a paper bag. She's charming. (As a friend of mine said, "imagine the vigilante version of a child star".)

I love these kids.

[Jason Carpenter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great, lighthearted comic. After all of the dark grisly graphic novels I've been reading, this was a nice escape. The sexism that was fairly prominent in comics at the time it was written is there, of course, but I've seen much worse, and it makes me appreciate the way comic writing has changed in the last few decades.

[Dony Grayman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tomo que recopila prácticamente la misma historia central que Una liga propia (Young Justice, #1-7), el tomo dedicado a Young Justice del Coleccionable Novelas Gráficas DC pero en vez de tener de bonus Wonder Woman #111 incluye JLA: World without grown-ups #1-2, YJ: The Secret y YJ: Secret Files.

[A David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda off to rough start, but hopefully will find its footing in subsequent volumes. Peter David's an otherwise good writer, but he really seems to struggle with writing teens here, mostly due to the all-too-common pratfall of conflating teenage behavior/dialogue with base-level dickery. Still, fun stories and concepts, and the characters do grow on you.

[B.A. Williamson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars for nostalgia alone. This serious takes me back to walking to the library after school, coke and skittles in hand, and curling up in a bean bag for hours at a time. Comics are just now remembering how to be this much fun.

[Stephen Theaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dated in parts but still good fun.

[bee k · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolutely obsessed with the dynamic of these insane teens. some of the most fun I've ever had reading a comic.

[Arthur Cristian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember watching Justice League and Teen Titans on TV as a kid, so I didn’t go into this DC comic blind. The art was good, though there were a few wonky scenes here and there; overall, it was solid. The colours and character designs stood out nicely, making everything distinct enough to avoid confusion for the reader.
What I found most interesting was how this universe expanded through the introduction of new characters, which gave the story a sense of time and legacy. The idea of the old League mentoring young heroes is intriguing, and I appreciated how some of the newcomers are directly linked to their mentors. The origin chapter, seen through the eyes of Secret, was exactly what a newcomer like me needed—it gave helpful context for how Young Justice came to be.
The book flows well, even with the slight “disruption” from the original publishing order. It effectively shows how a team is built and how these very different teens gradually learn to work together.
I enjoyed it more than I expected—it was a welcome breath of fresh air compared to the heavier books I was reading at the time. Young Justice, Book One works well as a standalone, as most minor plot points are neatly wrapped up by the end. Still, one major development left me eager to pick up the next volume in the future.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Peter David's comics work in general, and I wanted to see if this series held up. And...mostly it does, but the thing is, this collection includes other works. The first few are Todd DeZago's work, and he'd probably be a fine replacement for David on this particular series, but then there's the 80 page Secret Origins that has a whole lot of creative teams working on short stories of varying levels of quality. Sure, there's Mark Waid/Humberto Ramos Impulse origin, but then there's Chuck Dixon's Tim Drake origin where Tim just tells Dick Grayson how he got to be Robin, and that doesn't make sense since I figure Dick Grayson of all people probably already knows all that already. Plus, D. Curtis Johnson's writing. I don't remember that guy's work, but it wasn't overly impressive here. So yeah, David's work is still fun stuff. But there's a lot here that isn't his.

[Raul Reyes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and occasionally funny, but the beginning half was a slog to get through, and there were so many backups and tie ins you really only get a serialized story until the very end.

(Some side notes: I really don’t understand why they made the dust girl mention she was a survivor of sexual assault, if you’re not going to engage with the topic, what’s worse is that she’s the only one to not know that’s what it was, and I’m intrigued where the assault(villain) storyline goes, but they haven’t mentioned him at all and I’m afraid that him dying because of his dad shooting him was supposed to be the resolution to his story.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young Justice is a really fun book. The David written issues of the core book especially, and those got better as they went along. The initial offerings, World without Grownups, are just fine, a bit juvenile, but fine. Those I enjoyed much less than the core issues. Seeing the kids finally all start to become a team by the back half really made me invested in what's to come, I know there's much more consistent quality to come. Even if parts of this book clearly are dated and only twice ever slip into "old man writing kids" trope.

[ShaniGrim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tim Drake re-read: Part 11/?

What a blast of a book! Brimming with 90's energy and style and actually very funny (on propose!) It's silly and a lot of fun to read, and I love all of the team members- they make a really solid roster.

Some parts, mostly some casual misogyny is very of the times, but I find none of it to cross the line to being too overbearing on the book.