Since DC Universe folded, I can finally see how Young Justice continued.
SUMMARY (Spoiler-Free)
Two years after the events of Season Two, trafficking in metahumans (people with superpowers) has started to expand beyond just the Earth. The Justice League, unfortunately, is now under the control of the United Nations and their Secretary General, Lex Luthor (Mark Rolston). Finding the organization essentially depowered, Batman and Green Arrow (Bruce Greenwood and Alan Tudyk) resign along with all of their associates, aiming to go back to vigilantism. At the same time, Superboy, Tigress, Miss Martian, and Nightwing (Nolan North, Stephanie Lemelin, Danica McKellar, and Jesse McCartney) restart their covert team and infiltrate the country of Markovia, leading them to find two new superheroes in Prince Brion (Troy Baker) and the mysterious Halo (Zehra Fazal). At the same time, the supervillain group The Light is enacting another plan to take over the world while the evil Darkseid (Michael-Leon Wooley) plots to take over the universe.
END SUMMARY
So, while I appreciated the first two seasons of Young Justice for being very broad series depicting a large-scale DC comics universe, I appreciated that most of the episodes actually felt fairly self-contained and had a fairly focused main cast. This season threw that out the window. There are so many characters and plotlines going on and characters jumping between them that, by the start of the second half, there are three different superhero teams containing members of the original lineup, plus two different villain groups, plus a number of episode-based groups, plus a number of extras. A lot of the time, you just have to accept things like “this is a new female Green Arrow” or an extra Green Lantern and remember to look it up later.
The number of plot threads can be a bit overwhelming because there are a lot of villains who are all attempting various plots in various ways and sometimes the heroes end up thwarting one plot as part of attempting to thwart an entirely separate one. I admit that it’s probably more accurate to how the DC universe works when you take all of the different comics into account, but it does sometimes make it a little harder to keep track of who started what and who is behind which evil deed. It doesn’t help that a lot of the plot threads kind of end up resolving in ways that just indicate they’re going to be continued in Season 4. I will admit that I appreciate the show’s ambition, I just worry that it limits the audience a bit.
The voice acting is amazing. It contains a number of seasoned voice actors, including some people who voice the characters in multiple incarnations (notably Greg Cipes, who voices Beast Boy, also plays him in Teen Titans). Sometimes they use this heavily to their advantage, such as having an episode that takes place in a Teen Titans Go! version of the Doom Patrol which uses the voice actors from Teen Titans. Many play multiple characters and you would have difficulty telling if it wasn’t made explicit. The animation is the same dark style as the first two seasons, but they have a number of more colorful characters in this season and it helps to make it seem a little less emo.
Overall, if you liked the first two seasons, you should probably watch this one. Thankfully, it’s no longer on DC Universe so you can actually probably find someone with an HBO Max subscription to borrow.
If you want to check out some more by the Joker on the Sofa, check out the 100 Greatest TV Episodes of All Time, Collection of TV Episodes, Collection of Movie Reviews, or the Joker on the Sofa Reviews.
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