Young Justice, Book Five

Young Justice (1998)

by Peter David, Todd Nauck (Illustrator), Dan Abnett

Eisner Award winner Peter David returns with his groundbreaking series Young Justice!

From author Peter David (Aquaman) comes the next collection of Young Justice!

The final book in Peter David's Young Justice! With appearances by the Spectre, the Ray, The Joker and many more, this is a don't-miss final book. Plus, learn the secret behind Secret's past!

Collects Young Justice #33-43, Young Justice: Our Worlds at War #1, Impulse #77, and Superboy #91.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Batman, Fantasy

344 pages, Paperback

First published October 20, 2020

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 3 out of 5]

Young Justice goes to war, Our Worlds at War to be exact. Although they spend most of it on Apokolips. This book meanders through most of these issues, having some disjointed storytelling between issues. Issues constantly end on cliffhangers that aren't picked up on at the beginning of the next issue. It's very annoying. There's too much focus on Arrowette as well. Even though she decided to retire in the last volume, a lot of the stories continue to revolve around her.

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Damn it this book wasn't bad but most of the storylines were just decent for me. Couple of fun ones. Couple good ones. One bad one shot. But overall was on a 3 out of 5 feel but then in comes the final two issues which I LOVED and now I can't decide if I should bump it to a 4.

The interesting thing about Young Justice is where it is trying to market its audiance. Maybe in the late 90's, early 2000's, they didn't trust the regular drama of teenagers. So instead they make our heroes go on crazy mystical adventures and over the top events. It's not bad, some of it is goofy fun (The werewolf storyline that riffs on Buffy is pretty good) but there's a tie in storyline that is confusing in pacing and the ending result is kind of weird and oddly done.

But luckily when it works it is really good. The final two chapters dealing with two characters hating themselves. One believing she is evil and will tarnish everyone around her, while the other wants to fit in, but people abuse and beat her, till she can't take it anymore. There's heavy topics here of self hate, loneliness, depression, and suicided tendencies. I loved how it dealt with it, not too heavy handed, and worked out well for most of the characters.

Overall it probably hits around a 3.5 out of 5 but for such a stronger closure I'll bump it to a 4. I hope one day we get the last 8 or so issues to finish up this run.

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young Justice: Book Five continues where the previous trade paperback left off collecting ten issues (Young Justice #33–43) of the 1998 on-going series with Young Justice: Our Worlds at War and pages from Impulse #77 and Superboy #91.

Two somewhat major storyline appears in this trade paperback. The trade paperback has Cissie King-Jones guest staring on a television show in order to boost ratings, she has to face the lycanthrope Turk, formally seen during the Olympics. (Young Justice #33–34). The other has Young Justice on Apokolips, where the team faces Darkseid, Granny Goodness, Female Furies, and Parademons (Young Justice #36–37 and Impulse #77).

Most of the trade paperback are single-issue stories that are somewhat connected, which has the Young Justice team in full or in part battling against Match (Young Justice #38), Mordek (Young Justice #40), Kragorr (Young Justice #41), Buzz and Harm (Young Justice #42), and Ehad Rajak (Young Justice #43).

Two tie-ins issues were included. Joker: Last Laugh (Young Justice #38) has Match being Jokerized and then ensues chaos as many can't tell the difference between Match and Superboy. Our Worlds at War, which has the Young Justice team being lost in time and trying to return to their present (Young Justice: Our Worlds at War and Superboy #91).

The team changes quite a bit in this trade paperback with Tim Drake as Robin and Bart Allen as Impulse leave the team at the same time as Anita Fite as Empress and Slobo (Young Justice #38) and Raymond Terrill as Ray, would join later (Young Justice #41).

Peter David (Young Justice #33–43), Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (Young Justice: Our World at War), Todd Dezago (Impulse #77), and Joe Kelly (Superboy #91) penned this trade paperback. For the most part, it is written rather well and just barely so. David had centered more on the development of relationships between characters than the adventures they go on. David touches a little more on the drama but still keeps things light and humorous.

Todd Nauck (Young Justice #33–43 and Young Justice: Our World of Wars), Carlo Barberi (Impulse #77), and Pascal Ferry (Superboy #91) penciled the trade paperback. With the exception of non-core issues, Todd Nauck penciled the entire trade paperback. Since he was the major penciler, the artistic flow of the trade paperback flowed exceptionally well. Barberi and Ferry penciled one issue each, which doesn’t interfere much with the artistic flow as they are quite complementary to Nauck and is mitigate as parts of the issues were included and not the full ones.

All in all, Young Justice: Book Five is a good continuation to what would hopefully be a wonderful series.

