I wouldn’t blame a writer for calling out racism and sexism. There are some fans that probably do deserve to be called out.
If you haven’t done/said something that falls into one of those two categories, I’d say you probably shouldn’t take it personally.
The world that Young Justice is trapped in was “going out of its way to be racist and sexist.” That’s what I believe Fitzmartin was calling out.
your entitled to think what every you want I think what she did is gross
she wanted to call people out so badly that she didn’t care who else she might hurt
if she didn’t mean everyone who likes the tim spoiler ship which for all we know she did
mean all of them and the people that like old comics and if she didn’t it was not written well and it was a bad idea just my thoughts
All she is doing is turning off readers
I think there are a lot of people who would have read tim new comic who wont now because
of this comic which is a shame its been a long time since tim’s had an on going
There’s an interesting point to be made about the nature of nostalgia and the ways our brains subtly (or unsubtly) edit the past, leaving us pining for a past that never really was.
I’m not sure this story is making that point in a coherent or effective manner. “The good old days weren’t always good” isn’t the same as “I’ve intentionally altered the past to make it worse than you remember.” This arc has created conflicts and resentments between the characters that simply were not there before, not even in subtext. Throw in a villain who is less a character than a plot device designed to represent toxic fans, and the story becomes an elaborate exercise in setting up, and then knocking over, a straw man.
I dropped the Young Justice tie-in after issue 2, because I felt like it wasn’t meant for someone who didn’t follow the YJ comics from before. Just couldn’t connect with it. As a potential new reader, I want to be turned on to these character and their stories. Meta commentary on fan toxicity and a not so ideal past doesn’t really help with that.
A voice in my head is telling me that this is not my hill to die on. I’ve enjoyed DC:YJ, sure, but it’s probably not going to go down as one of my favorite YJ stories. I also doubt I’m going to change anyone’s mind about the series. However, my commentary about the underlying motivations for this story opened the floodgates a bit, so I sort of feel like I owe it to Meghan Fitzmartin to counter-point these critiques at least a bit.
First, I wouldn’t say the message of the story is “the good old days weren’t always good” so much as “sometimes our reality is held back by those with a twisted view of the past.” That’s meta commentary on a subsection of fandom, sure. However, it is also something that is true in the real world. Go to any given country in the world and you will find some vile political/social leader who is spreading their skewed view of what the past was like to further an agenda that only serves them. I believe that this story is more about how misremembering or misinterpreting the past can affect us in the present. Instead of moving forward, we are forced to contend with someone’s view of how things should be from the past.
I think this is, at best, a half-truth. I will give you that I was surprised at how Cissie was negatively regarding the boys. That did seem to come out of nowhere. The rest of the resentments, I do see some cause for. Cissie did peace out from the stories after the old YJ series ended. It would make sense that doing so may have hurt Cassie since they were so close in the old series. After Conner returned from the dead, they really never took the time to sort out the desperate actions that Tim took to try to bring his best friend back. Tim went to extremes and the emotions never really got sorted out. Another valid point of friction. Since coming back, Conner has been in and out of continuity so it makes sense that he’d be the one trying to cling to the past the most. And, yeah, Bart has a point when he says that Tim and Conner have always treated him like a sidekick. Bart died around the same time as Conner and Tim wasn’t trying to clone Bart to bring him back. So, were these resentments being aired in the stories before? No. Can I see where they would come from? Yes and most of them make sense given the history.
I would argue that this is an assumption of how the last two issues of DC:YJ will go down. Our villain, Mickey, was only just introduced at the end of issue #4. We haven’t seen enough of him or heard enough regarding his motivations to call him a plot device or a straw man. Could it go down like that? Maybe. However, saying it is that before the series concludes is a bit premature and leading.
Like I said before, this probably won’t go down as one of my favorite YJ stories. However, I do see merit in it and would feel like I wasn’t doing Fitzmartin justice by not mentioning it.
Was just at the comic shop and it was tough to see all the Dark Crisis books and not grab them all. This thread is over 400 comments deep and we’re only through four books! Still another 76 days until I can start this here on DCUI but the good news is - only 76 more days before I can start this!
