Young Justice: Phantoms does an admirable job with superhero deaths

If there’s one good thing about superhero stories that have dominated mainstream media, it’s that journalists have gotten a lot wiser when it comes to treating the deaths of prominent superheroes as publicity stunts rather than massive cultural milestones. DC Comics’ 1992 The Death of Superman Arc garnered such widespread media attention that it sparked a fad to kill off great heritage heroes—who inevitably returned in one way or another once the novelty wore off. Meanwhile, longtime comic book fans mostly giggled, knowing that superheroes rarely stay dead long. Usually, killing a hero is just another gimmick to sell comics, goose sales, and shake up the status quo – so the first half of 13 episodes Young Justice‘s fourth season was a convincing change of pace.

Are temporarily dead protagonists in comics an established cliché, making it much harder to get emotionally invested in a hero who goes down for the count. Even heroic deaths that were originally meant to be permanent – like Captain America’s sidekick Bucky or the Jason Todd version of Robin – usually reverse when new authors take over. At worst, they are instantly reversed, as in the Dark Phoenix saga of the X-Men series where Cyclops is dramatic declared dead in the final panel cliffhanger Per Uncanny X-Men So #133 spontaneously revived in the first panel of issue #134.

Young Justice, created jointly by Brandon Vietti and Greg Weisman, has previously killed Heroes, villains and even innocents without later undoing her death. This gives the show more credibility and weight for its current storyline about one of the main protagonists of the series dying in action. It always seemed obvious that the character would come back, and even likely that he wasn’t dead at all. But the series was in no hurry to get to his resurrection. And in the meantime, the writers explored the best reasons to temporarily kill a hero — the reasons that aren’t just about short-term drama and profit.

[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for season 4 of Young Justice.]

Image: HBO Max via Polygon

Season 4 of the show, subtitled Young Justice: Phantoms, splits the story into arcs that narrowly focus on a small subset of the immense main cast. phantomsIn the first arc, Miss Martian, aka M’gann M’orzz, returns to her home planet Mars so that she and her fiancé, Superboy, aka Conner Kent, can celebrate a traditional Martian wedding.

Meanwhile, M’gann’s brother M’comm has become the leader of a group of radicals trying to stand up to Martian bigotry by killing senior Red and Green Martians on behalf of the White Martian minority. When M’comm attempts to detonate a “gene bomb” intended to target Red and Green Martians, Superboy steps in and disposes of it. But he is caught in the blast, leaving nothing but a vaguely humanoid stain on a stone wall.

In most television shows, the absence of a corpse would be clear proof that Superboy didn’t actually die. And for those in the know three sign who were behind Superboy and M’gann at the beginning of the arc – three members of DC’s legion of far-future super-heroes pursuing a secret mission – propose a time-travel conspiracy that could explain how Conner survived the kryptonite-laced gene bomb by using the future got involved at a decisive moment.

but phantoms rush no disclosure. At the last moment of episode 13, the last episode of phantoms Halfway through the season, magic-wielding heroine Zatanna experiences a fleeting vision of a translucent, wounded Conner calling for help. She thinks she hears his restless spirit, but he might as well be making contact through a time portal, from the Phantom Zone, or through any number of other magical or superscientific phenomena. But that’s the first hint the show has given of a possible Superboy resurrection.

Meanwhile, the series has explored Superboy’s legacy in the form of the people he left behind and how they cope with losing him. This focus on moving on from a loss has become a key part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the last several years: The MCU Shows WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and hawk eye Movies have all dealt extensively with the aftermath of the 2019s Avengers: Endgame, and so did the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies. But until recently, it was extremely rare for a superhero story to invest much time or thought into the grieving process or stages of grief.

Young Justice: Phantoms made particularly clear the impact of grief on Beast Boy, the changing hero who owes M’Gann his life. He was seen throughout the season first struggling with past trauma and then being overwhelmed by this latest one. His depression and insomnia have given way to erratic sleep patterns and addiction to sleeping pills, all coupled with a denial that anything is wrong, a refusal to talk to anyone about his deteriorating mental health, and a tendency to respond to anyone who does , go along forces him to open up.

But the impact on Artemis Crock, now acting as Tigress, was just as strong – her own initial depression and distress quickly giving way to determination during her arc in the first half of the season as she becomes almost irrationally protective of her sister. their fellow heroes and even some defector villains. All of this puts her own safety at serious risk as she puts her own body at risk every time she is faced with the choice of putting herself at risk or accepting further casualties. M’Gann, meanwhile, has endured bouts of intense anger and blame seeking, followed by distancing, distancing and finally a reconnection with the family.

Like other animated series that have dealt with the effects of trauma and the desire to exclude other people while dealing with it – Steven universe immediately occurs to me – Young Justice emphasizes communication and openness as the best way to regain balance after a loss. It is a heartfelt and helpful message, especially for younger viewers. Watching Artemis cry in her car and then pull herself together to get her job done feels human and relatable in a way that’s unusual for superheroes. Too often, heroes must not express vulnerability on screen except as pain and anger. Feeling the weight of Conner’s loss over an extended arc makes them feel more like humans and less like interchangeable power fantasies.

Image: HBO Max via Polygon

By taking so much time with the aftermath of Conner’s “death” (if that’s it), phantoms has also regained some of that sense of menace that superhero stories often lack, precisely because death so rarely has a meaning in those stories. Everything this season, from the private moments to the big hero-versus-villain action, is coupled with a heightened sense of the characters’ potential mortality and how that makes their choices bolder and nobler.

But Season 4 also emphasized, without preaching on the subject, that grief looks different to different people and doesn’t happen on a predictable timeline. And the authors examine how hard people can struggle when trying to find ways to support someone who is hurting, especially people who insist they don’t need help.

Not all mourning thoughts of the season went down well. In particular, the time Superman spent explaining his death to his infant son Jonny seems to be aimed at a much, much younger audience than most of the show. And the focus on Superman crying over Conner is an odd departure for the show, which has never spent much time with Superman due to its focus on younger, and often newer, heroes.

But one of the unique things about Young Justice As a series, it portrays a broad community of heroes, each with their own problems and struggles, but all influenced by each other’s experiences and choices. The series has always had a refreshing sense of togetherness and community, even among heroes who don’t directly work together or who strongly agree on fundamental aspects of their work. Exploring what death means to this community — how it changes protagonists’ choices and the tone of their interactions — helps the show’s world feel a little more organic and lived.

Young Justice: Phantoms has bounced around in terms of arcs and focus, leaving behind some fan-favorite characters for at least the first half of the season. And like every season after the massive first arc, the writers try to cram in so many angles and so many separate arcs that some have inevitably become shorter. But the season has taken its time to sink in enough what happened with Conner to feel meaningful. And it turns out that death doesn’t do that have being cheap and cliche for superheroes — even if Conner is on his way back later this season.

The first three seasons of Young Justice and the first half phantoms are currently streaming on HBO Max. The second half of the phantomsThe 26-episode season is set to continue this spring. No release date has been announced yet.