[Daria · Rating 5 out of 5]

another 5/5 YJ book, thanks once again to its focus on the women. Cissie and Treya are probably my favourite duo, it's so nice to see them interact and see their life at school. The more I see their daily lives, the more I enjoy the volume. Treya's little arc was insane. Anita is also a super cool character that is nice to follow around, I like her backstory, I like her attitude, I think she's exactly the type of balance the team needed.
I love the fact that Cissie gets to be an actress, I think that's perfect for her, that entire arc was very camp, and honestly, I am glad to see her fix her relationship with her mom. I think by far that's the most important arc out of them all. The character development we see from her as well, especially when she takes Cissie's place to go and help Anita (and ends up killing a man) and finally understands Cissie through and through is insane.
I think the war arc was tragic, especially the Bart part, he's just a little guy, he doesn't deserve to go through that. I also love that when him and Robin leave the team, Tim has to prove himself to be let back in while Bart just shows up and is like "you actually believed me?".
I wasn't a huge fan of the Secret arc BUT I did love every single bit involving Lobo/Slobo. He's a perfect little guy no matter what anyone says. Godspeed little guy. Also thank god Cassie became team leader. Love you Tim but also you have anxiety. Get the fuck out.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably more of a 3.5, but I'm rounding down.

This volume of Young Justice is actually predominantly Young Justice for a change rather than random crossovers and such. There are a few little bits, like an issue of Impulse and 10 pages of an issue of Superboy, but it's all relevant so I'm not too bothered. We actually get some proper fallout from it all as well, so it makes sense to have them included here as YJ go to Apokolips and bad stuff happens to them all.

What I don't get is how unfocused the series seems. There are random one-offs and two-parters that don't really do very much, then the team falls apart because of things that seem to have occurred in other books, followed by some more one and dones. Not that these are necessarily bad (the Secret issue with the Spectre is great, as is the silly Christmas issue), but it feels all over the place, like PAD didn't know what to do with a team of this size and so just throws everything at them.

There's also a strange fascination with bringing Arrowette into literally every adventure when she quit the team like 20 issues ago at this point, and I just don't get it. Why have her continually turn up if she doesn't want to be involved? It feels detrimental to the other characters - Empress, Superboy, and Wonder Girl really don't get much to do in this collection.

The art's fine though - Todd Nauck pencils every issue of the YJ series collected without a break, so that's nice for consistency's sake.

The original solicitation material for this volume had it being the last volume in the series, but with 10 or so issues left uncollected, I'm hoping DC reconsider and finish everything off (and that it's a little better than it has been).

[Jadyn❀ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young Justice is a book that manages to feel a little dated but also extremely current at the same time. I’ve just finished this book in July 2025, not long after the passing of writer Peter David, and I’ve been thinking a lot about what everyone wrote about him in their tributes as I read. It’s true that he brought a human element, a real emotional undercurrent to these stories and characters. These characters are moody. They have good days and bad days. They have real vulnerabilities that shined in this book, with its inclusion of issues from Superboy and Impulse to round them out, as well as an otherwise-rare-for-this-series introspective look into Robin. Everyone got time to shine, including Greta, Slobo, Anita, and even Red Tornado’s daughter, Traya. The group really does feel like a tumultuous teenage friend group (who also happen to be superheroes). This book had some misses as they usually do, but I really felt the heart of it this time around.

[David Moralishvili · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel very conflicted about this volume. It reminded me of why some of the earlier volumes of the series are some of my favorite and I really enjoyed that we were getting some more development.
I know some people don't enjoy the focus on Arrowette since she is technically no longer part of the team, but I really like that she continues to get development despite that.
I really enjoyed Secret's arc and I thought the last story in the volume was amazing!
It's just a shame that given this is the last volume, I don't really know where to go from here. I really want to follow up with the storyline for Secret and want to know where Tim's story line goes from here, I'm just not sure how to follow up on that.
Despite that though, I still feel like this volume was a 5/5 for me.
Edit: Okay, I just saw that there is a book six. So, I guess this isn't the end quite yet!

[Cass Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series hitting new highs this late in the game is not a common occurrence. And not every issue here is a high. The Christmas issue was meh. The time travel issue was nonsensical. But when they’re all collected like this it’s a lot easier to skip through the bad ones to the good. And there’s a lot of good. I don’t like traumatizing characters for the sake of it, but I feel the tone of the book is light hearted enough, the relationships solidified enough, that a little trauma and distrust building up is well earned. It makes sense that Robin and Superboy would go head to head especially in the midst of the Tower Of Babel. It makes sense that Superboy is over his head and gets Impulse hurt. It makes sense that Impulse who has never really SERIOUSLY considered his own mortality would be shaken up by war. I like the back and forth of Cissie still spending time with YJ despite not being an official hero anymore. And I really loved Secret’s issue wherein she finally starts to move through her trauma. That one was only topped for me by Traya’s issue. That broke my heart. And surprisingly Lobo really put in work into keeping all of this lighthearted. Despite adult Lobo being a bit of a pig, Lil Lobo seems pretty cool and his relationship with Empress was kinda fun. This isn’t the best collection of books but it certainly is one of the best books that managed to juggle serious and lighthearted storylines while getting interrupted by company-wide events and actually using those events to their advantage.

[Anna Mick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being the last volume in the '90s YJ run I think I was expecting a little bit more (especially with all the epic action happening in this book!) but I'm also glad that there were no cliffhangers or disasters right before the end.

