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I recently finished watching Young Justice with my long-distance friend Artie. I’d seen all four seasons before (the two that originally aired on Cartoon Network and the two that became available after the show was revived for streaming), but the series was new to them. Despite some long-standing criticisms – particularly of where the show directed its violence once it was no longer bound by network standards – YJ remains one of my favorite pieces of superhero media ever, and I’m so glad that my friend enjoyed it, too.
Here are the five things that I love most about this show, in no particular order.
1. “Every conceivable method of mind control”
I used this phrase as a subject line for a previous TT5 entry, but I appreciate it so much that I’m inflicting it on you again. Several key plotlines in YJ center around telepathy or mind control – that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to show it to Artie in the first place – and hit a lot of our favorite related tropes along the way. “Somebody or something took over my mind and I can’t remember what happened.” “I have to watch my body attack my friends against my will.” “Someone I loved meddled with my memories and now I can’t trust them.” “I hurt someone with my psychic powers and now I can’t trust myself.” And so on.
However, I didn’t feel like these tropes overcrowded or cheapened the story, the way that I often did in – for instance – The Vampire Diaries. I haven’t picked apart all the reasons for this distinction, but I think that YJ valued its characters’ agency a lot more, even when it was frequently compromised, and its mind control almost always had consequences, whether our heroes or their enemies were using it, instead of functioning as a way to avoid consequences as it often was on TVD.
2. Setup and payoff
Speaking of mind control: in one early episode, a villain taunts one of the heroes with what seems at first to be just an insulting nickname but, at the end of the season, turns out to activate the person on the receiving end as a sleeper agent. That’s just one example of this show’s commitment to the long game, and the agility with which the creators navigate multiple storylines and eventually tie them together seems like a superpower in and of itself.
3. Clever use of in-universe pop culture
One member of the Team relied on a sitcom to shape her identity in a similar way to what we’d later see on WandaVision… and I liked WandaVision, but I love the use of this idea on YJ at least much, if not more. The (fictional) sitcom is an affectionate send-up of the genre, and its theme song is an earworm, as is the jingle for the “Reach” commercials in the following season. And the the third-season episode “Nightmare Monkeys” integrates pre-existing in-universe entertainment with shoutouts to previous DC animated projects, in a silly, sinister, and surreal dreamscape sequence.
4. Mental health representation
This element might be hit-or-miss for some viewers, but I think that requiring teenage superheroes (and, it’s later established, adult members of the Justice League as well) to engage in counseling sessions with a team therapist is a great idea both for and within the story, and leads to some really important character moments. And although some characters’ struggles with depression and PTSD teeter on the edge of after-special territory, they’re written with a lot of sympathy for everyone involved, and the writers are careful to emphasize that although therapy and peer support can be extremely beneficial, they’re not immediate magical fix-its.
5. Teamwork makes the dream work!
The characters and their relationships grow and develop organically over time; the writers put a lot of care into depicting how our heroes’ strengths and weaknesses affect each mission and their interpersonal story beats, and showing that they’re the most successful when they communicate and collaborate with each other.
Also, you’ll find plenty of super-powered found family shenanigans throughout all four seasons, whether or not everybody is literally living at their headquarters together.
Here are the five things that I love most about this show, in no particular order.
1. “Every conceivable method of mind control”
I used this phrase as a subject line for a previous TT5 entry, but I appreciate it so much that I’m inflicting it on you again. Several key plotlines in YJ center around telepathy or mind control – that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to show it to Artie in the first place – and hit a lot of our favorite related tropes along the way. “Somebody or something took over my mind and I can’t remember what happened.” “I have to watch my body attack my friends against my will.” “Someone I loved meddled with my memories and now I can’t trust them.” “I hurt someone with my psychic powers and now I can’t trust myself.” And so on.
However, I didn’t feel like these tropes overcrowded or cheapened the story, the way that I often did in – for instance – The Vampire Diaries. I haven’t picked apart all the reasons for this distinction, but I think that YJ valued its characters’ agency a lot more, even when it was frequently compromised, and its mind control almost always had consequences, whether our heroes or their enemies were using it, instead of functioning as a way to avoid consequences as it often was on TVD.
2. Setup and payoff
Speaking of mind control: in one early episode, a villain taunts one of the heroes with what seems at first to be just an insulting nickname but, at the end of the season, turns out to activate the person on the receiving end as a sleeper agent. That’s just one example of this show’s commitment to the long game, and the agility with which the creators navigate multiple storylines and eventually tie them together seems like a superpower in and of itself.
3. Clever use of in-universe pop culture
One member of the Team relied on a sitcom to shape her identity in a similar way to what we’d later see on WandaVision… and I liked WandaVision, but I love the use of this idea on YJ at least much, if not more. The (fictional) sitcom is an affectionate send-up of the genre, and its theme song is an earworm, as is the jingle for the “Reach” commercials in the following season. And the the third-season episode “Nightmare Monkeys” integrates pre-existing in-universe entertainment with shoutouts to previous DC animated projects, in a silly, sinister, and surreal dreamscape sequence.
4. Mental health representation
This element might be hit-or-miss for some viewers, but I think that requiring teenage superheroes (and, it’s later established, adult members of the Justice League as well) to engage in counseling sessions with a team therapist is a great idea both for and within the story, and leads to some really important character moments. And although some characters’ struggles with depression and PTSD teeter on the edge of after-special territory, they’re written with a lot of sympathy for everyone involved, and the writers are careful to emphasize that although therapy and peer support can be extremely beneficial, they’re not immediate magical fix-its.
5. Teamwork makes the dream work!
The characters and their relationships grow and develop organically over time; the writers put a lot of care into depicting how our heroes’ strengths and weaknesses affect each mission and their interpersonal story beats, and showing that they’re the most successful when they communicate and collaborate with each other.
Also, you’ll find plenty of super-powered found family shenanigans throughout all four seasons, whether or not everybody is literally living at their headquarters together.
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