Hope you all are enjoying it and cannot wait to start it.
I’m sure there will be more to talk about with the new reboot and all
I haven’t read DCYJ #4 yet, but The Flash #786?
Mmmwah! 
This issue cemented The Flash as being my favorite Dark Crisis tie-in, easily.
Even if one doesn’t ever read Dark Crisis, I think they could still enjoy the tie-in arc from The Flash on its own merits, no problem.
…and yes, I wave a huge flag for Jeremy Adams and The Flash, as both have combined to create a Flash run for the ages.
The Flash issue this week was amazing. Nahuelpan has been a truly awesome artist for the book - will be very sad to lose him - and the way he draws Wally, Linda, Irey, and Jai was so awesome. (Of course, Nahuelpan returning to draw Stephanie Brown again, and Adams giving Steph some of the best lines of the week in all books, also helps!)
Agreed.
Has he done any other comic work that you’re aware of? I was unaware of him prior to The Flash, and am currently too lazy to look him up on Google and elsewhere.
I know he’s been around a bit, but I noticed him early this year with Shadows of the Bat, when he did the third month of that event (and knocked it out of the park - not an easy statement when the first two legs are Ivan Reis and Max Raynor.
Long ago, I requested a new Young Justice series starring Damian, Irey, Jai and Chris Kent. I also wanted to add Traya, Red Tornado’s daughter. The last issue of Flash certainly gave me a little of what could have been.
Flash has been the best Dark Crisis tie in so far by some distance.
Nice! I’ve been reading Shadows of the Bat as it comes to DCUI, so I’ll keep an eye (four, all told) out for his work there.
Check out the Crush & Lobo miniseries, which is available here and a lot of fun.
Noted. 
Hey, everyone! Don’t sleep on Dark Crisis: The Deadly Green. It was pretty great. Here are the things I liked the most:
It was fitting that Raven was the only member of the “away party” not to be overtaken by The Darkness. Rachel exists with The Darkness inside her, so she was the only one capable of noticing how it works and avoiding its hold. It was pretty ironic that this was the exact thing that The Darkness played on in the mind’s of Jon and Levi to get them to distrust her. I also really enjoyed Jon’s journey in this issue. Jon’s main conflict throughout Dark Crisis has been the question of whether or not he can live up to his father’s legacy (that’s the great meta-conflict surrounding the character, as well). You can tell that his time in The Darkness amplifies his insecurities in this regard. It is therefore fitting that Jon is able to find the splinter in The Darkness by merging with Swamp Thing (can we get this as an action figure, btw?). Kal would not have been able to do this as Levi was only able to bond with the parts of Jon that are human (from Earth).
All the above were great character moments, but Ram V also slam dunks the greater meaning within this story. That comes with the interactions between Constantine and The Darkness (in the forms of Trigon and Lucifer). Allow me a moment to engage in some pseudo-theology, but I’ve always felt that the character of The Devil is essentially a proof of free will. According to The Bible, God gave humanity free will, but how could its existence be shown without The Devil? Without The Devil (The Darkness) humanity would’ve followed God’s will and never left The Garden. It was only through The Devil that humanity were convinced to exercise their free will which gave it meaning and gave meaning to the whole concept of light vs. dark. Full disclosure: I’m not a Christian but that’s how I’ve always interpreted the story. That’s what I believe The Darkness is referring to when it refers to itself as “the greatest romantic you’ll ever meet.” Romantics, in the classic sense, believe in a subjective reality and the importance of the individual (so, free will). The Darkness is a “Bowie fan” because it lives for people to exercise their free will. That’s also why it’s significant that Pariah (a “human”) has corrupted The Darkness and not the other way around. “Darkness” only hurts people when people use their free will to wield it for harm. Pariah is exercising his free will for dark purposes.
Obviously, I really liked Dark Crisis: The Deadly Green and I believe it’s been my favorite piece from Ram V so far.
I also liked Dark Crisis #5, but probably to a lesser extent. Here are some quick things that I enjoyed about the issue:
I look forward to the last two months of this event and seeing how it all pans out!