Young Justice #15

The Young Justice series has truly put the comic back in comics. It was full of jokes, a very funny book, and one of my favorites. Peter David's writing has been fantastic, but in the last couple of months, the titles taken a more serious edge. Oh, it still has humor, I can't see this book without it, but it's definitely lost it's innocence.

Before beginning, I wanted to say this issue completely changes all of my views of the Arrowette character. I've often said I'd rather see Spoiler and Mary Marvel, rather then Arrowette and Wonder Girl, but that's no longer true. They've been growing on me and this issue completely puts me for Arrowette. I really like the character now.

Let me say that edge I'm talking about is political. Started with adults views of teenagers being stupid and useless and moved to more serious things. There were some things about hunting that caused some uproar. But this issue goes for some shock value to wake you up, smack you in the face, just to make sure you are paying attention.

The first thing noticeable on the cover is a pissed off Arrowette in a tree, in a darker costume, ex- the skirt, standing above two guys with guns. The story opens up with Arrowette hunting the two guys through the woods, scaring the hell out of them, narrowly missing them with arrows, and it's obvious she's toying with them.

Then you're shot back to before this to Cissie and Cassie (Arrowette and Wonder Girl) at Cissie's school dance, waiting for Imp and Superboy to show up. This section has a couple of funny moments, a Jay and Silent Bob joke included, and has Cissie talking at the side of the dance hall to her shrink we meet in Secret Files Origins 80-page Giant featuring Young Justice. Then the story returns to the woods Arrowette hunting the two guys. The guys shoot a brown bear "Boo Boo" thinking it was her, further pissing her off while we suddenly go back to her school, before... to the shrink's office, a man (one of the two she's hunting in the woods) storms out, the shrink is crying, the man was her ex. You could see she was very afraid of him.

After another trip back to the woods, we revisit her school, Robin and Superboy are dropping her off. We see a vision seen too often now-a-days, police cars surrounding the school, reporters everywhere, and paramedics zipping up a body bag, with her shrink in it. Cissie being the resourceful vigilante that she is, finds her way into the school. She hears her shrink's voice and finds some police watching a video the killers dropped. It was of the killers making her beg, shooting her in both legs, then through the heart. Cissie saw it all, and it's a big loss of innocence scene. The big first death, from Uncle Ben to Bruce Wayne's parents, most heroes have them, the thing that makes them serious, and their driving force.

This is followed by a powerful scene where Cissie hears a Congressmen outside her school blaming TV, movies, music, and *GASP* comicbooks. This sets Cissie off, actually slugging the Congressmen (you know that's everybody's dream to hit a congressmen on national TV) and telling him off. "I'VE WATCHED YOU! YOU VOTED AGAINST EVERY GUN CONTROL LAW EVER MADE! AND YOU STAND HERE AND BLAME COMIC BOOKS?!"

From here, we go back into the woods. I'm not saying what happens, I want you to go read the comic, I'll say that it's dramatic, and chilling. This is a great comic, one of those issues that people will talk about in 10-20 years, like the GL/GA series from the 70's. Yes, I'm a hard core GL fan and I'm comparing this to the 70's GL/GA: that's how good I think this issue was. This is a 10, go pick it up.