Pat Gleason drawing a Green Lantern? Is it 2019 or 2009?! Either way, you should be happy. Writer Brian Michael Bendis steals former Green Lantern creatives to comprise the latest version of the not-Teen Titans. Does he succeed or fail spectacularly? Beware the spoilers below!
The answer is success. That guy wrote a fun as #$%& issue. Point. Blank. Period. If you’re not familiar with all the wackiness that is the history of Young Justice, don’t worry. This issue lets you know that some of these characters have relationships from before but that’s about it. All you need to know is presented here and everything presented here is jaw dropping perfect. It has become old hat for me to say this, but Pat Gleason is putting out the best work of his career every freaking month. Since his days on Green Lantern Corps he has constantly stepped up his game. Damn near every page in this issue is unbelievably gorgeous. While Gleason and his pencils are fantastic, the colors by Alejandro Sanchez are phenomenal! Vividly fitting every scene. When Impulse is on the page, his lines are bubbly and fun, and that is absolutely matched by this art team.
If I had to find a flaw in this issue, I’d be a jerk trying to find some nitpick to exploit. Maybe, MAYBE, if I’m a gigantic Cassie Sandsmark aka Wonder Girl fan then I’d be a little reluctant to call this issue great because her story seems the most suspect. But again, that’s a huge stretch of a tiny potential problem.
Speaking of characters, lets talk about the reason you’re here. The new Green Lantern. The self proclaimed Teen Lantern. We don’t get the origin story here, we don’t her name here. We don’t even get her face shown. And that’s okay. She shows up. She does some heroic stuff and we find out that she’s never done this before. That’s all we need to know right now. Everything flows smoothly and I love that Bendis isn’t about to rush this. Her origin story is necessary. He should be the one fleshing it out (I better not see this shit played out in another book by another writer), and I look forward to it just based off her brief interactions in this issue. Bendis does a great job of making every character (including the villains) stand out on their own. Whether it’s Jinny Hex pulling out a rifle and blasting away or Maggie Sawyer screaming for a mass exodus of the cities civilians, each character that pops up has a defining scene.
It’s hard to write a review of the first issue. We got a lot of cool scenes and a lot of promise. As a fan of Bendis’ (early) Uncanny X-Men series, I think he’ll have a pretty good handle on these young characters. I’m anxiously awaiting the next issue. This creative is onto something, dare I say…wonderful? Yeah, wonderful.
Young Justice #1 earns a 5/5