In this volume, the gang faces off against intergalactic threats such as Darkseid and Apokalips, which is always a harrowing time. Bart gets electrocuted and Cissie REPEATEDLY reminds everyone she still doesn't want to be in the super-secret boy band. I like that we see some anguish from Kon, who is more upbeat than his post-2011 self but still emotionally complex.

I also appreciated between Vol 4&5 how much backstory we get from Anita, who is easily one of the best characters. While I am sad this team with this iteration of characters was never really seen again after the '90s, it's still cool to be able to go back and re-read what's clearly the foundation for modern interpretations of YJ.

[adi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a huge fan of the Young Justice cartoon (so much that I liked season 4), and I think the cartoon stands great on its own, but the more I read of this series, the more I mourn what could of been if they properly adapted this series.

I loved Greta in this book, I hate that the girls (other than Cassie) don’t have much room to shine outside of this series. (She needs to forget that crush on Robin though cause girlllllll) I’m glad we get to see Greta a little bit in Stargirl, but I’m getting sad about getting to the end of this book and being done with these girls stories. It makes the mourning related to the cartoon worse because can you imagine what they could do with these characters if there was a demand for it.

Another tidbit: the more I read of this comic, the more surprised I get that timkon is the bigger ship. Like cissiecassie can’t get enough of each other, the ship is right there.

I love Bart :) that’s it.

[Lisandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

olha só q confusão:

Buffy so q com lobisomens: 3,3 estrelas

Time travel so q ruim: 2,7 estrelas

Guerra é ruim (mas tb foi muito confuso pois coisas rolam em outras revistas q não temos aki e não, não vou atras de ler, also, daaam, pesado): 3,9 estrelas

WtF? (ou: não sei nem q foi isso q li): 2,4 estrelas

Plantas carnívoras, pq não?: 3 estrelas

Historinha de natal com a equipe original bem quando ela ta com quase ninguém dessa primeira formação, mas, ei, ao menos rima! ksksk e nossa, q ousado mataram o papai noel o.o: 3,6 estrelas
Vamos para o show pq somos adolescentes normais, aham, claro: 2,9 estrelas

HalDark but also good?: 3,9 estrelas, só não ganhou mais pq precisava desse fim dark? não, não precisava

Guerra é ruim 2, só q pesado de outro jeito: 4,4 estrelas, pela ousadia e pelo fim mais esperançoso.

media: 3,34 estrelas, quase a msm da anterior, mas essa senti q começou ok ai foi bem ruim e ai terminou bem então ao menos foi melhor de ler kssk

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

YJ are pulled in many directions this time, especially when OWAW calls them into action. Their portion of the war effort finds them doing search & rescue, and a dramatic landing on Apokalypse. The events of their adventure forces team shakeups, intergroup drama, and a lot of self reflection. Getting more info on Secret was overdue, and we get another PSA about being kind to our fellow man. I'll be real sad next volume when this wraps up.

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasn't a fan of Our Worlds at War back in the day, and still not. Tie ins to that make up a good portion of this volume and have some unsatisfying unresolved threads.

"Liberty Throughout the Land" is still as powerful and as relevant as when it was published tho, and elevates the volume.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book, except that incomprehensible "Our Worlds at War" one-shot and the dodgy Impulse and Superboy "crossover" issues (I put that in quotes because neither issue is in any way necessary to understand the Young Justice issues) and a real heartbreaker of a final issue.

[Brendan Mckillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter David does a nice job of incorporating some DC company-wide events into the ongoing storylines he had going on in Young Justice. Overall, this is fun collection of stories, ending with two single-issue stores that tackle some serious themes with skill.

[a ☕︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

stellar...2 me!! it’s dramatic, angsty, even preachy at times, but all done really well imo. it captures the feeling of being a teenager, when it’s veryyy much you + your friends against the world (or taking on apokolips). but i’ll also totally admit that my high rating may be bc david has endeared these characters to me so much thru the past four volumes that i can look past quite a bit due to my fondness for them. btw my heart skipped a beat when superboy broke the sound barrier in that last issue (and during the extra krypto pages i read in the superboy issue bc for some reason i thought it wouldn’t be collected). we who are about to fly salute you 🦋

[Guido · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saga final antes del re-rebooteo del nuevo volumen de Teen Titans.

[Belfry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

Review also encompasses Young Justice #44-55, which DC hasn't collected.

[danabelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

peak dc content what can we say

[KP · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't love this as much - I think it lost some of the wackier elements I'd come to really like about the Young Justice series - but a solid story overall.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

The werewolf story aside, this volume was pretty good and we start to see the frictions of the team. The arrowette story goes on way too long but 5e writing and art are worth the read.

[bee k · Rating 5 out of 5]

the young justice team watches Santa claus die in this one. i'm not kidding.

[Clara Rush · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't expect Slo-bo to become my favorite character, but here we are.

[Heather Robinson (GFB) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume I think was the funniest so far very enjoyable ❤️

[Kaylea 🦎 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bart I love you so terribly. Why are you suffering so much

[Clodagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

young justice kill santa clause