'Young Justice: Outsiders' Marks the Pleasing Return of the Beloved TV Show

For me, the cancellation of Young Justice after two brilliant seasons was up there with the cancellations of Spectacular Spider-Man and Firefly as the dumbest, most infuriating, most unfair, most heartbreaking premature TV series cancellations of all time.  Thus, when the news dropped that it was being revived for a third season, I was delightfully shocked.  I really thought that such occurrence – as it is with reviving Spectacular Spider-Man or Firefly for TV – was impossible already.

It took nearly three years of restless anticipation until, at last, it finally dropped this year.  So, was the wait worth it?  Well, yes.  However, I do wish I could answer that rhetorical question with an emphatic, “Heck, yes!”  But I can’t, for even though Young Justice returns without missing a beat as one of my most favorite animated series of all time, I was honestly hoping for something more terrific than what it ended up being.

Don’t get me wrong.  Young Justice: Outsiders – the name given to this third season – was terrific, delivering 26 episodes (the first 13 ran in January, and the last 13 ran from July to August) of quality animated superhero entertainment.  Its first half was only behind Romance Is a Bonus Book as my favorite TV show of 2019 at the mid-year point; and after watching the whole thing, I don’t think it will fall below my top 5 at year end.

Following the events of season 2 (i.e. Young Justice: Invasion), season 3 focuses on the superheroes’ ongoing war against the Light and their Apokoliptan collaborators, who are currently trafficking young metahumans.  However, due to their U.N. charter, the Justice League is constantly being hindered by Lex Luthor, who is now U.N. Secretary General.  Thus, in order to combat the villains’ operation, the League has to heavily rely on covert operations and creative – even underhanded – tactics.

As its title suggests, Young Justice: Outsiders is very loosely inspired by the comics’ Outsiders superhero team.  One of the things that Young Justice is pretty good at is subverting expectations, and some of this season’s curve balls come from determining who the eponymous team is going to be.  The narrative plays with the audience’s knowledge of who the members of the Outsiders are in comics, as it presents a lineup or potential lineup which the audience mistakenly assumes is the “Outsiders” of the storyline.  Then, it goes, “Oh, you thought they were ‘The Outsiders’? No, no, no.  These guys over here are ‘The Outsiders.’”  This is actually pulled off two or three times during the season, and the audience falls for it every time.  It’s only until episode 17 (!) before the real Outsiders team is officially established.

For the record, my favorite faux-Outsiders is [mild SPOILERS] Batman’s “Illuminati” group, who manipulates all the other teams from behind the scenes.  The reveal of their existence is also, I think, the best plot twist of the season.

Just as Invasion brings in a bunch of new characters, Outsiders does so as well – or rather, more accurately, it sees the debut of established DC Comics characters into the Young Justice universe for the first time.  In the forefront of much of the season’s main storyline are Geo-Force, Halo, and Terra – characters who have been canonically members of the comics’ Outsiders team at some point – as well as Cyborg (whom I forgot had not yet been introduced in this universe in prior seasons) and a version of the obscure character Forager.  Meanwhile, making her Young Justice debut over at the villains’ side is Granny Goodness, the season’s primary antagonist.  Big Barda, still serving Granny Goodness at this point, shows up in one episode, and I’m actually excited to see how the show will handle her heel-face turn as well as introduce her eventual husband, Mister Miracle (whom I also forgot has not debuted in this universe yet).  Orion, Metron, the Suicide Squad, Rocket Red, Infinity, Inc. and others also made appearances.

Of course, with several new characters in the mix, a couple of the old characters are not given much opportunity to shine.  But the show does make its way to pepper the season with moments that seem to say, “Hey, don’t worry.  We haven’t forgotten about these characters and what ongoing issues their dealing with.”  These suffice as far as updating long-time audiences with where these characters are now in their lives.  But for their respective fans who may want more meaningful arcs for them, they will be left disappointed.

As a whole, although Outsiders is fairly held tighter together by its thematic vision more than its narrative, it’s still a smooth, stimulating season in general.  Whatever bumpiness it has along the way is evened out by an overall rewarding experience due to retaining the core qualities of the Young Justice brand – a new, imaginative version of the DC universe brimming with potential; strong writing and clever storytelling; well-layered characterizations and arcs; a YA-oriented tone; relevant and compelling drama; exciting twists-and-turns; an extensive, diverse cast of characters; and well-timed and well-placed jokes for good measure.

Nothing in the season really took me out of it, but if there was anything close of doing so, that would be its unveiled attempt of equating Lex Luthor with President Trump.  I admit it was somewhat funny.  But it was also eye-rolling.  First of all, Trump-demonizing tropes are getting tired and stale.  Second, and most importantly, it was out of character of Lex Luthor.  Thus, this aspect only comes off as rather lazy and artificial, as if the show was awkwardly trying to be one of the cool kids – bashing Trump just because it is what the cool kids are doing.  Aside from that, but on a much minor note, I’m also bummed that season 3 didn’t cover Wally West’s return yet, considering that among all the untied plot threads left by season 2, it’s the one I care for the most (with where things are now, Wally and Artemis’s reunion, when it comes, is going to be ugly and heartbreaking).

All in all, Young Justice: Outsiders is another great season of Young Justice.  But I feel that it’s its weakest one so far.  In the end, though, any disappointment I have with Outsiders may have been mostly due to unfairly expecting it to be the series’ best season yet, and it’s very much possible that my problems with it are mere nitpicks.  Regardless, it pleased me for the most part, and I’m excitedly looking forward to season 4.