Review: Young Justice Vol. 1- Gemworld
Quick Summary
Pros: The exploration into the book’s main mysteries is compelling and ensure more is in store for the future. The characters are filled with heart and their interactions add emotion and fun to the read. The artwork is gorgeous and suits this book well.
Cons: The conclusion to the book’s conflict is slightly disappointing.
Overall: This volume is a brilliant reintroduction to Young Justice. The main storyline is mostly compelling and leaves some great mysteries open for exploration in the next volume. The characters and their interactions with each other are well written and have plenty of heart. The artwork is beautiful throughout the volume. Anyone interested in the return of Young Justice or simply superhero books about young adults should definitely check out this collection.
Story
Young Justice Vol. 1: Gemworld, by Brian Michael Bendis, is an incredibly fun comic on its own and a tremendously positive start to a new series. From the very beginning, the book manages to grab and maintain interest. The plotlines are compelling, the characters are fantastic, and the book’s conclusion leaves things on a great note. The entire volume ends up being a fun adventure with an amazing group of characters. The only downside is that the conclusion to the main conflict is a bit anticlimactic. Overall though, the writing here, especially when it concerns the main characters, is solid.
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Gemworld is compelling right from the start, as it instantly throws plenty of drama at the reader. Part of this comes from the arrival of a few villains but the majority of it comes from the way every aspect of the book is drenched in mystery. Readers have no clue what the members of Young Justice have been up to recently, are unclear how they have come together in Gemworld, or how they will manage to find their way home. Plus, each member of Young Justice seems to be holding their own secrets, only a portion of which are revealed here. This creates a read packed with discovery while still retaining enough to ensure readers will be excited to return for the next volume.
What makes this journey even better is the fact that this journey of discovery is accompanied by a mix of fun and emotional moments from all of the main characters. Readers see Red Robin struggle with his identity, see Jinny Hex take a delightfully easygoing approach to the chaos around her, see Connor Kent say goodbye to the family he has come to know, and see Impulse crack jokes at nearly every chance he gets. This gives each character some heart and the interactions between them give them even more heart. All in all, the way these characters are written is an absolute joy and is another reason I’m excited to read more from this series.
The volume’s only significant downside is that the conclusion feels a bit anticlimactic. The entire volume builds up Dark Opal as a powerful and intimidating villain yet he ends up being taken down by a few punches that occur over a single page. After setting up the battle against this villain, a rushed conclusion like this is disappointing. However, the focus of this volume is less on the conflict and more on the characters so a disappointing conclusion to the conflict does not have as much of an impact on the appeal of this collection as it would have otherwise.
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Art
The artwork in Gemworld is gorgeous and is a perfect match for the story being told throughout this book. Both Patrick Gleason and John Timms’ work is wonderfully stylized and has a youthful energy that really suits the members of Young Justice. It makes the characters look as bright, energetic, and carefree as the storyline makes them out to be. It also is filled with a great level of creativity, beautifully depicting a wide range of characters and landscapes. Plus, smaller contributions from other artists, like and Emanuela Lupacchino and Viktor Bogdanovic, look great and match the level of energy found throughout the rest of the book. This is a book where the artwork suits the subject so well that I almost couldn’t imagine it any different than the way it is presented here, which is simply great to see.
Continuity
Young Justice Vol. 1: Gemworld starts a new Young Justice series. This series does not directly continue the story from any other specific comic.
The story here continues in Young Justice Vol. 2: Lost in the Multiverse (Review).
This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:
- In Young Justice #1, two women are very briefly seen talking about insurance in a coffee shop. These appear to be the same two women briefly seen in a story from Action Comics #1000, collected in The Man of Steel (Review), a comic also written by Brian Michael Bendis.
- Impulse reappeared in the DC Universe in The Flash #50, collected in The Flash Vol. 8: Flash War (Review). He decided to seek out the members of Young Justice in The Flash Annual #2, collected in The Flash Vol. 11: The Greatest Trick of All (Review).
- Wonder Girl (Reading Order) mentions the new Outsiders. This group formed across Detective Comics Vol. 8: On the Outside (Review).
- A note in Young Justice #2 indicates a flashback takes place before Wonder Woman #45, collected in Wonder Woman Vol. 7: Amazons Attacked (Review).
- Young Justice #5 references the fact that Red Robin and Spoiler recently came in contact with versions of themselves from alternate realities. Red Robin encountered an alternate version of himself in Detective Comics Vol. 5: A Lonely Place of Living (Review) and Spoiler saw an alternate version of herself in Detective Comics #980, collected in Detective Comics Vol. 7: Batmen Eternal (Review).